Project
The operating system Google is building for its Googlebook laptops, earlier referred to by the codename Aluminum OS.
Tom's Hardware tested Dell, Lenovo and HP Googlebooks and found the hardware generally sound but the OS in need of more time. The review says the OS largely feels like Android and centers on the web browser.
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9to5Google's reviewer used Googlebook OS for over a week and says it is more optimized than any earlier large-screen Android. The reviewer still calls it a rough first take, and the headline makes the verdict conditional on Google keeping it.
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Four Verge staff testing all five launch Googlebooks rate the hardware great to excellent and call Googlebook OS the weak point. Their notes describe Android apps acting like tablet software on a laptop, so a team that buys now is signing up for beta software.
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Google's enterprise support page confirms ChromeOS updates through 2034 and says many of its newest Chromebooks can move to Googlebook OS. Google has not published which models qualify, so fleet refresh plans still have to run on each device's own update date.
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Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus and Acer put Google's merged ChromeOS and Android OS in stores on October 4, priced from $899 to $1,299, with a 16GB memory floor and a desktop mode that so far covers a short list of apps.
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Five flagship laptops arrive with mandated chips, a 16GB RAM floor and ten years of quarterly updates. The software is a native Android stack carrying ChromeOS's browser behaviour and security architecture.
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Pre-orders opened for Googlebooks from Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell and HP, with units shipping October 5. The continuity Google demonstrated moves a draft from an Android phone to the laptop, one direction only.
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The Verge's hands-on describes a laptop meant to do for Android phones what the MacBook does for the iPhone. The handoff, app casting and phone file browsing at the centre of that pitch all require a handset already running Android 17.
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A Digital Trends walkthrough of Googlebook OS runs through nine features, and four of them do nothing unless an Android phone is paired to the laptop. The only third-party app named for handoff is BandLab, a music app.
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Chrome Unboxed handled all five launch machines from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo at Google's New York preview. The cheapest is Acer's $899 convertible and the ASUS is $1,299, with premium materials throughout.
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Android Police spent about an hour with all five Googlebook laptops and found the phone handoff convincing in a Google-run demo, plus an app plan that runs through the same Play Store search the site calls a big problem.
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Google opened pre-orders for Googlebook, a laptop OS built on Android that mounts a paired phone as a local drive and streams its apps into a desktop window. Managed Chromebook fleets inherit a policy question before the first unit ships.
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Rick Osterloh's own laptop is a 16GB Dell XPS Googlebook, one of five machines launching on Googlebook OS. The Verge's account of how the project began is also a record of two earlier attempts to join ChromeOS and Android.
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9to5Google's hands-on finds an Android shell down to the Pixel launcher and the desktop widgets, while the first-party apps a new user reaches for first are Trusted Web Activities the Workspace team picked over its own Android build.
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Google's new Googlebooks run on the Android stack, after a product manager told SlashGear that separate codebases left ChromeOS chasing phone features. ChromeOS stays on for enterprise, education and entry-level buyers.
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On hands-on units, Gmail and Calendar open as Trusted Web Activities distributed through the Play Store, with Gemini Nano doing the on-device work. Google says each app team picks its own format.
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MacObserver's spec sheet for the Lenovo Googlebook 15 lists 16GB or 32GB of RAM behind a 2880x1800 OLED panel. It came without a price, and the Lenovo machines Gizmodo and 9to5Google compare it to start above $1,500.
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