Ars Technica review: Googlebooks still feel like Android, not premium laptops

Ars Technica reports that Android was designed for phones, and Google has spent years trying to adapt the operating system and its apps to larger machines. Googlebooks are the latest attempt after tablets, Chromebooks, and foldables produced little change in how people interact with Android software. The new laptops are designed to pick up where the web-focused ChromeOS left off, offering premium hardware and native support for Android apps.

Google sees Googlebooks as an alternative to Windows and macOS, according to the review. But those platforms are entrenched, with decades of software and user-interface conventions that keep users locked in. To pull users away from either dominant operating system, Ars Technica says, Googlebooks have to offer something very special.

For devoted Android phone users, the review says there are some cool things in Googlebook OS. Still, the Android roots of the machines are impossible to miss. Ars Technica describes the experience as inconsistent: sometimes it feels like using a Chromebook, sometimes like using a giant phone, and almost never like using a premium laptop. The review calls that the problem.

Ars Technica notes that the same challenge has followed Android's move to larger screens for years. Tablets, Chromebooks, and foldables induced little change in how people interact with Android software, the review says. Googlebooks are now the latest test of whether Google can make Android feel native on a laptop while competing with entrenched operating systems that have decades of software and UI conventions behind them.