Google opens preorders for its $899 Gemini-powered Googlebook laptop

Google opened preorders Monday for the Googlebook, a $899 laptop that runs Android with a desktop version of the Chrome browser and folds Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, into core parts of the operating system. Preorders are live on the Google Store, Best Buy and other retailers, and the device ships October 4 in the US and October 5 in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.

The laptop’s marquee feature is Magic Cursor, an AI-powered pointer that lets people highlight text or images on screen and hand them to Gemini for a task, such as checking whether a hovered-over email looks suspicious or combining several selected photos into one image. A second feature, called Rambler, uses AI to turn a rambling voice memo, a spoken stream of disorganized thoughts, into clean written text. The laptop also supports what Google calls vibe-coded widgets, small custom tools generated on the fly.

Google is betting that features like these give people a reason to buy new hardware rather than reach Gemini through an app or a browser tab, TechCrunch reported. The Googlebook sits above Google’s existing Chromebooks, the lower-cost laptops built around the browser-based ChromeOS, and could eventually replace them. TechCrunch’s report was skeptical that the hardware pitch alone will move buyers, noting that Magic Cursor resembles Circle to Search, an existing Android tool that lets phone owners circle or tap on-screen content to search with AI, and that Circle to Search did not spark a rush toward Android phones. The report called Rambler genuinely useful but still not, on its own, a reason to buy a new machine, since other Gemini tools such as Gemini Spark and Gemini Live already run without new hardware.

The bigger target may be classrooms

TechCrunch’s report framed the Googlebook as part of a longer push into education, where Google has said roughly 50 million Chromebooks are used by students and teachers. Google told TechCrunch in May that existing Chromebooks will keep getting support, with many becoming eligible later to shift to the Googlebook experience.

The $899 price includes 12 months of Google AI Pro, which adds 5TB of cloud storage, Gemini Advanced tools and three months each of YouTube Premium and Adobe Photoshop. Google says the devices will get updates for up to 10 years. Flagship models are being built by Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo using aluminum, magnesium alloy or carbon fiber, with displays up to 2.8K OLED resolution, haptic glass trackpads, backlit keyboards, and Intel or Qualcomm processors paired with dedicated AI chips.

Reviews and early sales figures after the Googlebook reaches US shelves October 4, and after its October 5 launch in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia, will be the first signs of whether Gemini features alone are enough to draw buyers away from cheaper Chromebooks.