{"id":647201,"date":"2026-05-12T19:38:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=647201"},"modified":"2026-05-12T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:42:01","slug":"google-announces-new-android-based-laptops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/647201-google-announces-new-android-based-laptops.html","title":{"rendered":"Google announces new Android-based laptops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Google introduced a new high-end laptop segment called “Googlebook” that will run Android and prominently showcase\u00a0Gemini artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardware partners\u00a0Dell,\u00a0Lenovo,\u00a0and\u00a0HP will debut\u00a0models built on the platform in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort, announced on Tuesday in addition to a series of upcoming Android 17 updates,\u00a0marks a fresh push by Google into the laptop segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google will integrate key Gemini features into the core operating system, potentially offering more consumer-facing AI features than Windows and Mac notebooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google is framing the new laptops as a convergence of Android and ChromeOS, the\u00a0software that underpins affordable Chromebook devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since their introduction 15 years ago, Chromebooks have found success in education and with consumers whose basic computing needs can be satisfied on a web browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the new systems will offer significantly better performance and quality hardware than Chromebooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While individual machine designs\u00a0will vary based on manufacturer, all Googlebooks will include a signature \u201cGlowbar\u201d that illuminates when the laptops are powered on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google and its partners are not alone in targeting an in-between laptop segment that aims to offer more than Chromebooks or the cheapest Windows PCs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple\u00a0earlier this year debuted the $599 MacBook Neo, which helped fuel a roughly\u00a06% quarterly pickup in Mac sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search giant said it plans to share more details about the effort later this year, when partners will begin unveiling their respective products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asustek Computer, better known as ASUS, and Acer have also signed on to release Googlebook hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is an opportunity to bring more innovation back to laptops, especially at the higher end,\u201d Sameer Samat, a Google\u00a0president overseeing the Android ecosystem, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He declined to comment on whether Google plans to release its own Googlebooks. The company hasn\u2019t introduced a Google-branded laptop\u00a0since the Pixelbook Go in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google has a chance to build\u00a0AI \u201cinto the laptop in a different way that no one else has really hit on,\u201d Samat added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gemini Intelligence, also announced Tuesday,\u00a0is the new branding for the latest user-facing AI features also coming to premium Android devices this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as Googlebooks make Gemini the centerpiece of the user experience, Google said\u00a0that its AI features are meant to move into the background when they aren\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the new capabilities is Magic Pointer, which gives the trackpad cursor more versatile capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feature is context-aware and indicates to users when something on their screen can benefit from Gemini\u2019s assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hovering over a message might suggest quick replies, or hovering on a meeting could present\u00a0location ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings like Magic Pointer are simple once you see them, but are actually hard to really perfect,\u201d Samat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did that with Circle to Search on the phone and we’re really excited to use things like that on the laptop as well.\u201d Another feature lets users ask Gemini to create custom widgets for nearly any purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google hopes that Googlebooks will be a draw for app developers, who will be able to efficiently adapt their software and offer a consistent experience across hardware types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This also means that consumers\u00a0can use individual apps on their Android phone directly\u00a0from the laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple brought\u00a0iPhone mirroring to Macs in 2024, partly because many developers have opted out of allowing their popular mobile apps to natively run on macOS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with the arrival of Googlebooks, ChromeOS isn\u2019t going anywhere. \u201cSixty-plus percent of the education market in the US is Chromebooks,\u201d Samat said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s really a good fit there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google said that Googlebooks would launch in the fall, which traditionally falls between the first Monday in September and Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which this year falls on 26 November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Images of Googlebooks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Google introduced a new high-end laptop segment called “Googlebook” that will run Android and prominently showcase Gemini artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":647205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[397,83601,167],"class_list":["post-647201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-android","tag-gemini","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647213,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647201\/revisions\/647213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}