Googlebooks are (almost) here: Liliputing News Roundup

When Google introduced Chromebooks 15 years ago, the company positioned them as laptops built for the web. Now the company is launching a new kind of laptop that’s… built for Android. Earlier this year the company introduced its new Googlebook platform, and now the first five models are available for pre-order with prices ranging from $899 to $1349. They should be widely available starting October 4. While that might seem steep (because it is), one thing that I think often gets lost in the conversation about Chromebooks is that while Google’s first major push into the laptop space was often associated with the dirt cheap laptops that PC makers built around the platform, Google never said that all Chromebooks were supposed to be inexpensive.In fact, Google sold a few of its own Chromebooks over the years, and they tended to be premium devices with better build quality and performance than you’d get from the entry-level models that sold for $200 to $400. It looks like Google and PC makers are trying to avoid associating Googlebooks with “cheap laptops” right out of the gate, with the first crop of models all featuring speedy processors, high-quality displays, backlit keyboards, and other premium features.Whether anyone wants to spend the kind of money you’d pay for a decent Windows or macOS laptop on a computer that runs and Android-based operating system still remains to be seen. But it sure seems like Google is banking on the idea… and PC makers are at least hedging their bets. Worst case scenario, they can repurpose the designs as Windows laptops.Fun fact though: with Googlebooks currently positioned as premium laptops, the Dell XPS Googlebook actually caries a higher starting price than Dell’s latest XPS 13 laptop with Windows, which is positioned as an affordable laptop.