Googlebooks launch October 4 starting at $899—here are the five models you can preorder today

Here are all the launch models and their starting prices. There is, of course, nothing stopping you from using phone apps on a Googlebook if you want. They’ll run in a window, and you may not even need to install them. With Cast My Apps, the apps installed on your Android phone are available instantly on a Googlebook. They appear in a dedicated app list on the laptop, allowing you to open and use them without touching the phone. The file manager can also seamlessly access files on your Android phone. Let’s say you have an email or PDF with dates you need to add to your calendar. You can jiggle the cursor, point Gemini at the email, and get all the dates added in one go. If you get a suspicious email, you can invoke Gemini with your cursor and ask it to figure out if it’s a scam. You can also point Gemini at images and tell it to edit them or generate new versions without downloading anything. Useful? Maybe occasionally, but Google’s enthusiasm for Magic Pointer seems a bit premature. Google’s focus on Googlebooks as an Android companion makes sense given the shared software foundation, but it’s also a risky play. These are not cheap devices—by Google’s own admission, it’s going after the premium laptop market. While Android accounts for about half the phones across Googlebook launch markets, Google’s OS has a much smaller share of the premium segment (over $600) compared to Apple. People buying more expensive phones might also consider a high-end laptop like a Googlebook, but there’s little reason for iPhone owners to buy one of these in a world where the MacBook Air is around the same price, and the MacBook Neo is even cheaper.