Posted October 27, 2026 Posted by John Scalzi
I’ve had the Googlebook for a few weeks now, and I had the chance to use it regularly and compare it with the MacBook Air I own (it has an M4 processor). One of the things I was interested in was which of them I would end up using more often and which I would prefer over the other, if there was indeed a preference.
I’m not going to dwell on this subject: I prefer the MacBook Air to the Googlebook. This is due to a number of factors, some software related and some hardware related. The Googlebook is a nice little machine, and I’m mostly happy to own it, but it’s not fully cooked, and it shows. For everyday use, the Mac Air is still the one I reach for.
This isn’t just theoretical: I was actually away this weekend at a convention in the Denver area. At first I thought about getting the Googlebook, but at the last minute I decided on the Mac Air. I was worried about things like connectivity while I was traveling, as well as being able to access certain apps I would need while I was away. I ended up taking the Googlebook out of my backpack literally as I was leaving the house and slipping the Mac Air into it. I don’t regret this choice.
There are things I like about the Dell XPS version of the Googlebook compared to the MacBook Air I own. On the one hand, I like the keyboard much better. The Air’s is just a little too soft for me, while the XPS’s keyboard is punchy and grippy. If we went straight to the keyboard, I don’t think this would be a question for me.
I also like the ever-slightly smaller form factor of the XPS over the Air. It’s really kind of six to one, half a dozen bakers on the other, because, of course, Air is Also very small, very thin and very light, just like the Googlebook XPS. But the form factor of it, a 13-inch screen as opposed to a 14-inch screen, etc., means the XPS is just a little more practical in places like airplanes or anywhere space is limited. Again, both are perfectly small enough for most use cases, but if that’s a consideration, then the Googlebook has an advantage.
Finally, and as I mentioned in my previous Googlebook article, the Googlebook’s Rambler feature, carried over from the latest edition of Android to Pixel phones, is truly magical. I wish every laptop had this. The ability to simply dictate and have it output as text with very little need to copy it is quite spectacular. If it weren’t for all the other problems the Googlebook currently has, the Rambler alone would be enough to make me want to choose the Googlebook over other laptops. It’s truly one of the best voice-to-text apps I’ve ever used.
In terms of hardware, most other issues are very minimal compared to the MacBook Air. The trackpad isn’t as smooth and nice as the MacBook Air’s trackpad, but of course, almost no other laptop has a trackpad as nice as the MacBook’s trackpads. The screens are pretty much a wash in terms of quality. Both are nice and clear and have more than sufficient resolution. The Googlebook has a 120Hz screen refresh rate, twice that of the Air, but honestly, in everyday life, if you’re not playing video games, you probably won’t notice it. Both computers are very limited in terms of I/O, with both only having two USB-C ports, although the Googlebook moves forward by having USB-C ports on either side of the chassis, while the MacBook Air only has them on the left side. On the other hand, the MacBook Air actually has a headphone jack, while the XPS does not. So they’re both slightly awkward in their own way.
The only big hardware error in the XPS Googlebook, which is also a software error, lies in the speakers. The volume of everything you play is getting lower and lower for no reason, and there is no simple solution to this problem yet. When I first talked about the laptop, I didn’t notice there was an issue with the volume, but it’s there and it really is, Really fucking annoying. At first I thought it was just a problem with YouTube and I went into YouTube settings to fix it, but it turns out it’s a problem with other programs as well.
This is a known issue; if you go to Dell’s site, they have it listed as something they know exists and will work to fix, but apparently the update won’t be ready until December at the earliest. It’s so noticeable and so annoying that it really makes me not want to use the XPS. It’s just that bad.
Beyond that, when the volume is close to maximum on the XPS, the entire chassis vibrates and the sound distorts. It’s really bad, unlike the MacBook Air’s speakers, which are actually pretty good. It’s not even a comparison; in this case, the MacBook Air blows the Googlebook out of the water. For both volume intermittency and distortion, the current “solution” for the Googlebook XPS is to use a Bluetooth speaker or headset. But I shouldn’t have to do that to get decent sound from a $1,000 laptop. This should have been resolved before they shipped.
When it comes to software, the downside of the over-the-air Googlebook is simply that it relies primarily on Android versions of software, which simply aren’t as comprehensive as the versions found on the MacBook. The two programs I use daily are Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop. On the Googlebook, the Android versions of these programs are fine for quick and dirty tasks, but they don’t have the full set of features I actually want and need to get my job done. This is great if I don’t have a lot of work to do, like if I’m on vacation or just doing something that I can use Gmail or Google Docs for. But this weekend, when I’m at this convention, and later, when I’m on tour, I’ll be working on my next novel. I need at least full Word.
Now, to be scrupulously fair about this, I’m not going to tell the Googlebook too much about relying heavily on Android. It’s just a fact of life. very first version of this operating system. I don’t think you should come to Googlebook thinking you’ll get anything other than perhaps slightly messed up versions of Android apps. But from a purely practical standpoint, meaning what I need when I’m trying to work rather than just email, it’s a problem. You must take this into account. For now at least, the Air still wins in terms of practicality.
(You’ll notice that I don’t give much time or space to any of the Googlebook’s “AI” features, and that’s just because I don’t typically use it. In this case, it’s no different than the Air, on which I also don’t use Apple’s more recent “enhancements” through the use of “AI.” So for my use case, they’re both tied on this.)
As noted above, in many ways it is fundamentally unfair to compare a Googlebook with a brand new operating system to a MacBook Air that is generations old and has an operating system developed over decades. I’m reasonably optimistic, even with Google’s tendency to kill things, that the Googlebook will improve and its operating system will become better and smarter. Google has committed to 10 years of updates on this machine, and we’ll see if that actually happens. But we can definitely expect at least a year or two of refinement from the company. So maybe in a year or two it could become a laptop I take with me on a long business trip.
But for now, I’ll have to stick with my MacBook Air for any trips that require more than the most casual use of Gmail and Google Docs. I often have to work when I travel, which means I need a laptop that can do everything I need it to. It’s still the MacBook Air.
-JS
Gn tech
