What the Googlebook 14 is
The Googlebook 14 runs Googlebook OS, Google's new Android-based laptop platform. ASUS calls it its first laptop designed for Gemini Intelligence. Pocket-lint describes the CX9406CAA as one of the five initial Googlebook OS-powered PCs to hit the market in earnest. In the U.S. it sells for $1,300 USD / $1,800 CAD. De Looper names the competition at that price: the Dell XPSes and MacBook Airs of the world.
ASUS announced U.S. availability on October 4, 2026, through its own store and Best Buy. Every purchase includes a bundle: 12 months of Google AI Pro, 5TB of cloud storage, and limited-term subscriptions to YouTube Premium, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, CapCut Pro, Luminar and GeForce NOW. ASUS's footnotes say Google AI Pro renews at $19.99 a month once the trial ends, unless you cancel. Put a reminder in your calendar.
Design: very light, with some flex
Portability is the headline. De Looper says that at 2.18 pounds, it's a fair bit lighter than a 13-inch MacBook Air, and in a backpack, you'll hardly notice it. The footprint is 12.24 inches wide and 8.38 inches deep, with the thickness reaching 0.65 inches at its thickest point. ASUS's spec sheet puts the thinnest point at 0.43 inches.
That light weight has some costs. The chassis is built from CNC-machined magnesium-aluminum alloy, finished with what Asus calls a Nano Ceramic surface treatment — meant to resist scratches, stains, and general abrasion. De Looper's verdict is mixed but mostly positive: you could argue that it feels a little plasticky, but overall, it felt well built, even if there was some flex in the keyboard bed and lid.
ASUS says the laptop passed MIL-STD-810H testing plus its own durability tests. The footnote matters here. ASUS states that the testing happens under laboratory conditions, varies by device, does not mean the laptop is fit for military use, and that damage from trying to recreate the tests is not covered by the standard warranty. Treat it like any other laptop.
Other design notes from the review:
- One color only: Dusk Ash. De Looper says it's fine but not exciting.
- Hinge: you can open the lid with one finger, but the hinge isn't especially stiff and the lid wobbles if the desk moves. He thinks the one-handed opening is worth that trade.
- Webcam: a 1080p camera in the top bezel with a physical privacy shutter.
- Glowbar: a status light bar on the lid. He says it looks neat but he never used it. Pocket-lint calls it of dubious utility beyond pulsing when interacting with Gemini.
Summary: the Googlebook 14 is a light, compact travel laptop. It doesn't feel as solid as a unibody MacBook Air, but the reviewer didn't find it cheap either.
Ports: better than you'd expect from an Android laptop
The port selection is closer to a Windows ultrabook than to an Android tablet:
| Port | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Thunderbolt 4 USB-C | 2 | Power Delivery, USB, DisplayPort 1.4; supports 4K display |
| USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 | 2 | One on each side |
| HDMI 2.1b | 1 | Full-size |
| 3.5mm combo audio jack | 1 | — |
De Looper would have swapped one USB-A port for a third USB-C port, though he concedes that having USB-A on both sides helps people who still use older accessories. Charging is over USB-C at up to 65W, so the 65W GaN brick in your bag will probably work. Just don't expect it to charge as fast as laptops that take 100W or more.
Keyboard, touchpad, display, speakers
- Keyboard: solid and usable, with enough travel to feel tactile. De Looper found it a bit mushy and less crisp than a MacBook Pro's. ASUS lists 1.5mm key travel and a backlight.
- Touchpad: ASUS's pre-order announcement says the large haptic touchpad uses six-point force sensing to provide consistent click pressure and tactile feedback. De Looper ranks it among the better non-Apple touchpads he has used, with some lost responsiveness at the edges and corners.
- Fingerprint reader: built into the power button. He found it usable but slow and sometimes inaccurate.
- Display: the best part of the laptop. It's a 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED touchscreen with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate. ASUS rates it at 450 nits for standard content and 1,000 nits peak in HDR; the 1,000-nit figure is a peak, not sustained full-screen brightness. Corning Gorilla Glass Victus with a matte anti-glare coating cuts reflections. Some people will miss the punch of a glossy panel.
- Speakers: decent highs and weak bass. Fine for calls, but use headphones for music.
Performance and battery: Intel vs. ARM
U.S. units ship with an Intel Core Ultra 5 325, 16GB of LPDDR5X and integrated graphics. ASUS rates the NPU at up to 47 TOPS. De Looper says the laptop felt fast for browser- and app-heavy productivity work, the fan rarely spun up, and the chassis stayed cool. He also says an M5 MacBook Air easily beats it on both single-core and multi-core performance.
Battery life was only "adequate" in his testing. ASUS claims up to 18 hours from a 70Wh battery, but as The Gadgeteer notes, that figure assumes 1080p local-video playback with the screen at 50% brightness and wired headphones. In de Looper's use, heavier workloads at higher brightness needed a charge before the end of an eight-hour day.
The bigger issue for anyone deciding which Googlebook to buy is the processor architecture. Googlebook OS runs Android apps, and most of those were built for ARM phones. De Looper says most apps will work well on Snapdragon-based Googlebooks at launch, but plenty won't run as well on Intel models. He also cites reports from other publications that Qualcomm-based Googlebooks perform noticeably better. For now, Dell and HP make the Snapdragon models. Windows-on-ARM users will recognize this compatibility problem, just in reverse.
Software: it can't replace Windows yet
If you live in Windows, this is the part that decides it. Googlebook OS cannot run conventional Windows or macOS desktop software. Photoshop on a Googlebook is the Android version, not the desktop application. Google has acknowledged that some apps will need developer updates to work properly.
To help, Google Play now labels apps by how well they suit a laptop, from best to worst:
- Made for desktop
- Optimized for desktop
- Compatible with desktop
- Better on the website
- Built for mobile
Look for the first two. Those apps are the most likely to support keyboard shortcuts, mouse input and proper window resizing.
Android integration is the strongest part of the software. Your phone's apps appear in the laptop's app drawer, phone files are available in Files, and phone notifications show up on the laptop. Continue On pins the app you were using on your phone to the taskbar so you can pick up where you left off. ASUS's footnotes say setup features require a phone running Android 17 or later, and feature availability varies by device, OS version and region.
Gemini features include Magic Pointer (wiggle the cursor to call up Gemini and act on what's on screen), Proactive Suggestions, and Rambler, which turns rambling speech into tidy text. De Looper says they worked well, but they didn't become part of his daily workflow.
Check the storage before you buy
ASUS lists two U.S. models at the same $1,299 MSRP, and they don't have the same storage. The Gadgeteer reports that the Best Buy ASUS model, CX9406CAA-U5_16.512, has 512GB of storage for $1,299. The ASUS Store's CX9406CAA-DH566T has 256GB at the same current price. If prices stay level, the Best Buy model gives you twice the storage for the same money, so read the model number before you check out. Retail prices can change.
For a cheaper alternative, The Gadgeteer says the ASUS is about 0.66 pounds less than the Lenovo Googlebook 15's 2.84-pound starting weight, and that both machines use the same Core Ultra 5 325.
Who should buy it
Probably a good fit:
- People heavily invested in Android who mostly use web apps
- Travelers who want a 2.18-pound machine with a very good OLED screen
- Google fans who don't mind early-platform bugs
Probably not a good fit:
- Anyone who depends on Win32 desktop software, specialized business software or full creative suites
- Buyers who expect MacBook Air battery life or performance
- Anyone who wants the best Googlebook app compatibility right now; de Looper recommends a Snapdragon model instead
The Googlebook 14 has well-made hardware for an operating system that's still immature. Its display, weight and ports hold up against $1,300 Windows laptops. The software doesn't yet: Windows users can't bring their desktop apps over, so for them it would be a second laptop, not a replacement.