I tested the Dell XPS Googlebook — and it's an Android fan's dream laptop

I spent a week testing the new Dell XPS Googlebook ($999 to start). Despite its affordability, Dell packed this machine with solid components, such as a Snapdragon X Elite X1 chip and 16GB of RAM. It never slowed down no matter how busy my workflow became. Hardware-wise, it's a pure winner.

That said, I'm less excited about the software. Its Android apps are still mobile apps scaled up to run on a larger laptop display. Sure, the optimized versions run well, but when I'm on a laptop, I want desktop apps.

I'm also not quite ready to let AI run around my laptop, offering all kinds of help. Is wiggling the cursor to get help from Gemini a fun novelty à la Google Lens? Yes. Will I actually use it in my daily life? I just don't see myself doing that.

These laptops are built to work with the best Android phones, much like Apple's best iPhones and best MacBooks play nice together. And like Apple's system, iPhone owners are mostly left out of the crossover features between laptop and phone. I'd go so far as to say that iPhone users with no interest in switching to Android should skip this laptop and get a MacBook Neo or a MacBook Air instead.

That said, these slightly buggy laptops lay a strong foundation for the future of Google's laptop ventures. Will Google dethrone Apple and Microsoft as the top laptop operating systems? That's a long way off, but with enough time, iteration, and marketing, anything is possible for Google.

Dell XPS Googlebook review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Dell XPS Googlebook is a touchscreen laptop that runs on Googlebook OS and is designed to work with Android phones.
• Who is it for? Longtime Android users who've always envied how iPhones and MacBooks play nice will enjoy the Dell XPS Googlebook.
• What does it cost? $999 at Best Buy
• What do we like? The slim design, bright 14-inch OLED panel, interesting AI features, and impressive overall performance made me enjoy my time with Dell's Googlebook offering.
• What don’t we like? To make the most of the Dell XPS Googlebook, you're dependent on Android phones and a sometimes buggy operating system (admittedly still in its infancy and likely to improve). I also will always prefer desktop software like on macOS and Windows.

Dell XPS Googlebook review: Specs

Dell XPS Googlebook review: The ups

Dell did a fantastic job with its visually attractive design, bright LED panel and stellar performance.

Slim and attractive

Dell made a beautiful laptop, which isn't surprising, given its long history of making beautiful XPS laptops. The Shimmer color will draw your eye like any silver laptop, and the slick Glowbar (standard on Googlebooks) gives it a little extra visual appeal.

Additionally, this laptop is sleek. Weighing just 2.2 pounds, it's light enough to carry everywhere without back pain. Dimension-wise, it's about what you'd expect from a 13.4-inch laptop, but its 0.5-inch depth is impressive (the Acer Googlebook is the same depth, but that doesn't make it any less impressive). It packs a silky-smooth hinge that makes opening and closing the laptop easy, even with one hand.

The keyboard looks and feels good on the Dell XPS Googlebook, so long typing sessions don't negatively affect my hands. The touchpad feels a little weird at times, but it might just be me getting used to the haptic feedback that some other laptops don't have.

Overall, the trackpad still feels off to me, especially with gestures like two-finger scrolling and zooming. I kept overscrolling and bouncing back up. Maybe I'm just used to how scrolling works on my MacBook, but no matter how much I used it, I couldn't get comfortable with it for anything beyond basic clicking (clicking feels great with the haptic feedback).

The trackpad issues didn't ruin the experience, and the touchscreen lets you scroll and navigate if you're comfortable with that.

And it's not all bad; the touchpad is large relative to the laptop, so you have some room to work with.

Despite offering four speakers, the Dell XPS Googlebook didn't blow me away with its sound, but I also don't expect a laptop to be overly impressive. Side by side with my M4 MacBook Air, the volume levels and sound quality are similar, which should be fine for watching videos and doing basic tasks. Just don't expect desktop-level sound, because you see "Quad-speakers" on the spec sheet.

Solid LCD touchscreen

Unlike the Acer Googlebook 14, this isn't a 2-in-1, so it's probably not the best choice for artists or anyone who likes flipping their laptop around and turning it into a tablet. It also uses an LED display instead of an OLED, but as the lab results show, it still performs solidly in brightness, though it lacks HDR support, which may be a deal-breaker for some.

Outside of the lab, I watched a wide range of content, and it all looked great. I watched plenty of 4K YouTube videos that looked just as good as on any other laptop I've tested, or on my MacBook Air, which I use as my daily driver. I even threw on Fight Club, which I rented from Prime Video, and it looked just as gritty and slick as I remembered it.

As you might expect from this device's Chromebook roots, web browsing looks great, with crisp, sharp text. I even read this review back on the Dell XPS Googlebook, and it looked beautiful.

You get a 2.5K (2560 x 1600) InfinityEdge touch display that is responsive enough for most people (I don't really use touchscreens on non-2-in-1 laptops much, but it's nice to know it works well).

Based on our lab tests, the colors are solid and fall within a similar range to those of the slightly cheaper Acer Googlebook 14, though they're not quite as vivid (Dell's colors are arguably more realistic, closer to the beloved MacBook Air).

Power and performance

This laptop is a powerhouse. It crushed the Acer Googlebook 14 in Geekbench tests for only $100 more. If performance is your main buying factor, Dell's model is the way to go. Of course, you're trading the convertible aspect I mentioned earlier, so it's not necessarily a one-to-one comparison.

The MacBook Air literally outperforms it, but it costs $300 more. And with different target audiences (Android owners vs. iPhone owners), they aren't the same. But the MacBook Air is the gold standard for laptops, and it's always worth a side-by-side look.

Interestingly, Dell actually beat the more expensive Lenovo Googlebook 15, though the price increase is mainly due to the larger screen, not better performance. The model that most closely rivals Dell in performance is the HP Googlebook 14, which scored 2,994/14,679, almost the same. We benchmarked all of the new Googlebooks if you want a more in-depth comparison.

In terms of real-world performance, I have exactly zero complaints about the Dell XPS Googlebook. I used it for basic graphic design, writing, and even light gaming, and it handled everything with ease. It stayed perfectly cool no matter what I did, which is important for a portable laptop you might actually use on your lap.

An Android owner's dream

Googlebooks are companions for Android phones, and this device does that with mostly stellar results.

I used a Google Pixel 10XL phone to play with the Dell XPS Googlebook, and the whole process was seamless. You can use your phone to set up the laptop so your apps, contacts, and calendars move back and forth between the two devices. You can also stream apps from your phone onto the laptop, much like Apple's iPhone mirroring feature. For a die-hard Android user, this is what they always wanted Chromebooks to be.

The synergy between the two devices feels very Apple-like, which is clearly Google's and the device makers' goal.

Magic Pointer is one of the features Google pushed heavily when it announced Googlebooks. A simple wiggle of the mouse cursor prompts the search box, which then works a bit like Circle to Search on an Android phone. Do I see myself using this regularly? At the moment, I can't see it making its way into my workflow, but over time, I might find myself using it more often.

Google's Rambler is an upgraded speech-to-text tool that does a nice job. Basically, it takes your stream-of-consciousness talking and turns it into a mostly coherent document. I tested it a few times; I'm great at rambling, as my editor can tell you, but it captured the essence of my nonsense well enough. I wouldn't use it, as it's bordering on AI writing, with it taking my words and cleaning them up, but if you're comfortable with AI changing your words around a little, it's a great feature.

The final major AI feature that's part of Googlebooks and available on Dell's offering is Create My Widget. It's a bit like vibe coding for creating an app for your laptop. I tried it by telling Gemini what kind of app I wanted, and it built one for me. I prefer Claude for vibe coding, but having it built right into the operating system is quite cool.

Overall, the AI and Android integration is a key selling point of the Dell XPS Googlebook. And you can probably decide whether these features sound like selling points or detractors from my description. Personally, I don't see myself using them, but they all work as advertised, which is all you can really ask for from a new operating system with features in their infancy.

Dell XPS Googlebook review: The downs

On its own, the Dell XPS Googlebook is a solid first attempt at a new operating system, though it has room for improvement.

Middling battery life

Googlebooks seem to have middling battery life across the board. You can read our article about why Googlebooks have a battery-life problem for more details on our testing methods and how they compare to Google’s. But no matter how you slice it, Googlebooks are not battery-life champs.

The Dell XPS Googlebook did marginally worse in our testing than the Acer Googlebook 14, but only by 21 minutes. Now, when you look at it next to the current king of portable powerhouses, the MacBook Air, the difference is relatively shocking and enough to potentially make you reconsider spending $999 on this laptop.

Dell and Google promise up to 18 hours of battery life with this laptop, which sounds like an incredible number capable of crushing Apple's lightweight leader. But when our testing showed a number that's so vastly different from the laptop makers', it has me wondering under what conditions Google's tests are being done.

"Battery life is based on controlled web browsing tests. Actual battery life may be lower and will vary based on factors like network conditions, location, settings, and usage," reads the fine print on Google's website. The part about variance certainly tracks, but I generally don't expect that much of a shift between manufacturer testing and our own.

Of course, if you're an Android user, the interoperability between your laptop and your other devices might outweigh battery life concerns. That's really something you'll need to think about. Yes, the cross connections are cool and useful, but five hours of battery life is significant.

Googlebook OS is buggy

I found the Dell XPS Googlebook and Googlebook OS to offer a fairly smooth experience, but as it's a brand new operating system, there are some bugs here and there. However, I will say I didn't experience as many as I might have expected based on some of our other Googlebook reviews.

The biggest issue comes from things like apps streaming from the phone not scaling correctly and the occasional crash. Fortunately, nothing crashed that required me to do a bunch of work over again; otherwise, I'd probably be a lot more upset about any of the bugs.

If you go into it knowing that you're getting a laptop that plays well with your phone that may have a small hiccup here and there, you'll have a good experience overall.

Dell XPS Googlebook review: Verdict

In the end, I really like this laptop, even as an iPhone user. Its biggest strength is stellar performance on paper. Compared to other laptops in the Googlebook line and other $1,000 laptops, it's a powerful device that scored well in benchmarks and real-world testing.

But that power comes with less-than-stellar battery life, which could be a major issue for anyone working on the go when power outlets aren't always available.

Despite these minor issues, I have no problem recommending this laptop to any Android user who wants a laptop with cool handoff functionality and strong back-and-forth synergy.

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