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I have a hard time seeing how any Chromebook above $ 349,- could still survive in an post-MacBook Neo age.
Say what you want, a cheap Windows laptop at least has an edge on obscure software compatibility over MacOS and a notebook running any modern Linux distro gets the luxury of user control. ChromeOS meanwhile has neither. Paying more for worst in class software compatibility inferior build quality, design and restrictive lock-in sounds about as appealing as a chicken tartare from the value bin.
Prior to (again) getting a MacBook Pro, I wanted to make a high end Laptop (ASUS ProArt P16, about € 3500,- back then) work with Fedora, but purely on a basis of build quality and input feel, it was unusably poor. That trackpad deserves a place in hell and if that (or likely a worse one given cost cutting) is what the Asus and Acer models get, competing with the Neo is a cruel joke.
HP and especially Lenovo fare better, I can at least live with those though a Neos input is nicer if we compare their current devices at the same price, so unless Google is willing to heavily subsidise a brand that, let's be honest, is unlikely to garner any loyalty, I can't see them being overly competitive either, given the software limits of ChromeOS.
Original Pixelbook was amazing and my fam still uses it. Wish they just stuck to the lineup and kept iterating vs giving up and trying to rebrand every few years.
So this is a notebook with good enough TPU capabilities to run Gemini partially (like in a MoE), a small model that knows when to delegate to the main model?
I hear people complaining about Windows shoving ads at them, then you have something like this from Google that makes me ask why would anyone in their right mind want to use an OS like this? Seems built to hook you into Google's services.
I guess there are some people who want to be locked tightly in an ecosystem which will be a lifelong dependency for them. Meanwhile Google extracts thousands and thousands of dollars from the "user" over their lifetime.
Oh I get why they do this now...
The Gemini features would be so cool if they ran locally, but as-is, this reads like a laptop running spyware to me.
The Android app casting does sound amazing though and that alone would make a full on Linux machine with MBP level build quality compelling.
It’s amazing to scroll through this whole product page and leave feeling like I don’t know what it really does / who it’s for.
Why are these features compelling? I went through the whole page and still don’t know what OS runs on this laptop… the value prop for this is incredibly unclear.
All the comments here seem to be assuming this is a Google product, but it’s not - it’s not even a single thing.
It’s a class of laptops. Or, really, an operating system for laptops, not a new device from Google.
“We’re working with Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks.”
So, there will be (if they all actually get released) at least five laptops that are ‘Googlebooks’.
Normalizing compute rental + no privacy vs. actual ownership.
Typical of Big Tech spirit.
In the Android IO event on Youtube today: "We're taking Android from an operating system to an intelligence system"
I had a belly laugh. They're trying so hard to be like Apple with these, but without the clear explanation of user benefit.
This page crashes in my Google-based browser. I can't scroll down more than ~50 pixels.
The gemini/ai part aside, but I really like this revival of passion for PCs and Laptops. Totally anecdotal here and I could have definitely spend couple of minutes to research the marketing numbers, but I cannot help but feel happy with Framework, Panther Lake and Dell XPS and of course the mini Mac and Macbook family. I feel like there were years when center of attention had turned to mobile/ipads (and consoles) which were severly locked down to the point of no use point their intended creators purpose. I felt bad my siblings never get hooked into my old PC, as they went from PS3 to phones.
This is really cool (although they could've recycled the Pixelbook brand). I hope there'll be a way to dual boot Windows 11 on this.
I bet you all share the same feeling looking at it: it will be pretty OK for 2 years and then become abandon-ware soon after, like it is with Google products typically. Or not, but you still have that scepticist gut feeling about it.
For a split second I thought this was a joke/commentary on Google and Facebook.
Apple's best move was to steer away from AI lockdowns and focus on what consumers really need.
Coupling these with Gemini is so detached, especially when everyone screams Local LLM.
What's funny is that these days if I see a Google product that I'm even remotely interested in, I just immediately write it off because I know it's something they will kill in a very short time frame.
It's just never worth the hassle of buying/using a Google product. Never.
Most comments here are about Chromebook/Googlebook hardware. But IMO the more interesting part is AI-native OS features. Unfortunately it seems like not a ton, but I think the future is in custom software created from user prompts.
Ie the other day I wanted to track my clipboard history, and I preferred to trust a locally coded & executed AI-generated clipboard history mac app over a random github project.
Now obviously trusting AI has its own concerns vs trusting people, but interested in other ways companies will reimagine interfaces with AI
The second feature shown in this global launch is ... widgets. Like, Windows Vista widgets. And then, I could also open phone apps but not on my phone but on my computer (because I'd want to do that) and then the remaining feature is file sync.
I am just lost. I wanna watch a documentary on how this kind of thing gets thought out and made and approved by a lot of people and then comes to being annouced as an actual hardware product.
If everything is Google then there won´t be any more competition. They already have their hands in way to many things. Laptop margins are thin. They could squeeze smaller players out of the market with a decade of dump prices, seizing control of the computer market. Say hello to attestation and not owning anything anymore. Hope this laptop flops.
Hey Google, take the cue from Microslops debacle with the "agentic" Windows : Nobody asked for this!
A laptop with footnotes. Thanks, I would like a computer
I want to cheer them on just because i think the improvements they made to Android (such as the Linux terminal) as part of the Android-based laptop project are pretty cool. They increase the usability of Android tablets by a bunch.
This laptop though? Uhhhh who would EVER buy this over MacOS????
It was super disorienting for me to see the cursor pointing different directions depending on which direction it was moving.
I wonder if 1) it's actually going to be like that and not just an aesthetic for the ad, and 2) if I would ever get used to a cursor working that way.
I don't have any comment except to say that I think this is the first non-mechanical/custom keyboard in ages to have an F13 key.
Even if the hardware is great, the thought of giving Google more data is icky to me, even if logically it makes no difference. I already use Gmail, and Apple collects just as much. Something about Google's image just makes me grossed out in a way Apple does not.
One of the really nice things of the Macs (from Neo to Studio) is that they have a single UI (that might or might not be ideal for you, but it is unified,) yet underneath it has a Unix OS that lets you run standard compilers, docker containers, vms whatnot. The pixel and chromebooks were nice as a device to run a browser on, but not for development. Getting EMacs to run on them felt like a big achievement at the time.
Wow, so they looked at the copilot+Windows11 and thought that would be something they want to emulate...
As much as we want to point fingers at MBAs, but isn't this the exact kind of things they teach as cases to not do?
Love the confidence of launching a teaser page with zero specs. I’m not emotionally prepared to be marketed to before I know how much RAM it has.
Google basically said “here’s a mysterious glowing rectangle” and expected us spec junkies not to immediately start clawing at the walls for a datasheet, and losing sleep for weeks on end until we get them.
I cannot think of a product I'd like to own less than a machine fully-integrated with Google. And I'm not some "never Google" guy—my company's entire email infrastructure lives on Google. It's a necessary evil for us.
But... Google owning my hardware? This feels so out of left field. I must not be the target audience.
How do they justify developing and selling this? Like how do they justify the internal cost of moving people from core businesses to do this.
Mostly dismissive comments, it seems. Maybe justified. But I think a more interesting conversation is what happens if this or other devices like it become a hit? I wonder if the next generation of users will look at computers with no AI features the way we look at MS-DOS.
Competition is always good. I got a Mac Neo recently to supplement my larger 16” MBP and they really nailed it. It’s the perfect laptop for kids and travel. Most importantly it feels like it’ll last for a decade like my MBP. I hope it’s the same for googlebooks but even pixels have issues with surviving beyond 5 years.
What does Google gain from this? They already struggle in hardware, or am I missing something - has something changed?
Google don't dogfood so I'm not interested. I remember when the Pixel Fold came out asking people at Google and nobody had one. Have fun, but if nobody at Google will use this why should I?
Is this the Android desktop based which was leaked quite a few times? I feel the discussion here is overly negative. Android finally having an official desktop mode is good for competition. Windows is dropping the ball with each release, Macs need some good competition.
I’m not sure I understand the customer use case for this.
1- Chromebooks have made huge inroads in schools because they’re easy to maintain, share, upgrade, and they’re very cheap.
2- Obviously, running desktop software is a huge new piece of the ecosystem, but isn’t this customer already opting for Windows/Mac, who have extremely robust 30-year ecosystems and suites like Office, iLife, Adobe, etc that will obviously never build for this platform
There’s no way Google OS ever hits any kind of parity of exclusive software that is unavailable on Windows/Mac. Best they can do is run Android apps. This also introduces a high new threat vector to their existing customers who might not want it.
Lastly, what will this do to Chromebook buyers who are now wondering which OS will be actively developed in 5 years?
They can't show me how this new shiny thing can make me more productive at work. Looks like a giant phone from the video.
Why would I want purpose-built hardware built by a company looking to lock me in, rather than hardware that does whatever I want?
> Designed for Gemini Intelligence
They should design one for users.
The very first thing I thought when I read this is "Hmm, wonder how long this one will last before Google kills it."
Well, I am still waiting for the price. If it is $450 or higher, I'd just get a MacBook Neo at that point.
Seems like they want a MacBook for people with Pixel phones. Okay. I assume it will be an ARM based system running some Android variant, if you can seamlessly launch Android apps on it. "Designed for Gemini Intelligence" is somewhat repellant - look at how poorly MS has done pushing Copilot on people. Overall I'd need way more info to know if this is a device I'd be interested in at all, but since I have a MacBook and iPhone, I don't think I'm the target market. Perhaps their ideal target market, but it seems like this would be best for people who are already knee deep in the Google ecosystem.
Most important question: can I run Lineage on it, or will this be the start of a departure of Google allowing OEM unlock on Android?
Google could make a killing if they directly competed with the MacBook Mini. People paying out $2k to run OpenClaw will care about how well Gemini or whatever runs on their hardware. Scale up the Coral accelerator they already sell.
This is a landing page with basically no details, but if it’s a thin console that calls home to Google it loses on latency and privacy immediately.
Both Google and Samsung have adopted the sleek, rounded edge, sharp trackpad cutout and metal frame like Apple.
If the Macbook Neo didn't exist, both of sleek designs might of tided people away from Apple, but the price on the Neo, with the hardware polish from Apple is hard to beat if you're content with MacOS.
Top 3 comments are so negative.
Here’s my optimistic take - Google is already supplying Gemini/Gemma models for the next generation of Apple Intelligence. It makes complete sense for them to enter the hardware market.
I’d be happier if they use more on device models by optimizing their hardware for the next generation of Gemmma models.
When I saw the name, Googlebook I had my fingers crossed that Google had finally built something that could compete with the Apple MacBook. If that ad is anything to go by, this will flop and there will be no shortage of consumers who will go along for the ride.
If it ends up having ML-centric hardware, like a version of their TPUs, the story could change, especially if they don't try to keep it locked within their ecosystem. Local AI is the future.
Big Rabbit AI energy.
I can't just take generic hardware products hyped up as "AI" with software seriously. It's the new Windows button.