A week with Googlebooks: four notes from our testing so far

Google’s new operating system is off to a rocky start. The five newly launched Googlebook laptops have hardware that ranges from great to excellent, but the software in its current state is the weak point. There are four of us on staff at The Verge actively testing Googlebooks and, frankly, our internal Slack discussions have been mostly filled with collective venting of frustrations, disappointments, and bewilderment. The promise of Googlebooks as a fresh and smartly designed alternative to Windows or Mac for Android phone owners sounds great, but there’s more than just a few kinks and quirks to work out. Some of its issues and challenges in the road ahead are systemic to Android. While we’re actively testing each and every Googlebook from all of Google’s partner OEMs, we thought we’d come together and share a glimpse of where our heads are at with these new laptops. Why…