Android Central’s review of the Lenovo Googlebook 15, published November 12, 2026, tells shoppers to skip it. The reviewer liked the hardware a lot but says Googlebook OS is weak enough that no Googlebook is worth buying at these prices yet. If you’re comparing Lenovo’s 15-inch model with a Chromebook or a regular ultrabook, this matters, because the problems are in Google’s software and not in anything Lenovo built.
The spec sheet explains the praise. Lenovo lists an Intel Core Ultra 5 325, 16GB of LPDDR5x memory and a 15.3-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED touchscreen that runs at up to 120Hz. There’s a Thunderbolt 4 port on each side, plus USB-A, HDMI 2.0 and a headphone jack. It also has four Dolby Atmos speakers, fingerprint and face unlock, and a 70Wh battery rated for more than 12.5 hours, and it weighs under 3 pounds.
It has been on sale in the US since October 4, 2026, starting at $1,099.99 with 256GB of storage. The 16GB/512GB version costs $1,149 on the Google Store spec page.
The problems show up once you start working. The review found that Android apps stretch into large windows and feel like oversized tablet software. Right-click menus behave inconsistently, click-and-drag doesn’t always register, and ARM-built apps stutter on Intel’s x86 chip. Web versions of apps often ran better than the native ones, and battery life in testing came in well below Lenovo’s rating. The review recommends a Chromebook Plus at about half the price instead, or a Windows laptop or MacBook Air that costs the same or less.
A Chromebook Plus is the smarter buy for most people
I’d follow that advice.
Paying over $1,000 for a platform that still behaves like a beta is hard to justify, however good the screen is. If your day runs through Chrome and Google Workspace, a Chromebook Plus with Gemini tools built in handles it for far less. If you’re budgeting past the sticker price, look at what a Chromebook costs to own over time before you decide.
Notebookcheck came to a similar conclusion earlier this month. It called this the weakest Googlebook so far and said the chassis feels cheaper than rival models and the keyboard has short key travel.
If you already own a Chromebook, you don’t need to do anything. Google says ChromeOS devices will keep getting regular updates and security patches through mid-2034. It also says many newer commercial Chromebook models will be able to upgrade to Googlebook OS, with eligibility details still to come. That gives Google time to fix the software, and gives you time to wait and see.
