The Acer Googlebook 14 is a fantastic 2-in-1 laptop — but this one thing holds it back

The Acer Googlebook 14 ($899) stands out among the other newly released Googlebooks for its relatively low asking price and 2-in-1 convertible design. It still has the hallmarks of the lineup, including a thin, light design, a sturdy aluminum chassis, and a Glowbar to mark it as a Googlebook. It’s certainly a hardware winner, but the software is where things get a bit more complicated.

Inside, the Acer Chromebook 14 packs an Intel Core Ultra 5 Panther Lake chip. That, along with 16GB of RAM, gives it plenty of power to handle multiple open Chrome tabs and various Android apps. The 14-inch OLED touch display is impressive, with everything from websites to videos looking sharp and clear. The roomy keyboard deck, thick keycaps, and large touchpad also make it great for getting work done.

The Gemini-powered AI features are interesting. For instance, wiggling the cursor brings up a chatbox where you can ask Gemini questions about what you’ve selected. The Rambler feature is also useful, as Gemini can clean up your messy dictation and turn it into a properly edited document. You can even dabble in some vibe coding and create Android apps for whatever you need.

Googlebooks are designed to work with the best Android phones, similar to how the best iPhones and best MacBooks seamlessly integrate. If you’re already familiar with the Google and Android ecosystems, then laptops like the Acer Googlebook 14 could be what you’re looking for. However, if you’re an iPhone user or don’t need deep interoperability with your Android phone, you might want to look elsewhere.

Even if machines like the Acer Googlebook 14 feel like suped-up Chromebooks, they do lay the groundwork for future iterations that can better realize the dream of a more integrated Android ecosystem. There’s a lot to like about Acer’s laptop, but since you need an Android phone to get the most out of it, it’s really only for those users. Find out more in my Acer Chromebook 14 review.

Acer Googlebook 14 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Acer Googlebook 14 is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop built to work with Android phones.
• Who is it for? This laptop is for Android users who want more interoperability between their phone and laptop.
• What does it cost? The Acer Googlebook 14 starts at $899 at Best Buy.
• What do we like? We like the slim design, vivid 14-inch OLED panel, unique Googlebook AI features, and strong everyday performance.
• What don’t we like? We don’t like the relatively poor battery life, dependence on Android phones, and sometimes buggy Googlebook OS.

Acer Googlebook 14 review: Specs

Acer Googlebook 14 review: The ups

The Acer Googlebook 14 impresses with its slick design, gorgeous OLED panel, strong performance, and unique AI features.

Lovely design

The Acer Googlebook 14 is one of the thinnest and lightest 2-in-1 laptops I’ve ever reviewed. Thanks to that ultraportable design, I almost forgot I carried it in my bag while traveling. Despite its thin profile, the laptop feels sturdy and durable thanks to its aluminum build. Its smooth surface also feels good in hand.

Opening the laptop with one hand is a cinch, as it smoothly glides up on its hinge. As a 2-in-1, you can fold the display 360 degrees to switch to tablet mode. In this configuration, you basically get a huge Android tablet. Tent mode is great for when you want to kick back and watch videos without having the keyboard in front of you.

Speaking of the keyboard, I like how it’s spacious enough to accommodate my large hands. The keys have a nice travel distance, and the keycaps are plenty thick—which makes typing enjoyable. Another standout feature is the huge touchpad, which never fails to respond to all of my gestures. I wish the touchpad had haptic feedback like some other Googlebooks, but that is a minor nitpick at best.

The keyboard deck has a new Quick Insert key that instantly pulls up emojis, clipboard items, or recent files. That can be useful, but it replaces the traditional Caps Lock key. You can remap it, which is a bummer. However, you can hold the function key and tap Quick Insert to get Caps Lock.

The two speakers flanking the keyboard deck can get pretty loud, though I find the overall sound quality relatively thin. This is a complaint I have with most laptop speakers, so I won’t ding the Acer Googlebook too much for that.

Port selection is minimal at best. It has three USB-C ports, one of which is Thunderbolt 4/USB4, and a single headphone jack. Wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. In my experience, I never used more than one USB-C port, but I would have liked at least one USB-A port and an HDMI port.

Rich OLED display

The 14-inch (2880 x 1800) OLED touchscreen on the Acer Googlebook 14 is quite nice. The 120Hz refresh rate also ensures everything moves smoothly. For instance, the latest trailer for the Street Fighter movie looks impressive, with colors popping off the screen thanks to the excellent contrast between dark and light elements. Web pages also look great, with crisp, clear text.

Our lab tests corroborate what my eyes experienced. Color reproduction (sRGB and DCI-P3) leans toward the oversaturated side, which accounts for the bold colors. Color reproduction (Delta-E) is also solid and in line with other laptop displays. Competitors like the Asus Googlebook 14 and13-inch MacBook Air aren’t as vivid, though their color reproduction is arguably more naturalistic.

Brightness is another highlight. The Acer Googlebook 14 not only has strong SDR brightness, but it also delivers incredible HDR brightness. The chart above shows HDR brightness across 100% of the screen, but our test showed the screen can hit 1083 nits across 10%. That is some bright stuff!

I found the touchscreen to be as responsive as Android tablets I’ve reviewed. Swiping through menus and selecting tabs happens instantaneously. You can certainly argue that the Acer Googlebook 14’s tablet mode works better than a Windows convertible, since Windows 11’s touch interface doesn’t feel as natural as on an Android platform designed for touch.

Strong everyday performance

The Acer Googlebook 14 I reviewed packs an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Thanks to those specs, it’s a fairly decent performer that can handle multiple open Chrome tabs and Android apps without a problem. During my testing, I never noticed any slowdown when switching between websites and apps.

How did Acer’s convertible do in our lab tests? On the Geekbench CPU test, the laptop scored 2465 in single-core performance and 9960 in multi-core. That’s better than the Dell XPS 13 (2026), which packs the same Panther Lake processor and amount of RAM. Of course, the MacBook Air with its M5 chip blows both laptops away in performance.

While you can certainly play some light Android games on the Acer Googlebook 14, don’t expect it to adequately run anything intensive. On the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme GPU performance benchmark, Acer’s machine (like other Intel-powered Googlebooks) didn’t do as well as its Qualcomm-fueled siblings. And, unsurprisingly, the MacBook Air M5 delivered better performance.

Strong interoperability and Gemini features

Googlebooks exist to be companions for your Android phone. The laptop certainly lives up to that promise—for better and worse. For now, let’s stick with the positives, as Google has done a commendable job of creating its own Apple-like synergy between Googlebooks and Android devices.

I used a Google Pixel 9 phone for my testing, and setting up the Acer Googlebook 14 with it was seamless. As soon as I powered on the laptop, I got a notification on the Pixel phone to start the process, which took about 10 minutes since I had a lot of apps and files to transfer. After that, I could effortlessly start work on the phone and continue on the laptop, just like I would on an iPhone and MacBook.

Magic Pointer is one of the standout Googlebooks features. Like I said in the intro, shaking the cursor while hovering over content brings up Gemini. There, you can ask the chatbot to summarize text, translate foreign languages, or organize your calendar. You can turn this feature on or off, and I mostly went with the latter since I didn’t find it particularly useful. That said, it does work as advertised.

Rambler is the other big feature, as the upgraded speech-to-text tool does a nice job of taking your messy stream-of-consciousness ramblings and turning them into a coherent document. During my testing, I purposely switched to talking Spanish, and Rambler had no problem translating it. Again, another feature I wouldn’t normally use since I prefer to write rather than dictate, but it works well.

Create My Widget is for aspiring vibe coders who want to create their own apps. All you have to do is tell Gemini the kind of app you want, and it will create a widget for you. I’m not imaginative, so I had it create a widget to check the weather, and it did so right on the device. I can see folks having a blast with this feature, even if it isn’t something I’d use.

Acer Googlebook 14 review: The downs

On its own, the Acer Googlebook 14 is a fantastic convertible, but it’s not perfect.

Only for the Android faithful

One thing is abundantly clear: Googlebooks like Acer’s cannot truly function on their own. Sure, you can do some of the basics, like browse the web or fire up YouTube. But for anything meaningful, such as Better Together features like Continue On, App Streaming, Instant Hotspot, Notification Sync, and Cross-Device File Sync, you’ll need an Android phone. That’s swell if you’re an Android user, but it leaves everyone else in the lurch.

In fairness to Google, you can transfer apps and files from your iPhone. The same is true for iMessages when you use the Link to Googlebook app from the Apple App Store. That’s all great, but I still felt limited in what I could do between an iPhone and Googlebook. Again, to get the most from a Googlebook, you’ll need an Android phone—which effectively shuts out iPhone users, likely myself.

Googlebook OS is limited

Googlebook OS is a brand-new operating system. As a result, it has some growing pains.

For example, apps that you stream from your phone don’t always scale correctly to the laptop’s screen. And even though this is an Android laptop, some Android games and apps either don’t perform as intended or crash completely.

Another issue my colleagues and I had was that we couldn’t log into our company’s corporate Google account and services. Because of that, I couldn’t use the Acer Googlebook 14 as my everyday laptop as I do with every notebook I review. This is an IT policy and not a problem with the laptop itself, but it’s something to keep in mind if you work for a large company.

I’m sure Google will keep ironing out Googlebook OS’ kinks over time, but right now, don’t expect a completely flawless experience, as you will run into the occasional hiccup during use.

Poor battery life

Based on our testing, laptops with Panther Lake processors generally have solid battery life. I expected the same from Googlebooks powered by Intel’s silicon, but I’m sad to report that this isn’t the case. Though the Acer Googlebook 14 doesn’t have atrocious battery life, it also doesn’t match what you’d get from contemporary laptops.

Google said its laptops can last between 14 and 16 hours. However, our tests show otherwise. In our testing, which is the same as the one we’ve used on Chromebooks in the past, the Acer Googlebook 14 lasted 10 hours and 25 minutes. Compare that to the XPS 13 with the same Intel chip (and a smaller battery), which lasted four and a half hours longer.

You can read my article about why Googlebooks have a battery-life problem for more details on our testing methods and how they compare to Google’s. But suffice it to say, Intel-powered Googlebooks are not battery-life champs. If you plan to use the Acer Googlebook 14 on the road, don’t forget to bring its charger!

Acer Googlebook 14 review: Verdict

On its own, the Acer Googlebook 14 is a great 2-in-1 laptop. Its lightweight, classy design suits any environment, and the beautiful 14-inch OLED panel is perfect for both work and play. Being the most affordable Googlebook right now is another feather in its cap.

The main sticking point with the Acer Googlebook 14 and others in this lineup is Googlebook OS. Again, if you’re a die-hard Android user who wants a laptop that communicates near flawlessly with your phone, this and the other Googlebooks are certainly worth considering. However, if you’re an iPhone user or prefer Windows laptops, there isn’t much here to sway you over.