I tried all the new Google Books announced today

The first Googlebooks from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo are up for pre-order today. Google is giving us a clearer picture of what will set Googlebooks apart from other laptops, which you can read here, but the other big question is what the company’s hardware partners have cooked up. As expected, all five Googlebooks are high-end hardware rather than the entry-to-mid-range hardware usually found on Chromebooks.

There are no rigorous technical requirements for hardware makers to meet, but these five Google Books have at least 16 GB of RAM, and Google says their batteries are all rated to achieve 14 hours of video playback or 16 hours of web browsing. And while all laptops have their own design, the other internal specs are pretty similar across the board. Acer, ASUS and Lenovo Googlebooks all include Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 3 chips (Acer and ASUS say they will also offer Core Ultra 7 models), while Dell and HP use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip.

Oh, and every Google Book has a Glowbar: a network of lights on the back of the cover that adds a nice touch of fantasy. It scans when you start it and shows your battery level if you swipe it; it also appears to have built-in animations when speaking with Gemini. For now, it’s just a fun visual cue, but Google says developers will be able to take advantage of it in the future. At least it’s a fun identifier, much like the original Glowbar was on the Chromebook Pixel all those years ago, and aligns perfectly with the hardware design of Google’s Pixel 11 Pro and its HiLight notification array.

We’ll likely get our hands on several of these Google Books in the coming weeks to see how they perform on a daily basis, but for now, here are my first impressions based on quick tests at Google’s press event last week.

Acer’s first Googlebook is the only convertible of the lot. Like many Acer Chromebooks I’ve used in the past, the Acer Googlebook 14 features a 360-degree hinge that lets you turn the laptop into a very large tablet. I can’t say I’ve ever been really excited about this type of computer, especially one with a 14-inch screen, but it’s an option here for those who like it. The hinge is very smooth and the overall feel of this Googlebook is solid and well-designed, if not terribly exciting. It reminds me of a more refined version of the Acer Chromebook Spin 514, which I chose as one of the best Chromebooks last year.

In keeping with the more premium Googlebook vibe, this new laptop weighs half a pound less than the old Chromebook, and it has a much larger, nicer trackpad and a 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The addition of 16GB of RAM and the aforementioned Intel Core Ultra 5 plus 512GB of storage helps justify the price of $899. Design-wise, it seems to be the most “standard” laptop of the five I tried: it’s an Acer convertible through and through, but as the only Googlebook selling for less than $1,000, it offers the best value in this group.

The ASUS Googlebook offering is not very different from the Acer model, although a few elements stood out to me. First, its lightweight design: It weighs just 2.2 pounds, which doesn’t feel much different from the 2.5-pound Acer. But reducing that weight while maintaining roughly the same frame size and a 14-inch screen really gives it a premium, ultra-portable feel.

The trackpad is also one of the nicest I’ve tried in this group of Googlebooks; it is haptic, extremely large and goes all the way to the bottom edge of the chassis. An ASUS representative specifically mentioned that they also carefully tuned it for palm rejection. I only had a few minutes to check it out, but the keyboard and trackpad were top-notch, certainly an improvement over the Acer model.

Given that the ASUS Googlebook 14 costs $1,299, I’m hoping it will feel more premium. But in terms of specifications, both laptops are comparable: they have the same Intel Core Ultra 5 chip, 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage. The displays also look nearly identical: a 14-inch OLED with a 2,880 x 1,800 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. ASUS will also offer a model with the Intel Core Ultra 7 chip for those who need more processing power.

Dell’s XPS brand is coming to a Google laptop for the first time (from what I remember). And among the first batch of Googlebooks, the Googlebook XPS is definitely the most distinctive. It’s the thinnest and smallest of the bunch, with a 13.4-inch screen and 12.7mm bezel. The XPS Googlebook feels even smaller than the average laptop with a 13-inch screen, thanks to the very small bezels around the screen. This thin build makes the keyboard shallower than any other Googlebook I’ve tried, but it still feels sturdy and reliable. Its trackpad is also quite large and responsive for such a compact computer.

Nathan Ingraham for Woozad

In terms of specs, Dell opted for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip rather than standard Intel fare, and that starts with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It starts at $1,199 – again, that’s certainly a premium over a model like the Acer. Considering its extremely compact size, it seems that the cost is more justified. Dell also plans to sell a model with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, but we don’t have pricing on that yet.

HP’s Googlebook 14 also uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, but in a more standard 14-inch laptop form factor, without the extremely thin and light design that Dell offers. Its all-aluminum construction is extremely solid, and it has perhaps the best keyboard of anyone I’ve tried. It also has a large haptic trackpad and is one of the few to have facial authentication for security reasons, as well as a fingerprint sensor. (The other four Googlebooks also have a fingerprint sensor.)

Like the other 14-inch Googlebooks here, this one has a 2.8K resolution OLED touchscreen. Strangely, it starts with just 256GB of storage; all other Googlebooks except the Lenovo have 512GB. That’s doubly surprising when you consider that this computer starts at $1,299, making it one of the two most expensive Googlebooks offered here. It might have the best build quality among the five laptops, though, or at least it’s tied with the svelte XPS Googlebook.

Lenovo’s Googlebook is the only one with a 15-inch screen. This larger OLED screen has the same 2.8K resolution as most of the other Google Books on offer – it’s obviously not as pixel dense as the other models, but the Lenovo screen still looks excellent. Like the Acer and ASUS models, Lenovo uses the Intel Core Ultra 5 chip, along with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starting. I’m once again surprised by the relatively low storage, but the recent component price craze might have something to do with it.

Nathan Ingraham for Woozad

There are also some nice design touches on this laptop. It has a nicely textured and grippy underside (like the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 and Google’s Pixelbook Go before it). Lenovo also said that the particular shade of white used for the Googlebook 15 is the Pantone color of the year. Like the HP, Lenovo’s laptop has face unlock and a fingerprint sensor, and is the only device here with Dolby Atmos audio. It’s tied for the most expensive Googlebook at $1,299, but those who want a larger screen will find a lot to like here.