This is Googlebook: Google’s new premium laptops built for Gemini Intelligence [VIDEO]

Finally! After nearly a year of trying to decipher exactly what Google has been working on behind the scenes with Project Aluminium, Google has officially announced Googlebook: a brand-new category of laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence that are just the upgrade to Chromebooks many of us have been hoping for for a long time. There’s a lot to cover here (we also have an exclusive interview with Google VP John Maletis all about Googlebook for you to check out) and I’m incredibly excited about it, so let’s dive right in and get a bit more familiar with Googlebook and all it is poised to do to shake up the laptop space later this year.

Gemini built in, not bolted on

According to Google, computing is shifting from being based around an operating system to what they are now dubbing as an ‘intelligence system’, and Google is completely rethinking the laptop as a result.

Unlike the shift to Chromebook Plus a few years back, this isn’t just a rebrand; Googlebook is set to bring together the full desktop Chrome browser experience, native (not emulated) Android apps from Google Play, and a new, modern OS built around AI: all wrapped in premium hardware.

Googlebooks are being built to deliver proactive help exactly where you need it, and Google showcased an example of this in the Android Show with the cursor. Let’s be honest, for being arguably the most used tool on your laptop, the cursor really hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years.

But on Googlebook, Google teamed up with Deepmind to create what they are calling “Magic Pointer”. By just wiggling your cursor, it comes to live with Gemini to give you quick, contextual suggestions based on what you are pointing at.

If you point at a date in an email, it can set up a meeting. If you select a picture of your living room and a new couch, it can instantly help you visualize them together. It’s built to let you go from a quick idea to a finished task in just a few clicks; and it looks like something that could be far more than just a gimmick, for sure.

Google is also adding a feature called “Create your Widget”. By simply entering a prompt, Gemini can search the internet and pull data from your connected Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, or Photos to build a completely personalized widget for your home screen. For example, if you are planning a family reunion in Ohio, Gemini can organize your flight and hotel info, restaurant reservations, and even a countdown all in a customized widget, right on your desktop. It all sounds awesome, and I can’t wait for this on Googlebook and on my phone, too!

And I won’t take too much time to point out the obvious, but Googlebook will finally give Chromebook users a usable desktop with icons and widgets the way you’d expect from a desktop OS. It’s a smaller addition that Google didn’t even point out in the presentation, but it’s yet another thing we’ve wanted on ChromeOS for what feels like forever, and I’m so happy to see this addition with Googlebook.

Serious Android integration that just works

And speaking of things we’ve all wanted as long-time Chromebook users, we’ve all been hoping for tighter Android phone integration for a long time, and it looks like Googlebook is perfectly positioned to deliver exactly that. Google built these laptops to be seamlessly compatible with Android phones (since they are running Android under the hood), keeping you in the flow when switching between your devices far better than ever before.

Not only can Googlebooks run powerful apps natively, but you can actually use the apps from your phone directly on your laptop screen with ease. Say you get a reminder for your daily Duolingo lesson; you can pop over and do it right on the Googlebook without ever leaving your screen. Or if you need to quickly tap a phone app to get a food order out, you can do that and jump right back into your work. It’s the Phone Hub integration that’s been poorly implemented on ChromeOS for years done right, and it looks awesome.

File management is getting a massive upgrade, too. A new Quick Access feature lets you view, search, or insert your phone’s files directly from your Googlebook’s file browser without needing to transfer or actually move anything. This sort of behavior in Phone Hub on ChromeOS has been fantastic with recent photos, but full access to all of your phone files on your desktop without friction sounds pretty amazing. And we’re quite certain many, many more ‘better together’ experiences are on the way by launch.

Premium hardware and the new glowbar

As our awareness of Project Aluminum moved along over the past year or so, we really weren’t sure what form these new devices would take. To be frank, we assumed this would all be about a new OS that leveraged the best of Android and ChromeOS, but we really assumed Google would move away from branding the hardware running it.

However, just like Chromebooks, Googlebooks will be clearly branded as such while still being manufactured by other OEMs apart from Google. And I love this approach. It means we’ll still get varied, competitive hardware in the Googlebook space, but with Google’s oversight on everything.

And that means you won’t have to wait on just Google to make these new devices. Google is working with industry-leading partners like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to launch the first wave of Googlebooks. They are promising that every Googlebook will feature premium craftsmanship and materials across a variety of shapes and sizes – and because Google’s name is in the branding across the board, I have a feeling they will 100% enforce their standard attention to hardware detail on each model.

Like Chromebooks before them, Googlebooks will require Google’s seal of approval, and this should keep the fragmentation issues at bay while also maintaining a Google hardware level of fit and finish, too. While I’m sure Google will one day throw their own hat into the Googlebook ecosystem, I absolutely love this approach and think it creates the most space for diversity of hardware, competition and great new hardware additions down the road.

One last thing. Google’s also gone and added my favorite hardware feature to ever adorn a Chromebook to all Googlebooks: the newly-named ‘Glowbar’. Google says it is a statement piece that is both functional and beautiful, and we should expect not only a head-turning LED bar at the top of Googlebooks, but something that actually has some functionality as well.

This is an amazing time for Chromebook fans

Honestly, this is the most exciting thing to happen in this space in a very, very long time. Seeing OEMs like Dell get back on board tells us Google has something special up its sleeve, and if I’m just being transparent, Googlebook feels like something that was created just for people like me – so I’m more excited about this than anything in the personal tech space in the past decade.

We also have way more details in our exclusive Googlebook interview with Google VP John Maletis if you want to dive way deeper into all of this right now. One thing I’d love to share really quickly from that interview is the fact that major app developers are already on board with Googlebook, so we can expect all the apps and services you’d want in a premium laptop experience to arrive with Googlebook as well.

We don’t have exact prices or a firm release date just yet, but the first wave of devices are slated to become available this fall. You can check out more over at googlebook.com right now and, again, hit the link in the description to watch our in-depth interview with John Maletis as well. This is just the start, and we absolutely cannot wait to get our hands on the first set of Googlebooks later this year.