The Googlebook work test: Can an Android laptop get the job done?

In a weird way, I’ve been thinking about the idea of a Googlebook for well over a decade now — despite the fact that such a product has only officially existed for a matter of months. I’m relatively unusual in the world of tech journalism, y’see, in that I’ve been both writing about Android and ChromeOS since the platforms’ earliest days and actively using devices from both ends of those ecosystems in my own day-to-day life that entire time. Most tech writers tend to be iPhone owners and Chromebook skeptics who see this part of the digital world from an outside view — once a year or so, when significant new devices come along for assessment — without having the perspective of someone who’s truly immersed in it day in and day out. That distinction is always painfully apparent when you read a review that waxes on endlessly with out-of-touch iPhone comparisons and comments about the limiting nature of Google’s ChromeOS concept — positions that simply aren’t accurate for those of us who live in these ecosystems and embrace the philosophies they offer. This won’t be one of those reviews, and I perhaps more than anyone have been champing at the bit to get my hands on one of Google’s new…

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