'A new category,' insists the Chocolate Factory, not a premium Chromebook - yet some of the family resemblance remains.
Google is trying once again to escape the Chromebook reputation for cheap, chintzy hardware and compromised computing.
$899 for a glorified web terminal isn’t exactly the easiest sell, but that’s not stopping the search and advertising giant from trying.
Googlebook, if you aren't familiar, is what Google describes as a new category of laptops, rather than a Chromebook or a rebranding of one. With that said, some familiar software limitations remain. An emphasis has, however, been placed on premium materials and components like aluminum or magnesium alloys, carbon fiber, haptic trackpads, high-resolution touchscreens, and speedy high-end processors.
With prices starting at $899, Google is trying to woo would-be Apple MacBook Neo buyers, with similarly premium build quality, while sweetening the deal with more memory and compute.
Under the hood, the initial machines offer a choice of Intel Core Ultra 5 or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors, paired with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.
MediaTek is also on tap to supply SoCs for the systems. While best known for its budget-friendly mobile processors, its notebook-class parts, including Nvidia’s GB10-based RTX Spark APU, have proven potent.
Despite this, ChromeOS device sales were still predicted to shrink 27.6 percent in 2026.
Google cheekily suggests that creative apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom run on these machines.
For reference, Apple quotes the MacBook Neo and Air at 14-18 hours of use, and both can run any Mac app.