The new HP Googlebook 14c - Premium chassis, but you need to know about these limitations

After years of offering relatively affordable laptops via its Chromebook line, Google is now positioning its new Googlebook models as premium devices. The Googlebook OS operating system is still based on Android but is designed to offer more features, aiming to serve as an alternative to familiar Windows laptops and Apple MacBooks.

HP’s version is branded as the Googlebook 14c; it is a premium 14-inch laptop featuring a dark blue aluminum chassis, a design element previously seen only on HP's expensive Spectre models. Both build quality and structural rigidity are excellent, and the input devices are impressive as well. The high-resolution OLED touchscreen delivers very good image quality, though there is no HDR support.

For the processor, HP has opted for the Snapdragon X1 Elite. While this chip belongs to the previous generation and is no longer cutting-edge, its performance is perfectly adequate given that the Googlebook is restricted exclusively to Android apps. The memory configuration, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, is also entirely sufficient for this type of usage.

One downside of the Googlebook 14c is its meager port selection, offering just two USB-C ports that do not support USB 4.0. You do not get a 5G module, either, even though this would have made a lot of sense for this type of laptop. Battery life also fell short of expectations; despite a large 70-watt-hour battery, the device lasted less than 14 hours in our Wi-Fi test. 

Another weak point is the cooling system. While the laptop generally remains pleasantly quiet during everyday use, we quickly measured temperatures exceeding 50 degrees in the upper keyboard area under heavy load. Full details are available in our comprehensive review.