If you want Googlebooks with great battery life, good news

Google announced Googlebooks yesterday, and this new laptop range is effectively powered by Android. There are still a lot of questions about the hardware and software, but the company has revealed more details in a new interview.

Google executive John Maletis sheds more light on Googlebooks in an interview chrome unboxed. For starters, Maletis confirmed that these laptops will support processors from Intel, MediaTek, and Qualcomm.

It will be compatible with Chrome OS, which supports both x86 and Arm chip architectures. This is good news and suggests the same versatile portfolio of devices as we’ve seen with Chromebooks. Arm chips have traditionally been more power-efficient than x86 chips from Intel and AMD. So if people value battery life, they could theoretically opt for a Googlebook with an Arm-based MediaTek or Qualcomm processor.

Google did not confirm whether these new laptops are powered by its alleged Aluminum OS project, but it did say that the platform was built on the Android technology stack. So it won’t be a surprise to hear that these devices will support Android apps natively.

Maletis was quoted as saying, “We now have the ability to actually run native Android applications, not emulated ones.” He also said that the performance of these apps was “incredible”.

However, will Googlebooks have all the features of Chrome OS? chrome unboxed Specifically asked about features like virtual desk, screen recorder, multi-paste/clipboard history, and quick insert.

The Google executive suggested that “core” Chrome OS capabilities would be available in the new platform:

Chrome OS has taken many years of development and as you rightly pointed out, there are many different features that power users as well as everyday users have certainly become accustomed to. And we have learned a lot during this time. And even the things I personally didn’t think would be such a big deal or be so widely used – screen recording, screen capture, multi-paste, etc – I really didn’t think they’d be super widely used, but they are. So we’ve looked at all those features and said, ‘Okay, let’s make sure we’re continuing to deliver it where it makes sense.’

Can I tell you that the buttons, links and knobs will be in one place? No, because we are rethinking it a lot. But I think what you’ll find is that those core capabilities will be there and, in some ways, we’re going to redesign them in ways that we always wished we had in the past.

In other words, it looks like major Chrome OS options will be available on the new platform. Still, don’t be surprised if some tools and features are not available from the start.