The first Android-powered Googlebooks are proving difficult to live with, according to a week-long review of models from Asus and HP. The laptops, which run Android and start around $1,000, succeed at phone connectivity in principle but suffer from flaky pairing, awkward app casting, and file-sharing that appears broken. Android deserves credit for whatever these devices get right, and blame for what goes wrong.
Setting up a Googlebook is quick and Android-like, taking just minutes to register biometric logins, sign into a Google account, and link a phone for apps and backups. The Asus and HP units differ mainly in whether they install every app from the connected phone or only desktop-optimized ones. Once inside the operating system, however, the experience becomes inconsistent.
Full pairing with a phone demanded toggling cross-device settings on both devices, multiple restarts, and sometimes luck before the two found each other, even with an Android 17 phone. Moving to a new Wi-Fi network broke the link again and required restarting the Googlebook. Both devices must share a Wi-Fi network with Bluetooth enabled, so the connection does not work offline.
Phone recognition remains erratic: the Asus Googlebook connects reliably to an Oppo phone but ignores others, while the HP model alternates between that Oppo and the Vivo X Fold 6. Neither laptop acknowledged a Pixel 11 Pro Fold for days, despite it being Google's own hardware. Android app casting lets users run specific phone apps from the laptop without mirroring the whole phone interface, which suits quick tasks like updating Splitwise or messaging on WhatsApp, though some apps, including banking and authorization tools, refuse to run, and others render incorrectly.
Native Android apps on the laptop are a frequent headache. The mobile version of Slack is unworkable on a desktop, Adobe's Android apps fall short of their desktop counterparts, and many titles tagged Optimized for desktop merely stretch their interface and offer basic mouse and keyboard support. Chrome lacks profile switching, split-view tabs, and custom search engine shortcuts. Google's claim that Chromebooks offer the entire Play Store library also falls short: Bluesky and Okta cannot be installed on either the Intel or Arm-based models.
Continue On handoff works with Google Drive documents but only sporadically in Gmail and never in Calendar, and notifications mix phone and laptop alerts confusingly. Slack notifications open a casted phone app instead of the native one, WhatsApp notifications do not arrive, and work and personal Gmail accounts cannot both send alerts at once.
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