Asus Googlebook 14 Impresses at £1,200 as Googlebook OS Bugs Undercut Premium Hardware
Updated
Updated · Expert Reviews · Oct 30
Asus Googlebook 14 Impresses at £1,200 as Googlebook OS Bugs Undercut Premium Hardware
3 articles · Updated · Expert Reviews · Oct 30
Summary
Expert Reviews says Asus’ first Googlebook is a polished 14-inch premium laptop, but stops short of recommending it because Googlebook OS still feels unfinished.
£1,200 buys a 3K 120Hz matte OLED touchscreen, Intel Core Ultra 5 325, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, with the hardware praised for its slim magnesium-alloy build, haptic touchpad and strong port selection.
Googlebook OS—Android 17 with a desktop skin—handles light work responsively, but desktop app support remains weak and core productivity tools such as Docs and Sheets still fall back to web apps.
New software flaws include poor palm rejection, split-view flicker, intermittent keyboard-input failures in the G menu and a brightness shortcut that steals focus for about three seconds.
Battery life added to the reviewer’s concerns: the laptop lasted 12 hours 30 minutes in testing, well below Asus’ 18-hour claim and far behind newer rivals that now top 20 hours.