Googlebooks are unreviewable

Summary

The reviewer tested two Google Books: a Lenovo model with an Intel x64 processor and a Dell model with a Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM processor. He found that everyday laptop tasks were frequently awkward, unreliable, or broken.

He emphasizes that these results reflect his own workflow, but says the problems are serious enough that many users are likely to encounter at least one deal-breaker.

Features and problems encountered

Login and notifications

• The Lenovo supports fingerprint scanning, face unlock, and a PIN. The Dell supports fingerprint scanning and a PIN, but not face unlock.
• Notifications already dismissed on the phone reappear on the laptop after each login, requiring manual dismissal. They stay synced until the laptop shuts down.

Passwords

• The 1Password Chrome extension failed to work properly on the Intel Lenovo but worked on the ARM Dell. The reviewer suspects an issue with Intel’s emulation layer, though he could only infer the cause.
• 1Password biometric access did not work on either device, so he had to enter his master password. He says biometric access works on his Pixel and Windows laptop.

Email and Office apps

• Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel are Android tablet apps rather than full desktop versions. The reviewer found Outlook particularly impractical with a keyboard and trackpad.
• In Outlook, selecting and copying email text required touch input; trackpad selection did not work. Inbox controls also disappeared when opening an email, making search and sorting less convenient.
• Gmail is not a native laptop app in this setup. Opening it launches the Gmail website in Chrome, with browser controls hidden. The reviewer wants a native email client with keyboard and trackpad support that works offline.
• He notes that roughly 400 million people use Outlook monthly, so telling users to switch to Gmail does not address the issue for many.

Phone and messaging integration

• A text notification from the phone can open the mirrored phone app instead of the laptop’s native Messages app. In his test, a second notification then arrived and opened the laptop’s Messages app.
• Windows handled the same kind of text notification more cleanly, with the message appearing on both devices at the same time.
• Phone-app mirroring worked at home but failed on many hotel, café, and airport networks because client isolation prevents devices on the same Wi-Fi network from communicating. Using the phone as a hotspot did not fix the problem. For a frequent traveler, he says this makes a prominent feature unusable much of the time.

External monitors

• The Lenovo worked well with his dock and two 1440p, 120 Hz monitors, providing full resolution and smooth refresh rates.
• The Dell had display issues: wallpapers did not mirror correctly, and enabling 120 Hz caused the connection to crash and the screens to go black.
• The practical trade-off was to choose Intel/x64 for better support with high-refresh-rate external monitors, although the tested Lenovo had the 1Password extension problem. The ARM Dell handled that extension but struggled with the monitor setup.

Overall verdict

The reviewer sees the idea of a laptop deeply integrated with an Android phone as promising. The Lenovo’s monitor support and the devices’ authentication options also offer some positives. However, the combined problems make the Google Books unsuitable for his work.

He describes the platform as a minimum viable product that needs further development—not something consumers should pay around $1,000 to beta-test. He did not assess gaming, video creation, image editing, or the broader range of Windows and Mac apps without Google Book equivalents.

For now, he recommends sticking with Windows rather than buying one of these devices.

Speaker perspective

The video presents the reviewer’s own experience and opinion; no other speakers offer separate views.