I needed something that was portable, and powerful that had a good battery life that would get me through a day of classes. After weeks of exploring my options I decided to settle on buying a chromebook, but was a little apprehensive because most consider it very limiting. Now that I have played with it a bit, those fears are mitigated and i can address to you its true limiting factors.
Chrome OS
While it may not be as feature packed as other operating systems, Google definitely (in my opinion) hit a homerun with Chrome OS. It is very secure, super lightweight and, for the most part, based around the chrome browser. It is great for productive people like students or young professionals. It’s simple, clean and surprisingly powerful. For a majority of people, I believe this would be sufficient for their needs. However, don’t expect the capability of playing games unless you’re playing a browser based game that doesn’t require java, or… you install a linux operating system (yes, you can actually do this fairly easily). Most apps can be downloaded through the chrome web store and there one can find a variety of apps to suit their needs. Plus, some pre-installed apps like google drive and some office tools that google offers (Sheets, Slides, Docs…). Recently, Google has implemented the google play store and (most) new chromebooks have the ability of utilizing android apps. This does not come without a caveat though: most apps aren’t optimized for chromebooks yet. However; Google has constantly been improving on this to make them play nice together. Chrome OS also has the nice added feature of being able to easily store your documents in google drive, this comes in handy because all of your documents can be accessed anywhere in the world on any device by logging in with your google account. With 100 GB of free extra storage for two years on google drive, who can pass up that? Especially when considering Chromebooks measly storage of usually no more than 64 GB.
The Meat and Potatoes: The Asus Flip C302
Body/Technical Specs
The Flip comes in at a very manageable 2.65 lbs, with overall dimensions of 12 x 8.3 x 0.5 in. It features an aluminum body, two decent speakers on each side, headphone jack, two USB-C (that’s right, no full size USB ports), a micro-sd slot, volume up/down buttons, and of course a power button. The display is a 1920x1080p 12.5” touch screen. Storage is a 64GB SSD, which is plenty for a lightweight platform such as this. 4GB of ram, and a intel core m3 processor that seem to be able to handle multiple tabs and apps open simultaneously and not slow down. I’ve been able to render video in 4k on it as well without too much of a hiccup. With built in bluetooth, it makes connecting external devices like speakers and mice a breeze.
The Great:
Screen
The Asus Flip comes with a 12.5” 1920x1080 touch screen that offers plenty of pixel density for your viewing needs. Well, atleast a 1920x1080 screen is what they advertise. But, I’ve been able to go into my settings and turn up the resolution to 2400 x 1350. I would not recommend using the laptop in this configuration though as text becomes too difficult to read and buttons too difficult to click. I usually keep mine in 1536x864 for this reason. The touch screen and the 360 degree hinge are a nice added feature and great for when you want to watch videos while lounging on the couch or laying in bed. I have heard some complaints about the brightness, but i don’t think most people will be using their laptops out in the bright sun in the middle of July. It’s plenty bright enough for me to sit out on my porch and smoke a cigar while typing this review. Granted, it is a dark, gloomy january day.
Keyboard
The biggest reason for buying the Asus over say.. The Samsung chromebook Pro/plus is its keyboard. I must say, for how thin and compact this device is, the keyboard does feel more natural than I expected and much better than my old junky windows 8 laptop (I don’t miss you). It has an adjustable led backlight which works great for using in a dark room, and can be turned off for when it’s not needed. The keyboard also provides a nice 1.4mm of key travel which still feels great even for me, where I am used to typing on my mechanical keyboard that has a lot more travel than that.
The Not So Great:
Camera
Ah, yes. This is my biggest and only gripe with this device. Although, probably not warranted. It comes with a very junky “HD” web camera. Maybe 720p at best… picture and video quality really aren’t that great. If it is worth mentioning: I was denied my verification photos on binance because they were not able to verify the details of my ID eye roll.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this device is great. Coming in at around $450 it is an absolute bargain for how much is being offered. It is great for students like me who need a simple platform without too much bloatware (I am looking at you windows), that is still affordable for everyday people and college students who are on tight budgets that cannot afford to dish out over a thousand dollars for a macbook. It has a great battery life of around 6-7 hours (advertised at around 9-10), enough apps to appease most picky people, and definitely powerful enough to complete the tasks most people would need it to do. You would be crazy not to buy it.