// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB

What do you actually use a laptop for, and would Googlebook be able to do it? [Poll]

Published: 09/21/2026, 08:00 PM

Following a mediocre teaser back in May, Googlebook is officially here and, well, I’m still pretty skeptical. I’m not sure I see Google’s vision of this new lineup or laptops because, frankly, I’m not solving any of the problems Chromebooks already faced. Our initial coverage of Googlebook is live, with Abner, Jordan, and Damien all walking away with a good first impression of Google’s efforts. Yet, I’m unconvinced thus far. I’ve yet to get my hands on a Googlebook and, as someone sitting mostly in the same boat as you, our readers, I’m yet to be sold on this new platform. I simply don’t understand why it exists, even more so why Google seems to think it will succeed. Google’s entire pitch around why you should buy a Googlebook more or less boils down to smartphone integration – specifically Android integration. Googlebook takes existing tools from ChromeOS and supercharges them, giving you the ability to mirror apps, sync files, and do a whole lot more between your Android phone and your laptop. And it does sound pretty good! As someone who currently juggles a MacBook with various Android phones, there are integrations I wish existed; instant hotspot and proper Quick Share support (AirDrop works, but tends to be wildly slow) are at the top of that list. Googlebook is delivering the MacBook + iPhone experience, just for Android users. That’s the pitch. Where it falls flat for me is in the apparent functionality. At its core, Googlebook is Android, just with a desktop experience built on top. The core stuff is there – desktop-class Chrome browser, customizable desktop, keyboard shorts, the lot. But the app ecosystem is built around Android apps, web apps, and Linux apps. The same core as ChromeOS, just with a different priority and with better performance on the Android app side, as Abner and Damien both noticed. There’s plenty you can do on a Googlebook, sure, just like there was plenty you could do on a Chromebook. But you’re still making a trade-off. Google pointed out that around 70% of things people do on a laptop are done through their browser (Chrome, of course). And, yeah, I’d say that’s about how much I do in the browser on my Windows desktop or my MacBook. That other 30%, though, is the “make or break” that eventually broke me on ChromeOS. For me, it largely came down to Adobe’s apps which, as it stands, still aren’t replicated on Googlebook. On Google’s own website, the company touts a Googlebook’s ability to use Photoshop and Lightroom, but that’s just with the mobile apps – not the full-featured apps you can use on you know, most other laptops. Google knows people use these apps; otherwise, it wouldn’t take up a place on this site in the first place – the same goes for games, where Google advertises tons of popular titles like Forza Horizon, Marvel Rivals, Arc Raiders, and more, with only two of the games shown running natively and the rest delivered via GeForce Now. The market has pretty clearly spoken in this regard. Chromebooks are out. There are remarkably few consumer-focused Chromebooks on the market today and, especially on the high end, it seems like hardly anyone is buying them – Google itself gave up on first-party Chromebooks over five years ago. To me at least, the reasoning seems obvious. When Chromebooks hit their stride, the market was full of compromises everywhere. There was no one perfect answer. But that’s changed in recent years. Apple’s M-series chips ushered in a new era for the MacBook which, in turn, influenced some major improvements across Windows laptops. Fast forward to today and there’s no lack of powerful, battery-efficient, thin & light laptop options and, despite “RAMageddon” ruining the price side of things, there’s been a huge push for more affordable machines in the wave of MacBook Neo and its clones – and those are very popular too. Giving up access to a full collection of full-featured apps for a lightweight operating system that gets roughly the same battery life for r