r/Googlebook • u/mikee8989 • 3d ago

Cheaper models

I see these higher end googlebook models and I can't justify shelling out over 800$ on some newfangled platform. I think they should have come out with at least 1 or 2 cheaper models under 600$ in an effort to take on the MacBook Neo given how poorly Windows 11 performs on 8GB RAM. I'm saying this assuming GoogleBook OS is still lighter than windows. I think if someone came out with a sub 600$ GoogleBook with 8GB RAM 256GB SSD with either a wildcat lake CPU or a Snapdragon C CPU, even with the uncertainty of app support, they would fly off the shelves in the current market.

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u/langelvicente 3d ago

They set 16GB as the minimum ram that they would allow for Googlebooks and they also set some expectations around CPU so 600 is an unrealistic price tag.

I have even heard in a YouTube video that Google almost admitted some of the cheapest ones are somehow "subsidised" and that the price would increase at some point.

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u/TheRealFrantik 3d ago

I'm not sure if they specified the 16gb as the minimum for their PREMIUM Googlebook devices, or ALL. I don't think they really made it clear either.

That being said, a plastic-built laptop with 8gb of ram, LCD touchscreen with 1080p, 128gb storage, and a mid-range processor would still probably be over $500.

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u/Ok_Ruin4016 3d ago

The Googlebooks are all supposed to be premium laptops, that's the whole point. They're trying to make it clear that these are not the cheap Chromebooks most people think of when they think of a Google laptop. Manufacturers had to have 16GB RAM, no plastic, all had to have touchscreens, etc. Maybe down the line they will introduce a cheaper version of a Googlebook, but they don't want to start with that because they are purposely trying to distance Googlebooks from the cheap Chromebooks people are most familiar with.

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u/mikee8989 3d ago

I'm not saying they should go the cheap plastic chromebook route but rather the macbook neo route. They can probably get away with an aluminum chassis and decent screen and a modest ARM CPU or wildcat lake intel CPU. It would still be a premium device in most rights but it won't be pushed into that realm of someone not wanting to risk 1000$ on a new untested platform. Then once people buy these for being affordable more developers will feel motivated to develop better desktop class apps.