{"id":863775,"date":"2026-09-28T17:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863775\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T17:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:48:09","slug":"theres-something-strange-about-googlebook-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863775\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s Something Strange About Googlebook Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just how much can you expect customers to pay for a still-unproven laptop platform<\/a> in these uncertain times? That question seems to be sitting at the top of laptop makers\u2019 minds for the upcoming Googlebook launch<\/a>, since it seems we\u2019re only now nailing down the exact prices of each various Googlebook OS laptop, a mere week from launch.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, we reported on all the new Googlebook models<\/a>, with one coming from all the expected OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) you see in laptops today. There\u2019s a Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus Googlebook all filling store shelves on Oct. 4. According to Google at the time, the pricing breakdown looked like this:<\/p>\n

Dell XPS Googlebook: $1,200 Lenovo Googlebook 15: $1,300 HP Googlebook 14: $1,299 Asus Googlebook 14: $1,299 Acer Googlebook 14: $899 (limited-time price) <\/p>\n

Then, when individual laptop makers started sharing their own news about the laptop lines, costs started to shift. Dell told Gizmodo that the XPS Googlebook was actually $999 on Best Buy. The Google Store initially listed the laptop for $1,199, though midway through the week Google also changed its XPS price to the sub-$1,000 listing. Similarly, Google suggested you\u2019d have to spend $1,300 on the Lenovo Googlebook 15. Lenovo then usurped Google and said its laptop would cost $1,099 through Best Buy<\/a>. It\u2019s $1,050 on Lenovo\u2019s own site<\/a> and on Google\u2019s online store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GooglebooksThe Dell XPS Googlebook costs $999, even though Google originally said it would demand $1,200. \u00a9 Adriano Contreras \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

In addition, it seems like the HP Googlebook 14\u2014that Google originally said was just under $1,300\u2014is now $100 cheaper. Here\u2019s a breakdown of what each laptop costs, at least according to its current store page or most recent announcement:<\/p>\n

Gizmodo reached out to various OEMs for comment, and we\u2019ll update this post if we hear back. In response, Google said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOEMs and retailers set prices, Google does not. Prices may fluctuate based on promotions and slight differences in SKU. This is standard for products with multiple configurations, models, and retail availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear why Asus\u2019 and Acer\u2019s Googlebooks prices remained fixed, whereas others all saw this flex towards a cheaper price. However, Acer also told us that its first laptop with Googlebook OS will only remain at $900 for a short period before it\u2019s hiked to something closer to the other brands.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I won\u2019t have one in hand until that launch week. It will take some time before I can offer my full thoughts on what you can expect from Google\u2019s nascent Android-based laptop platform.<\/p>\n

The difference between launch and review timings doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s something nefarious going on. Moreover, it may say more about how rushed the Googlebook launch is. Moreover, it\u2019s going to be hard for anybody to actually find these laptops just by searching on Google. The Verge<\/a> first noted how a search for \u201cGooglebooks\u201d instead brings up Google Books, the company\u2019s full-text book and magazine search function.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be hard for Googlebooks at launch. Laptop prices are still out of control<\/a>, driven by the ongoing RAM crisis. If you don\u2019t actually want to buy a whole new $1,000+ Googlebook, you may get away with just updating an older Chromebook. On its support page<\/a>, Google said some Chromebook models can upgrade to Googlebook OS. However, you\u2019ll have to wait for which devices will be eligible to upgrade.<\/p>\n

This post was updated with a response from Google.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just how much can you expect customers to pay for a still-unproven laptop platform in these uncertain times?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[11894,168,364462,4117,125680,74],"class_list":["post-863775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-chromebooks","tag-google","tag-googlebooks","tag-laptops","tag-pcs","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}