Google has unveiled five premium "Googlebook" laptops developed with Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus, starting at $899, representing another effort to distance itself from Chromebooks' budget reputation. The company is targeting consumers considering Apple MacBooks by emphasising premium build quality with materials such as aluminium and carbon fibre, high-resolution touchscreens, and potent processors.

The devices feature Intel Core Ultra 5 or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors paired with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage as standard. The $899 starting price applies only to one Acer model; most competitors reach $1,299. Google quotes 14 hours of battery life and includes cross-device features and Gemini AI integration. However, significant software constraints remain: users are largely limited to browser-based applications and Android apps, meaning desktop software such as Adobe Photoshop would operate only as web applications rather than native programs.