Acer Googlebook 14 (2026) Review

Introduction

Googlebook OS is Google’s boldest attempt yet to challenge Windows and macOS, combining Android’s huge app library with a more traditional desktop interface and deep Gemini integration.

The Acer Googlebook 14 is arguably its most interesting launch vehicle too, pairing powerful Intel hardware with a premium convertible design and a gorgeous 120Hz OLED screen.

On paper, it offers the best of both laptops and Android tablets, complete with a proper keyboard, extensive connectivity and tight integration with your smartphone. In practice, however, excellent hardware can only do so much when the software still feels like a work in progress.

Design and keyboard

• Premium convertible design
• Comfortable keyboard and large trackpad
• Unreliable fingerprint sensor

Google took a rather unusual step of insisting that third-party manufacturers include certain design elements with its Googlebooks – mainly the use of a premium all-metal body, the use of biometrics and the inclusion of the Glow Bar – but aside from that, manufacturers are free to experiment.

And I think that has worked in Acer’s favour here, delivering not only something that looks and feels like a premium laptop in a rather stylish dark blue aluminium finish, but also doubles up as a convertible – currently the only Googlebook on the market to offer the design.

It essentially means the hinges have a 180-degree field of movement, allowing you to completely flatten the screen on a table, fold it to create something more akin to a tablet, or stop midway and pitch it up in tent mode.

It’s certainly a selling point of Acer’s Googlebook, complete with built-in sensors to detect orientation and, if necessary, display the on-screen keyboard. In fact, I’d argue that the tablet mode works better here than most other convertibles due to the fact that most apps on the OS are designed, first and foremost, for touch input. More on that in a bit.

The Glow Bar is a signature part of the Googlebook design, and while it’s smaller than those on other models, it does what you’d expect; it lights up when Gemini is listening or responding, flashes green, yellow, orange or red to display battery life when unplugged from a cable and the like. As it’s on the rear, it’s more for those around you rather than something you actively notice, but I’m sure some will enjoy it.

There’s an argument to be made that the Googlebooks are essentially just fancier versions of Android tablet and keyboard combos, but I will say that the typing experience is far superior here to most keyboard cases I’ve used on tablets.

It’s the typical laptop affair with a full keyboard, offering a satisfying typing experience with the perfect amount of travel – not too shallow as to feel cheap, but not too deep – complete with new function keys specific to Googlebook features. These did take a little bit of getting used to, especially with icons that don’t always make it 100% clear what it is or does, but it was fine after a bit of experimentation.

There’s a fingerprint sensor in the top-right corner of the keyboard to facilitate a faster login, though I’ve not found it to be all that reliable in use. It wouldn’t work at all during the initial setup, and after spending a few minutes (no exaggeration, it took a while to register my fingerprint) registering it post-setup, it still wouldn’t always work on the first try.

It’s also a little annoying that you can’t use a fingerprint to log in upon first boot, instead requiring your PIN, just like on an Android phone. Though it’s a Googlebook problem rather than Acer-specific, it doesn’t happen on Windows or Mac – pushing the power/fingerprint button turns the laptop on and automatically authenticates you at the same time.

The accompanying trackpad is large and responsive, with support for gestures – again, another reason to opt for the Googlebook over an Android tablet. Most still don’t come with a trackpad for more intuitive use, and those that do are usually smaller than laptop equivalents.

And, of course, Android tablets can’t compete with the Acer Googlebook 14 in the connectivity department; it sports a Thunderbolt 4 Type-C and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C on the left, and a 3.5mm headphone jack and an additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C on the right. There are no old-school USB-A ports or a memory card slot, but you can always get those connected with adapters.

Screen and sound

• Gorgeous 14-inch 120Hz OLED display
• Thick bezels around the screen
• Clear, loud upfiring speakers

The display is a real highlight of the experience; the 14-inch OLED panel has a sharp 2880 x 1800 resolution, paired with a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate and support for HDR content. It easily bests the IPS LCD tech found in competing Googlebooks like the Dell XPS, offering much deeper, inkier blacks and more vibrant colours without going too far into garishly over-saturated territory.

I’ve not had many complaints about using it in bright indoor environments, with the quoted 500nits of brightness more than enough to punch through ambient light – though with a typically reflective panel, it’s not the best for outdoor work in direct sunlight. You won’t see too much.

As alluded to earlier, it’s also a touch-sensitive panel, letting you tap and swipe on the screen as well as using the built-in trackpad, just like you would on a tablet. Again, I think this works better for the Googlebook OS than Windows and Mac, with most apps currently available essentially blown-up mobile apps designed for touch input.

That makes it very much like an Android tablet, especially in its convertible mode, albeit with a bigger, higher-res OLED panel than tablets at Acer’s price point.

I think if I had any single complaint about the screen, it’d be the surrounding bezels; they’re pretty thick, with both a sizeable forehead and chin. I don’t think they’re the worst I’ve seen at the price, but it does detract from the overall premium allure that the Googlebook has going on. The one benefit is that the forehead includes a rather stealthy 5MP webcam, complete with a built-in privacy slider. That’s a nice touch.

Sound duties are handled by two upfiring speakers flanked on either side of the keyboard. The benefit to this, as with laptops like the MacBook Pro that also utilise upfiring speakers, is great clarity. I had no complaints listening to Spotify via the speakers when working on the laptop – they delivered crisp, clear stereo audio, and they’re surprisingly loud at full volume too.

Bass isn’t quite a focus here, rather unsurprisingly for a fairly thin laptop, and a Bluetooth speaker will improve things, but it’ll do for more casual listening and video-watching.

Performance

• Intel Core Ultra 7 355 inside
• Smooth multitasking in most apps
• Weaker GPU performance than Android tablets

Googlebooks come in two distinct camps – Intel and Qualcomm – and Acer went with the former for its entry. It’s available in two configurations, either the Core Ultra 5 325 or the more powerful Core Ultra 7 355. For transparency, I was provided with the more powerful Ultra 7 model, paired with its top-spec 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage.

I think I’d have preferred to see a Qualcomm chip here – the Snapdragon X Elite tends to offer better battery efficiency, and the underlying ARM architecture plays better with Android apps than Intel’s desktop x86.

Google has actually confirmed that a ‘small’ number of apps have compatibility issues with Intel processors that can cause slowdown and stuttering, something I experienced with a handful of apps during my week of testing. It’s not that they run slowly from the outset, but they can make the entire OS a little sluggish after a while.

When running most apps, however, the experience is buttery smooth – likely helped by that 120Hz panel. Not that I should be all that surprised, considering the Ultra 7 chipset packs eight cores and offers 4.7GHz Turbo speed. Multitasking was a breeze, with the laptop able to handle multiple apps open at once, powering a triple-screen desktop setup without complaint, and the dedicated NPU makes Gemini-related on-device tasks (a core part of the Googlebook pitch) feel snappy.

It’s a challenge to directly compare performance to Windows and Mac laptops, however; while those use desktop-level benchmark apps, Googlebooks are, by their nature, limited to Android phone benchmark apps. Geekbench is consistent across laptops, mobile and tablets however, and running Geekbench 6 shows a capable chipset that’s unsurprisingly in line with other Ultra 7-equipped laptops we’ve tested.

It scored 2431 and 9510 in its single- and multi-core tests respectively, putting it just behind the likes of the Dell 14S with similar specs. It beats the recent Samsung Galaxy Book 6, but considering that laptop has a six-core Wildcat Lake chip, that’s not all that surprising.

Interestingly, Geekbench 7 results of 2448 and 11,087 – the benchmark we use when testing phones and tablets – show the Googlebook competing fairly well with Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and RedMagic Astra 2 in the CPU department.

It’s a slightly different story when it comes to the GPU, however. It scored just 33.6fps in Solar Bay, 38% behind the Astra 2’s 54.6fps, and its Geekbench 7 GPU score is 61% lower too, even trailing last year’s Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.

This suggests fine, but not exceptional, performance for those mobile-designed games – and considering the £599 Astra 2 costs around half as much as this £1,099.99 Ultra 7 model, you’ll get far better gaming performance from a dedicated Android tablet for a lot less. I’ll be interested to see how that compares to Snapdragon variants of Googlebooks once we get those in for testing.

It can’t compete with anything using Apple’s M-series silicon either, laptop or otherwise, but that’s par for the course in the world of laptops.

For the vast majority of users, what Acer’s Googlebook offers is more than enough – at least the Ultra 7 model I’ve tested. It does lag when running into issues with a small handful of apps, but I’m confident those issues will get ironed out over the next few months.

Software

• Most apps are enlarged mobile versions
• Buggy phone connectivity and mouse controls
• Promising Gemini integration

Of course, Acer can pack the Googlebook 14 with as much great tech as it wants – the laptop essentially lives or dies by its software.

The core pitch of Googlebook OS is an interesting one, essentially combining Google’s ChromeOS with Android to deliver a desktop experience that works well with Google’s existing library of mobile apps that you already use on your smartphone. It has Gemini baked in, available to be summoned by wiggling your cursor on screen, and as you’d expect, works very well with your phone, able to access your phone apps and data wirelessly.

The reality at launch, however, is much messier. I’ve already waxed lyrical about how frustrating and, ultimately, disappointing my first 48 hours with the Googlebook were, and honestly, not much has changed over subsequent days of use.

The biggest problem is that most apps at present aren’t really desktop apps. While the Play Store highlights optimised options like Microsoft Word and CapCut Pad, most are enlarged mobile apps or web apps similar to those available on cheaper Chromebooks.

Slack, for example, uses the mobile interface and lacks the desktop app’s split-pane layout, making it slower to switch between channels and DMs. Photoshop is also a blown-up mobile app with comparatively basic editing tools, while Google Docs simply opens a document in Chrome. Even Canva’s web-style app uses the Android share sheet, making something as simple as saving an image locally surprisingly awkward.

Chrome is at least closer to its proper desktop counterpart and supports extensions, but it still lacks features available on Windows and Mac, including the Gemini sidebar, vertical tabs and split-screen browsing.

That also makes it difficult to ignore how closely the experience can be replicated by pairing an Android tablet with a keyboard and desktop mode. Samsung DeX, in particular, already offers floating windows, cursor support and a desktop-style interface on its equally-big-screen 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra, while providing access to many of the same Android apps.

The Googlebook does offer more laptop-like polish, including better multi-monitor support, a better Files app, and the ability to keep more apps running in the background. However, the core app experience feels remarkably similar, especially while so much of the Googlebook’s software library still consists of enlarged mobile apps. Those compromises might be acceptable on a tablet, but they’re much harder to excuse on a laptop intended for serious work.

The core interface can feel equally unfinished. Mobile apps treat mouse clicks like touchscreen inputs, meaning I couldn’t click and drag to select text in apps such as Slack. Copying and pasting between apps was also unreliable, while right-clicks were often interpreted as regular left-clicks, even in some supposedly desktop-ready apps.

There are plenty of smaller frustrations too. Desktop widgets can’t be moved to an external monitor, the laptop regularly forgot my multi-monitor layout after reconnecting my Thunderbolt dock, and the shortcuts and media controls on my external keyboard didn’t work. None is disastrous in isolation, but together they make Googlebook OS feel noticeably less capable than Windows or macOS.

Bugs are also difficult to ignore. The fingerprint sensor failed during setup, while Cast My Apps initially refused to request the permissions it needed from my Android 17 phone. Once manually enabled, casting remained unreliable, frequently crashing or disconnecting. My colleague experienced similar issues with the Pixel 11 Pro XL, suggesting it isn’t limited to my particular phone.

It isn’t all bad. When phone connectivity works, clicking a notification to cast the corresponding app feels genuinely useful, while the Files app neatly combines local storage, your phone and Google Drive. Gemini’s cursor integration is intuitive too, and Rambler proved surprisingly effective for quickly replying to messages.

However, those clever ideas sit on top of an experience that still struggles with the basics. App support should improve, and bugs will likely be fixed, but right now Googlebook OS feels more like a promising work in progress than a credible Windows or macOS alternative.

Battery life

• 71Whr battery
• Lasts a full working day
• Full charge in just over 90 minutes

Despite the lightweight dimensions of Acer’s Googlebook, it houses a fairly generous 71Whr cell within. Acer itself claims the laptop is good for up to 14 hours of video watching or 16 hours of web browsing, though my experience didn’t quite reach those lofty heights.

Using PCMark 10 Android’s Work 3.1 battery test, which simulates general activities like web browsing and document editing at 50% brightness, it lasted 10 hours and 54 minutes, and in real-world use, it managed to get me through a full eight-hour working day with charge left in the tank – around 20%.

That’s pretty solid, and more than enough to get you through a day of Uni or work without scrambling for a charger as you might with an Android tablet/keyboard combo, even if it doesn’t quite compete with some of the longest-lasting Windows laptops around like the 24 hours of the Dell 14S. Other Googlebooks, namely those like the Dell XPS Googlebook with battery-sipping Qualcomm chips and IPS screens, could potentially last longer, however.

At least the charging process is pretty speedy; the included USB-C charger delivered 38% in half an hour, with a full charge taking just over an hour and a half in testing.

Should you buy it?