Google’s next-gen blend of its lightweight laptops will be called “Googlebook.” Beyond its overly Google-centric name, these future laptops are made to let Chrome users have their own Mac-like experience, as well as shove AI into everything all the way down to the mouse pointer.
Google calls this upcoming variety of laptops “the perfect partner for your Android phone.” This includes the ability to cast your apps from your smartphone to your Googlebook desktop. These will appear as phone-sized screen apps. It’s akin to Apple’s “iPhone Mirroring” feature that lets you operate your iPhone on a compatible Mac.
Android users will have access to other capabilities you won’t find on a competing laptop. Users can use their file browser on the Googlebook desktop to access all their apps from their other Android devices.
This Android integration goes further with Googlebook-specific Gemini AI capabilities. Google’s AI will also let you create custom widgets that showcase your personal data. For example, if you wanted a timetable of planned flights, you could make one that lives on the desktop. The big feature is “Magic Pointer” that replaces the traditional cursor with an AI-fueled prompt machine.
By “wiggling” the cursor, you can bring up generative AI prompts based on the content you’re selecting. With multiple images selected, you can ask Gemini to “compare items” or “visualize together,” which then uses AI to combine each image. Google said the Magic Pointer could suggest changes to text you’re hovering over.
Google is not yet returning to making its own laptops years after it threw the Pixelbook to the curb. Instead, it’s promising new designs from major manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. The Android maker promised we’ll see new devices hit the scene in the fall. The one name missing from the pack is Samsung. Recent leaks suggest it is planning to share details on a Galaxy laptop with Google’s new OS soon. The company’s next Unpacked event is reportedly planned for July 22, thought Samsung has yet to confirm the date.
These upcoming laptops will all integrate a “Glowbar” on the chassis. This feature is much less of a gamer-fueled RGB lightbar, but instead it’s supposed to designate which devices are Googlebook and which are a random Chromebook or Windows laptop.
The 3-pound, $600 elephant in the room remains Apple’s MacBook Neo. The cheap machine has Windows laptop makers falling over themselves to craft a competitor as cheap with the same build quality. Google promised we’ll see “premium craftsmanship and materials.” While the MacBook Neo will have access to the full macOS, Googlebooks will need to rely on an operating system that will lack many native apps.
Casting an Android phone to a laptop screen can only take you so far. Google’s long-awaited Aluminum operating system, which originally proposed to combine Android and ChromeOS into a whole new product family, may hold new capabilities we haven’t yet seen. Weirdly, Google has not confirmed what OS Googlebooks actually run on, though it sure sounds like Aluminum. Google’s own Keyword blog calls the platform a “modern OS that’s designed for Intelligence” that combines Android and ChromeOS. Googlebooks will inevitably be the most “Google-y” laptop built for those who will never, ever leave Chrome. Whether they’re useful to anybody else remains to be seen.
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