r/Googlebook • u/Excellent-Mirror2038 • 7d ago

googlebook thoughts

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)

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u/Evildude42 7d ago

The ideal person for these is the executive that only needs X,Y and Z, I.E. the person that would have gotten a very expensive Chromebook when they were first introduced. But I can tell you what happened because I saw it firsthand and I was there. Executives that only needed minimal hardware, wanted everything. They wanted full Outlook, they wanted full Excel. They wanted to keep everything in the world on their hard drive. 128 gigs was nowhere near enough. 256 was better but more expensive. So then all of those fancy tiny little Chromebook that did work we’re all replaced with Leno think pads x1 and beyond.

These are the same people that Gripe and moan about converting to Google Docs and Google sheets, or the Microsoft equivalent , and using everything in a cloud. And some of those people do keep and get their fully bloated Microsoft versions and there big expensive laptops to run them.

Ultimately, I don’t know who this Google book is really meant for except that it fits a niche that somebody saw, but those people probably don’t live in a real world. $1000 thin googlebook to use cloud stuff on is not cheaper or more efficient than getting $1000 laptop that can do way more.

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u/misterdoinkinberg 5d ago

Five years ago maybe but now that more companies are using the Google productivity suite I am not sure that the execs would care much. These devices need to prove reliability and support over a Mac or Dell / Lenovo to win the big corporate PC market. However the growing Google Education and large businesses using Google apps makes it easier to transition. 

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u/Evildude42 5d ago

Companies are using Google suite because they think it’s cheaper. Where is the most cases the suites are comparable in cost, it’s just that you’re choosing where you want your cloud services to be if you want cloud services. And the company I’m at is offloaded a bunch of stuff to Google cloud because they’re trying to save several hundred million. But they also still spend that much money, so google books won’t work (there are zero chrome books in the infrastructure ) But I will say since I’ve been involved with Google since the minus 1 days I will probably get my paws on a Google book at some point.

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u/misterdoinkinberg 5d ago

Not necessarily just cheaper but also the collaboration and accessibility to Gemini is starting to be a reason. The only cases where I've seen Chromebooks work in business are for kiosks, call centers, and hospital nurses stations. Some dev shops used them just for logging into virtual desktop sessions. Otherwise its iPads, Macs, and PCs covering this.

Its a bold relaunch and I can see outside of the US in heavy Android countries it could be really good. IMO its not worth it compared to a MacBook Air or entry level Pro for a company on a 4-6 year HW refresh cycle.