Google is ready to take a swing at laptops… again. The company has had a lot of success in phones, but it has tried to parlay that into an effective strategy for larger screens.
The first Googlebooks are available from several OEMs that have been making Chromebooks over the years, but don’t expect Chromebook pricing.
Across the full lineup, Google says you can expect 16GB of RAM with 32GB upgrades for some models. At launch, the machines will run either a Snapdragon X Elite or an Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chip. Regardless of the exact model, Google says you can expect up to 14 hours of video playback and 16 hours of web browsing.
The Acer model is the cheapest, and it’s also the only convertible in the lineup. The price jump from that device to the next cheapest is a $300, and the rest of the launch laptops are $100 more than that.
On the gaming side, Google notes that its Level Up program is delivering more experiences suitable for a keyboard and mouse, but the selection of desktop-ready games won’t be anything like what you get on Windows or macOS.
Preorders for the five launch models are going live today, and they will be on shelves on October 4 in the US. Launch day is October 5 in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia. All Googlebooks, even the cheapest $899 model, will come with a year of Google AI Pro, offering expanded Gemini usage limits and 5TB of Google Drive storage.