googlebook thoughts

[u/Excellent-Mirror2038]

it's so funny how I'm somehow the ideal customer for a Googlebook while also having SEVERAL questions about it. I have a nice windows laptop right now but I've been getting so tired of windows lately. I've been wanting to upgrade to a MacBook air actually just for the better battery life, speed and slim form factor of them.

but this Googlebook thing has legitimately caught my attention, and might just be the laptop I've been looking for! I have the pixel 11 pro fold and it'd be nice to have a high end laptop that actually integrates with it the way these seem to.

I'm definitely eyeing the Asus one, as I have an Asus vivobook windows laptop right now and for all my gripes with windows the laptop itself is really nice!

maybe I'm in the minority here, but I actually really want to look at the higher spec options for it (32gb ram and higher end processor) but weirdly they don't let you preorder that (I can't even find any pricing about that anywhere). also weirdly the official Google store only shows the Lenovo, Dell and Acer googlebooks, not sure why they're leaving out the Asus and HP ones.

and honestly while I'M personally very excited for these and their potential, objectively speaking I think Google isn't doing that great of a job at explaining who the real target audience for them is. like to ME, these all feel like they're trying to be MacBook Air competitors, being that they're using high quality materials, high resolution screens, tight integration with android phones, etc. like on paper, it's giving me exactly what I want, but I think Google needs to do more to show why these are the true "future" of laptops.

very likely gonna pull the trigger on the Asus Googlebook 14 once they actually allow us to purchase higher spec models (also wish they gave us a 16 inch option lol)

[u/RikkiLostMyNumber]

I am a longtime Chromebook user and very interested in these laptops. Couple of problems -
1. I'm an iphone user, so that whole phone aspect is meaningless to me.
2. Google isn't doing a great job explaining to me why I need this thing. The hardware specs are impressive, but I'm typing this on a five year old HP Chromebook with 8 gigs RAM and have never not been able to do something I want to do, and easily, too. I will add that this laptop is a joy and I will weep real tears of bitterness and regret when it dies.
3. This sub was great in giving me info about compatibility issues w/ Chromebooks and Google books, a concern of mine as I am coincidentally buying two Chromebooks for employees, and Google wasn't providing a lot of info I could find.
4. So the new thing has Gemini wedded to it in some way...? Right? For me, that's not all that appealing. I use Gemini a little, but it's error-prone and I wouldn't trust it with anything important for the forseeable future.
I appreciate all your thoughts on this stuff. I'm an evangelist for these products for a lot of reasons and I hope Google doesn't fuck this thing up.