HP Googlebook 14 Reviews Are In: Great Hardware, but Googlebook OS Holds It Back

HP’s first Googlebook is now in reviewers’ hands, and the verdict is mixed in a very specific way. In its HP Googlebook 14 review on October 16, 9to5Google calls it a great laptop that is let down by its operating system. Notebookcheck, which tested the 16GB RAM and 512GB model on October 11, reached a similar conclusion and scored it 86%.

What reviewers like

Build and size: the HP Googlebook 14 is just 10.9mm thick and weighs 2.74 pounds. 9to5Google says the aluminum body is sturdy with very little flex, and Notebookcheck says that without the Googlebook logos you could mistake it for a pricey HP Spectre.

Keyboard and trackpad: 9to5Google calls the keyboard a tremendous highlight, with lots of key travel for such a thin laptop. 9to5Google notes that haptic trackpads were made mandatory for this first wave of Googlebooks, and says HP’s works well, though it feels a tiny bit hollow.

Screen and sound: the 14-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED touchscreen runs at up to 120Hz and is described as crisp and colorful. Notebookcheck measured over 500 nits of brightness and rated the quad speakers better than those on Apple’s MacBook Air 13.

Speed: with a Snapdragon X Elite chip and 16GB of RAM, 9to5Google says boot times are near-instant and overall performance is hard to fault.

What holds it back

The app gap: 9to5Google’s biggest complaint is Googlebook OS itself. It says the platform still has a very limited library of desktop-class software, Linux app support has regressed tremendously, and there is no way to run apps made for other platforms.

Some Android apps do not work: Notebookcheck found that some Android apps do not run on Googlebook OS, and that popular games like Fortnite and PUBG are not supported. For now, cloud gaming such as GeForce NOW is the best way to play.

Hardware gaps too: Notebookcheck lists only two USB-C ports, no 5G or LTE option, and no HDR setting on its review unit. It says other Googlebooks do offer HDR, so it hopes HP fixes this with a software update.

Battery is good, not great: HP claims up to 19 hours of video playback. Notebookcheck got almost 19 hours of local video, but just under 14 hours in its Wi-Fi browsing test, which it called a bit disappointing for a 70Wh battery. 9to5Google says battery life is on par with Snapdragon Windows laptops but short of a MacBook Air.

HP Googlebook 14 at a glance

Phone features need Android 17: HP’s launch announcement highlights Quick Access, which shows your phone’s files in the laptop’s file browser, and Cast my Apps, which opens supported phone apps on the laptop. Both only work with supported phones running Android 17 or later.

The bundle: HP says buyers get a 12-month Google AI Pro membership with 5TB of cloud storage (its fine print calls this a trial offer), plus apps and services valued at up to $350, including Adobe Photoshop, CapCut, YouTube Premium and NVIDIA GeForce NOW. The AI Pro offer covers Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US, and must be redeemed by March 31, 2027.

Our take: the HP Googlebook 14 sounds like the premium Chromebook-style laptop many of us have wanted, but $1,299 buys a lot of Windows laptop or a MacBook Air. Unless you live in Android apps and the web, we would wait for cheaper Googlebooks, or for Google to close the app gap.