Google has just announced that its first googlebook laptops will go on the market for pre-order on September 21. This has been confirmed by several leaked versions of each of the three hardware makers, all of which have been found to utilise Intel’s Core Ultra 5 325 processor from the Panther Lake generation.
Finally, Google has announced to the public when consumers will be able to place an order for its new Googlebook laptops. The company’s official Googlebook website has now had a post confirming that pre-orders will begin on Sept. 21. Those who subscribed to email notifications were told they’d be opened at 9 AM ET, 9to5Google reports.
Google has yet to announce the specific models of individual laptops that will be released on Sept. 21, or a general shipment date. The company says that the first Googlebooks will be “unboxed” this fall, but it has not been specific about where the book is. A number of OEMs have confirmed that they are the first generation Googlebook manufacturers, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo; leaks over the past few weeks have already disclosed a number of potentially launch-ready machines.
Lenovo Googlebook 15 is one of the best leaked model. It is said to be powered by Intel Core Ultra 5 325 Panther Lake processor, 16/32GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of storage. Other leaked specs include a 15.3-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen, which can operate up to 120 Hz; a 70 Wh battery; Thunderbolt 4; and a haptic glass trackpad. According to the report, the company is also adding Google’s popular multicoloured “glowbar” plus specially-built facial-authentication hardware.
Asus seems to be making a similar high-end product. A recently leaked listing from a Canadian retailer has had a Core Ultra 5 325-powered Googlebook listed for CA$1,900 ($1,365). More powerful models with Core Ultra 7 chips and up to 64 GB of RAM are also in sight.
Acer’s Googlebook 14 is also out now at various European retailers. One Core Ultra 5 325 configuration with 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 256 GB SSD and a 14-inch 2.8K 120 Hz OLED display was listed for €1,022 ($1,178). Acer has yet to confirm but a retailer said before that they were talking about November 8.
What is interesting, however, is that the Core Ultra 5 325 is beginning to turn up in some of the earliest Googlebooks, behind the scenes validating the notion that Googlebooks will be high-end products. However, Chromebooks have traditionally come to market on Intel, MediaTek, and AMD silicon. Googlebooks could constitute a starting point for Google’s first-tier of high-end laptops. Higher tier processors will be expected as well, with the Googlebook prototypes by Asus getting Core Ultra 7 355s early on.
Moreover, even Google dubs them as a new class of “flagship laptops” that bridge ChromeOS and Android, and have features like Magic Pointer and Create My Widget from the Gemini Intelligence Suite, as well as better Android phone integration.
