Our ASUS Chromebook Flip review start by affirming that this device is significant on the market for being one of the least heavy OS notebooks sold today. Its flexible and convertible style, strong construction and cost-effective price also set above the rest of the similar devices. A better keyboard will represent a turnoff for a part of the users, but eventually, the advantages over-shadow the disadvantages.
This device, created by a company with an important pedigree in the tech domain, is performing on a few levels. It is one of the very few gadgets with a 360-degree spinning touch screen. The construction is better than that of most competitors, thanks to its all-metal framework. Battery life can go for more time too, at over 10. hours. Finally, it is inexpensive for what it is: only under $250. Yes, there is a trick to it, or even several of them, but all come together very well, so we suggest it anyway.
Hardware
In one aspect, the Flip is rather different from other notebooks and this is its construction. Ignore the point that notebooks do not have a 360-degree hinge like this one, even less touch screens or that this element is still unusual on today’s Chromebooks. This part is also better designed than you would ever believe from an under $250 device. The gadget is all covered with metal, with simple applied outlining on the sides that is making both look awesome and allows covering up streaks. We have also observed that when you take the laptop with one hand (a thing that we do often, because it is a light device) you do not feel any tension in your palm.
We are hardly the first ones to evaluate Chromebooks compared to notebooks, but for now, the evaluation is an apt one: the Flip has a 10” display and has a weight just under 2 lbs, the same dimension as many of the original small notebooks. The laptop’s keyboard is another remembrance of ASUS’ Eee, with little, island-style control buttons, with some of these being not much larger than your fingernail. In overall conditions, it is not as relaxed to type on it, as it is the kind of keyboard you would find on a bigger device. Actually, though, the control keys are nicely spread, considering the surface itself is just 10.6” in width.
No button is too little either and the actual board appears to resist well to strenuous writing. As it happens, you can write much of your work on the device, not to mention surfing the web and responding to many e-mails. As we already think, probably you will never choose a 10” keyboard over a 15” one, but the Flip is at least reasonable. And, if there is a person who can create a small keyboard, users will actually like to use it.
The best example of this strength seems to be the display, which tends to move a bit. You may not observe it very much in daily use, but you can have a big problem with it when you use the gadget on a rough trip, whenever the vehicle goes over bumps, so does the board. Regarding this issue, you rather receive what you pay for in the current situation. The 1,280 x 800 quality is not as great as many separate devices at this dimension (many of them are more costly anyway) and bezels are uncommonly dense for a touch screen. This being said, its colors are precise and although the display fades a little bit when you push it ahead and the IPS board did an excellent job reducing glare when was placed next to open windows in the office. A great feature, especially when you are on the train or you use it under the bright sun.
Still, the device is durable enough that we were assured turning the device into a tablet or in Stand and Tent positions. Chrome OS was mainly developed to be utilized with a keyboard and a mouse – exactly why we have yet to see a good tablet operating the application. You might not have so much use for this as a make shift standing (although the monitor dimensions were about right). You have the choice of placing the laptop keyboard under and viewing blockbusters online with the display in front of you, a particularly useful function in limited spaces like a crowded chair. You could mainly use this in traditional laptop mode and you do not even have to utilize the touch screen so much, because its touch pad is already precise. As an avid user, you will be grateful that its convertible type also happens to be equipped with strong parts, but you will be just as satisfied to have a conventional device without a touch screen show.
Completing our review of the components, the Flip is built with slots, most of them being placed along its right-hand part. These consist of a couple of full-sized USB ports, one micro-HDMI outlet, one microSD slot, an earphone slot and, on the other part, the volume button and power slot. This way, you are sure that any type of media is allowed to be transferred from and to the notebook, without having to negotiate the means of data transportation. Furthermore, the variety of interchangeable devices makes it now easier and faster for data exchange during the device’s prolonged use.
Performances
So far, we see a device with mainly good construction, an average screen and a low cost. ASUS has to draw the line somewhere in order to make all these features and components work properly, and it might seen that line was in the form of efficiency. The Flip operates a quad-core Rockchip, a presumably less expensive choice than an Intel Atom and NVIDIA Tegra processors that work on the majority of the other Chromebooks. Even if the basic $250 design has 2GB of RAM, we suggest you to pay an additional $30 to but a 4GB version, this being the one that works better. Even in that case, it is still less viable than some other Chromebooks (but none of these is really fast). In standards, it follows the same path as devices like the new Chromebook 2 that has a newer Celeron N2840, though the SunSpider ratings are not the most severe we have seen. In daily use, you are very able to handle more than 10 tabs at the same time, but with the deficiency of display quality you often encounter, you not even want to force the device that far.
Its startup is fairly quick: only 9 seconds after your sign in. The single odd factor there is that the majority of that waiting period is actually consumed by a lengthy stop before you can even read the “ASUS” screen appearing. By the time you notice the company’s logo show in front of your eyes, you have almost finished your start-up.
Chrome has turned into a more useful software as an OS, partially thanks to its stable flow of developments to the application itself, and partially due to the fact that more and more solutions are now offered in the Internet browser (think: about Photoshop, Skype and well-known music applications like Spotify). As for the old Chrome, Google has continuously extended the listing of stuff you can work off-line, so that users will not need a web-based access for Google Mail, Drive, Play Music or Films & TV. A lot of third-party web applications, such as Amazon Kindle Reader, are now offline-usable, and there is even an area of the Web Store created aside for applications that do not need a web based access. The Chromebook installation maybe is not for everyone, since there might always be users who need an appropriate PC or Mac to set up applications like iTunes. But individually, we have discovered that you can endure Chrome sessions alone a lot better than you could some years ago, and we are sure that many customers will confirm this fact.
Battery Power
The Flip is ranked for more than 9 hours of battery power, which you can say is a rather traditional calculation. In standard explanation tests, which include looping a complete HD video at a set display lighting, the device ran for almost 11 hours. With a more traditional screen establishing and more sporadic use, it is sure that you can perform even better than that. Even so, its over 10 hours displaying is better than that majority of Chromebooks that have been tested so far, even battery power champs like Acer Chromebook and Google’s newest “Pixel.” Besides these two outliers, there is otherwise an extreme drop-off between Flip and most Chromebooks, with a few designs having difficulties to even break go over 6 hours. Generally, the Flip may be underpowered as opposed to its competitors, but it does really make up for it with excellent stamina.
You will be rater hard-pressed to discover another Chromebook with such a convertible style. For instance, Lenovo created a similar N20p, but it received mixed opinions and is no longer offered on the organization’s site. This results in a couple deserving opponents, but none of these has a 360-degree hinge. A few of these favorites include the bigger Chromebook 13 from Acer, which provides lengthy battery power, a 1080p display and a more comfortable keyboard. You will also enjoy using the 13” Chromebook 2 from Toshiba, which possess a low-glare screen (and a full HD), besides fast WiFi and reasonable audio capabilities. Those designs have more effective Intel and NVIDIA processor chips, respectively, enabling for a little bit of better efficiency than the Flip.
Conclusion
With all these in mind, the Chromebook Flip proves to be a good choice anyway, thanks to a flexible and lightweight style, lengthy battery power and amazingly innovative construction. Even when you hardly ever use the touch screen, those features deserve a closer look when you pass by it. As a caution, its smaller keyboard could represent a turnoff to a part of the more demanding users, but it is still very ergonomic, especially if you use it as an extra computer, maybe a travel gadget to have on the road. That drawback aside, the Chromebook Flip still makes it for a great opportunity even if you go for the costlier $275 design.
The Chromebook Flip is exceeding expectations of what we consider the “standard” Chromebook, with excessive mobility, excellent elements and the option to turn it into pseudo-tablet. At it 10.1” wide and under 2 lbs it is easily the tiniest Chromebook to have been used and that has advantages, but also this makes it challenging to work with in comparison to the “full-sized” laptops. The internal parts offer strong efficiency while also maintaining a long battery life and heat to a lowest despite not being equipped with fans, and its LED backlit show looks excellent while also packaging top multi touch ability.
Whether browsing online or getting into a shop looking for the new Chromebook, it is hard not to be a little tired going through tons cheap nasty notebooks. They all somehow look about the same, execute the same tasks, feel similarly and have mostly similar features. For all except the most critical of Chromebook customers, simply tossing a dart at walls with Chromebook images would probably offer the ideal option should you acquire it. But if you are having enough interest about the subject, you can get one that is above the rest.
ASUS released the Chromebook Flip, expecting it to be one of few superior options, distinguishing itself from the majority with its higher-end components, a new modern convertible shape and an awesome screen. The metal framework is durable and the touch screen display is easy on your eyes and forms into different ways to enrich your Chromebook use. The whole device comes in a lightweight appearance, but maintains complete efficiency, which is a challenging task.
It appears to be as if ASUS has created a successful mixture with its Chromebook Flip, so we will tell you if the buzz is well deserved for this new Chromebook.
