13 Oct
Blog

Surface Laptop Go Review: Surface Meets Chromebook

Microsoft Surface Laptop go review featured image

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go

"Surface Laptop Go is an affordable way to stay productive and enjoy world-class Surface design without breaking the bank."

  • Thin and light

  • Comfortable keyboard and trackpad

  • Good choice of ports

  • Good performance

  • No backlit keyboard

  • The display's pixel density is low

  • No Surface Pen support

Nowadays there is a surface device for everything. You can create and play one, travel with one, or just enjoy daily productivity in a tablet form factor. However, what most Surface devices have in common is that there is often a steep price to buying a device. Microsoft has started fixing this with the Surface Go first. Now there's a device for people who want a traditional clamshell laptop too.

The Surface Laptop Go is a gorgeous 12.4-inch laptop from Microsoft that starts at $ 550 and rivals the best Chromebooks and even some of the best budget Windows laptops.

Conceptually, the newest entry to the Surface family takes all of the lessons Microsoft learned from the larger Surface Laptop 3 into a smaller, cheaper package. It's also specially designed for those looking for a Surface device with a balance between performance and premium design.

Does that mean Microsoft has to make too many cuts? Or does the Surface Laptop Go have everything you need to be your new productivity laptop?

Surface meets Chromebook

The new $ 550 Surface Laptop Go may look like a smaller version of the 13-inch Surface laptop, but once I took it out of the box, it felt very different.

The top lid and keyboard of the Surface Laptop Go glow brightly with a familiar aluminum finish, but the rest of the laptop doesn't. The lower part of the Surface Laptop Go is made of a polycarbonate composite resin made from fiberglass and 30% post-consumer recycled content.

Although Microsoft says this is a durable material that won't scratch, the Surface Laptop Go feels more like an HP Chromebook 14 or a Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 made of plastic here.

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

Still, Microsoft paid attention to the most important parts of the Surface Laptop Go. This includes both the keyboard deck and the screen. There is no bend when typing, and when I tried to bend the screen it didn't bend either. Each of them is made of aluminum.

I think Microsoft was smart at keeping the top half out of aluminum. Surface fans would have been annoyed if Microsoft released an all-plastic Surface laptop.

Microsoft had to make changes to the Surface Laptop Go design to match the price. One of them is the choice of case material.

The partially plastic construction has an advantage. The Surface Laptop Go is a featherweight at 2.45 pounds and just 0.62 inches thick. I can hold the laptop over my desk between two fingers and let it dangle almost like a sheet of paper. I can also open the lid with one hand. Its weight is under the 2.84 pounds of the standard Surface 3 laptop and close to the 2.3 pounds of the Pixelbook Go.

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

The Surface Laptop Go has what some other premium laptops these days lack in a USB-A port. Just like the larger 13-inch sibling, the main ports are on the left side of the device. In addition to USB-A, there is a USB-C port, which is not Thunderbolt compatible for security reasons. There is also a headphone jack.

Elsewhere on the right is the proprietary Surface Connect. It is only for charging and does not contain any data. According to Microsoft, you can charge the device to 80% in just an hour using the included charger, but the device is also charged via USB-C. A great thing to boot up with power banks on the go.

Those who care about speed should be pleased that the Surface Laptop Go has the latest in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. The mix includes Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, giving this affordable laptop the latest in wireless technology.

Type in a storm, but don't type in a storm

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

The Surface Laptop Go has a full-size keyboard similar to the Surface Laptop 3. We already found it comfortable when we reviewed the original and our minds haven't changed. This is thanks to the keycaps with soft touch and the 1.3 mm key travel. Simply put, the typing is accurate – as long as you're in the light.

The Surface Laptop Go has no keyboard backlight. That's not too unusual for the $ 550 price tag. Similar budget Windows laptops like the Acer Spire 5 don't have backlights, but a $ 650 Chromebook like the Pixelbook Go does.

Still, I wish Microsoft hadn't turned off the lights. This is a very useful feature for students who have to deal with nightly study sessions.

If you can see it, the keyboard should hold your typing correctly. I hit 73 words per minute in Bing's writing test. That's the same thing I get when I type on my go-to device, which is a 15-inch Surface Laptop 3.

Microsoft also has a fingerprint reader on the power button. However, you can only find it on select models. It is not included in the base model but is offered on our midrange devices and top tier models. I would recommend it as it makes logging in to the laptop very quick. Windows Hello facial recognition login is not supported.

Unlike the Surface Laptop 3, the trackpad is not made of glass. It's Mylar, supports Microsoft's five-finger multitouch gestures, and is a nice size of 115mm x 76.66mm. Usually laptop manufacturers shrink the touchpad when they shrink the screen size, but Microsoft knows better. The laptop Go's trackpad is buttery soft and has a nice slippery surface. Scrolling through web pages was pretty fun.

The input is accurate and the trackpad is fluid.

I would also like to mention the speakers and microphones. Just like the Surface Laptop 3, the Laptop Go has Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Audio. There are even two far-field microphones that sit on top of the screens.

The speakers are still in the device on the keyboard deck, but they are very loud. I enjoyed jamming to Clean Bandi & # 39; s Rather Be. Even when the volume was set to 70%, the lyrics were clear and a distinct bass was heard in the introductory sequence with the violins.

With the microphones and 720p webcam, my colleagues were happy with my voice and video quality when I used the Surface Laptop Go during a team video call. This is especially important in our current environment where we spend more time sticking to our displays in web conferencing.

Not enough pixels

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

Speaking of displays, if you're looking for a budget laptop these days, you will likely see all kinds of display options. The most common is a 1080p or 1920 x 1080 resolution, but that's not what you'll find on the Surface Laptop Go.

While the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 has an impressive display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 (201 PPI), the Surface Laptop Go is the opposite. Instead, Microsoft opts for a 12.4-inch display with a resolution of 1536 x 1024 (148 PPI). This control panel has 10-point multi-touch support, but no Surface Pen support. It even has Microsoft's 3: 2 aspect ratio.

But don't let that fool you. You can find the 1080p panel on a competing $ 550 or $ 650 laptop like the Pixelbook Go, as well as an Asus Vivobook 15, but not the Laptop Go. Even Microsoft's Surface Go 2 has a higher definition 1080p display and is also quite cheap if you don't consider the keyboard cover.

While the 3: 2 aspect ratio offers more vertical space for scrolling and a touchscreen is appreciated for this low price, the bottom of the Surface Laptop Go is flanked by ugly frames. Microsoft downsized the side bezels on the Surface Laptop Go to 7mm (and bent the screen edges for the first time), but this isn't exactly an XPS 13.

While the 13-inch Surface laptop has a pixel-punching display, the Surface Laptop Go is exactly the opposite.

However, this is not all a loss to Microsoft. Microsoft intends to use this laptop for productivity and I was able to do so despite the low resolution panel. I stacked two Edge windows side by side and enjoyed my usual workflow like on my 15-inch Surface Laptop 3, but with limited screen space. This is the advantage of the unusual aspect ratio of 3: 2.

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

The panel itself is just as good as the Surface Laptop 3. According to our colorimeter, it achieves a brightness of around 383 nits and an average color error of only 2.3. This roughly corresponds to the laptop 3 (372 nits, 2.4 color errors). However, we can't directly compare this to a Chromebook because our colorimeter doesn't work on ChromeOS. However, Microsoft does not visually sacrifice display or image quality.

The pixels may not be there, but the display quality is. I've seen episodes of Netflix's Designated Survivor and scenes with the exterior and rose garden of the White House were alive and well as expected in real life. And when I looked at the cosmos of National Geographic, I was sunk pretty deep into space thanks to the impressive contrast levels of the display.

Ice Lake is good for the price, just not for playing

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

Like the Surface Laptop 3, Ice Lake is back on the Surface Laptop Go this year. While they're not the latest Tiger Lake chips from Intel, they do make a performance difference.

Our device was configured with the Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor, 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB NVMe SSD. This is the midrange model, but the cheaper $ 550 version has the same processor but 4GB of RAM and slower eMMC storage. This slower storage can prove to be a more serious disadvantage if you choose the entry-level model.

You probably won't experience the faster read and write speeds of the SSD on our device. We achieved a read speed of 590 and a write speed of 674. It is about standard for a surface. The Surface Laptop 2 saw similar speeds on the 950 and 617.

Regardless of which model you choose, there is only one processor choice, namely the Intel Core i5-1035G1. It is a quad-core processor running at 1.00 GHz. This processor is great for multitasking and general productivity. It can be found on a similar budget or business laptop like the Acer Swift 3 or the Dell Inspiron 14.5000.

There is no doubt that this chipset is great for both internet surfing and everyday tasks. You can tell by the single-core and multi-core Geekbench 4 scores of 1,176 and 3,459. These results are below most laptops, but are certainly more than adequate for everyday use.

I didn't have any issues with multiple Microsoft Edge tabs. Over 10 tabs didn't slow down the Surface Laptop Go. Multiple instances of YouTube weren't opened either. Given most budget Chromebooks as the Pixelbook Go comes with outdated dual-core Core i3 or Core m3 processors, this is very much appreciated. It almost feels like a ThinkPad-class performance. Even the entry-level version of Apple's MacBook Air has a slower dual-core processor, and that's over $ 1,000.

The Surface Laptop Go is a further development of the Surface Go 2 with slower Intel Pentium Gold or Core m3 processors. This time around, Microsoft got the right performance for its budget PC, although it would have been nice if Microsoft had tried AMD's Ryzen 5 chips. This was previously the case in the larger 15-inch versions of the Surface Laptop 3. These new processors are found in laptops like the Asus Vivobook 15.

Note, however, that the Surface Laptop Go is not suitable for gaming as it has Intel HD graphics and not the newer Iris Plus that you might find on a premium laptop.

Only 1,508 points were achieved in the 3DMark Fire Strike test. That is far behind the 3,947 of the Asus Zenbook Flip S, which has the new Iris Xe graphics from Intel. Fortnite was basically not playable on the Laptop Go, with frames around 15 at low settings. You have to stick to simple 2D games and very old 3D titles.

Battery life that lasts all day

Battery life is crucial as you don't want to be plugged into an electrical outlet all day. Microsoft claims that their Surface Laptop Go has what it takes, as it can last up to 13 hours on a single charge – but is that true?

The answer is yes. While this manufacturer's information is usually doubtful, the Surface Laptop Go gets great battery life. With a screen around 60% brightness, the Surface Laptop Go lasted around 585 minutes in our iMacro web browser test in Microsoft Edge, which runs a continuous loop of web pages.

That is better than the Dell Inspiron 14 (282 minutes) and the Acer Aspire 5 (258 minutes). It even outperforms the MacBook Air (576 minutes). The 783 minutes set by the Pixelbook Go are still a long way off.

When we streamed a loop of video, the Laptop Go pulled out and lasted well over 11 hours and 3 minutes. That's almost the same level as the Pixelbook Go's 13 hours.

All in all, don't worry. The battery in the Surface Laptop Go is indeed designed to last.

Our opinion

Starting at $ 550, the Surface Laptop Go is a great Surface version of the Chromebook. However, there are many price cuts on a Surface device, including screen resolution and the lack of a keyboard backlight. Under the hood, the Surface Laptop Go with its 10th generation Intel Core i5 quad-core processor offers a lot of value and performance. This type of processor is rarely found in a budget laptop, even when paired with entry-level models with only 4GB of RAM and slower eMMC storage. There is a difference that you will feel as you try to get your job done.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, there are many alternatives. If you are a student on a budget, consider buying the Pixelbook Go. If Windows is a must, there is the bulkier and more powerful Asus Vivobook 15, Acer Swift 3 or even the Dell Inspiron 14.5000. If a budget Surface is a must, the Surface Go 2 might also be a better choice because of its higher resolution display and support for Surface Pen.

How long it will take?

The Surface Laptop Go lasts a while. The internals meet specifications and the design and build quality are robust. You get a 60-day right of return via the Microsoft Store, a one-year hardware guarantee and 90 days of technical support.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Surface Laptop Go makes sacrifices to get a low price, but its 3: 2 aspect ratio, solid processor, and good battery life make it stand out from the crowd.

Editor's recommendations




29 Jun
Blog

Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 Review: What $410 Can Buy You

Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 review 14

"The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is the best Chromebook you can buy for under $ 500."

  • Responsive keyboard

  • Impressive performance

  • Great value for money

  • Under three pounds

  • Bad touchpad

  • Mediocre display

Chromebooks are getting more expensive every year. They also grow in quality. Display, performance and design improve. They're far from yesterday's cheap Chromebooks.

The Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook tries to be the best of both worlds. At $ 410, it captures the original spirit of highly affordable laptops, yet offers an Intel Core processor, a 1080p screen, and a solid appearance.

Lenovo has struck the balance carefully, but not without a few hiccups on the way.

design

I'm not looking for anything special in a laptop under $ 500. I want modern. I want thin and light. I want a solid build quality. And bonus points if it doesn't look gaudy or plastic.

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 performs better than most Chromebooks at this price. The color "graphite gray" is initially subtle. Although each surface is made of plastic, it feels firm and well built. The hinge is firm and resists shaking, even when you tap and swipe on the touchscreen.

I have a few minor complaints. The bezels are large – especially the chin. The 360 ​​degree hinge provides additional space under the screen. It is hard to miss on such a small laptop. Premium chromebooks like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook or the Asus Chromebook Flip C436 have the thin frames we see on Windows laptops, but they're about twice as expensive. It's a problem that the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 solves by using a slightly larger 16:10 aspect ratio.

Despite the frames, the Chromebook Flex 5 comes in a portable package. It's less than 3 pounds and 0.7 inches thick, and just a bit bigger than a MacBook Air. Options like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook or Google Pixelbook Go are much smaller – but price tags aren't.

Most Chromebooks under $ 500 are bulky 15-inch laptops, which is a shame. The Chromebook Flex 5 fills this gap.

The Chromebook Flex 5 offers a standard selection of ports, at least for a modern Chromebook. On the right side there is a USB-C 3.1, a USB-A 3.1, a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. The other side contains another USB-C port and a Kensington lock. Unfortunately, only the right side can be used to charge the device.

As it is a 2-in-1 device, the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 has a volume rocker and a power switch in addition to the connections. The volume rocker is mushy and difficult to distinguish, which is a little frustrating. You'll use the volume control on the keyboard a lot more often, but that's no excuse for lousy keys.

Display and speakers

The Flex 5 Chromebook doesn't have the best display in the world. It is a 13.3-inch IPS LED display with a standard resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. It has a slight shade of green, which makes pale skin tones look sick.

It only brightens up to 250 nits. This is bright enough for home use, but if you stand under strong office light or sit next to a window, the glossy screen can cause strong reflections. A matte screen may have made the screen look cheap, but avoided this problem.

I've seen a lot worse on Chromebooks, but options like the Google Pixelbook Go or the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook do much better. The software on my colorimeter doesn't work in Chrome OS to measure color accuracy, but the Flex 5 Chromebook is probably not accurate enough for creative people. For what a Chromebook is made for $ 410, the screen does the trick.

The Flex 5 Chromebook has a set of upward-facing speakers that flank the keyboard on both sides. The placement is good, but they are as thin as laptop speakers. The Pixelbook Go is far superior in this category.

Keyboard and touchpad

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 offers a pleasant typing experience. This is the typical Chrome OS layout outside of the oddly shortened left and right arrow keys. But the keycaps are big, the journey is long and the keystrokes respond. Lenovo has even installed a backlight with five brightness levels. I felt at home.

The touchpad is a different story. It's big enough, but of below average quality. The plastic, structured surface leads to skipping and sloppy tracking. Inexpensive touchpads like this slow down my workflow and make detailed tasks such as text selection difficult. The click mechanism is also quite stiff and loud. As my daily driver, the touchpad was the only hurdle to usability that I kept tripping over. I'm not shocked by the price, but I was hoping to be surprised. The switch back to a Google Pixelbook Go felt heavenly in comparison.

The Flex 5 Chromebook has a 720p on-screen webcam that can be serviced for occasional zoom calls.

performance

Many cheap Chromebooks use slow MediaTek or Intel Celeron processors. Not the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5. It offers an Intel Core i3-10110U processor of the latest generation of Intel chips. This is a full 15-watt processor, while many other Chromebooks use an 8-watt processor. More performance means more potential performance, and the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 offers.

Other Chromebooks that use this 10th generation Core i3 are usually much more expensive, such as the Asus Chromebook Flip C436 for $ 800. The Flex 5 corresponds to this processor in multi-core scores in Geekbench 5 and is 18% faster than the Google Pixelbook Go.

The two cores and four threads it offers may not sound impressive, and 4 GB of RAM may not. But it feels quick. Chrome OS works on this hardware regardless of how many tabs you have open. This can best be measured in a test like the Tachometer 2.0, which measures JavaScript performance. In web applications, the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is as fast as a quad-core Core i5 Windows 10 laptop. This is important because it is almost exclusively what you use this Chromebook for.

You can of course run Android apps on the Flex 5. 3D games like the mobile racing driver Asphalt 9 Legends were played smoothly. However, the integrated graphics cannot even start a match from PUBG Mobile. As strange as it may sound, your phone will perform better. Many of these Android apps are still not well optimized for the 16: 9 aspect ratio and a cursor. However, this is a problem with Android app emulation in Chrome OS in general, not the fault of the Flex 5.

A processor with higher performance has one disadvantage. Heat. The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is not a fanless device like the Pixelbook Go. Open a few YouTube videos, Slack, Spotify, and about a dozen websites – that's enough to hear the fans spinning and the keyboard warming up. I never had the feeling that the fans were turning prematurely or too often.

The laptop also has 64 GB of eMMC storage. It's not a ton of capacity – and not as fast as a solid-state drive. Unfortunately, both have become the standard for Chromebooks. As long as you do most of the things in the cloud, 64 GB shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Battery life

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 offers decent battery life. It has always been a Chromebook strength and budget laptop deficit. These two properties meet in the Flex 5, a laptop has a better battery life than most at this price.

On average, it took me about six to seven hours of my daily workload. Not quite enough to get through a full day's work, but close.

It's not a Pixelbook Go – or even the current Lenovo Yoga C640 – but it should take you most of a working day. In our browsing test, I zeroed the battery through a selection of websites. The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 lasted almost eight hours. Playing videos took a few hours longer, and I looped a video clip until it died.

Our opinion

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is one of the cheaper Chromebooks you can buy. It is characterized by excellent performance, excellent battery life and solid build quality. The touchpad is not great, and neither is the screen. It's not a no-compromise laptop, but this $ 410 Chromebook is still one of the best laptops you can buy under $ 500.

Are there alternatives?

The 14-inch Asus Chromebook C425 is worth considering. It doesn't have such a powerful processor, but it looks impressive and only costs $ 443. The Google Pixelbook Go costs a little more, but it remains my choice for the best Chromebook you can buy.

If you're looking for a Windows laptop with a similar price tag, the Acer Swift 3 is a good choice. The $ 399 model is equipped with an 8th generation Intel Core i3 processor, 4 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD.

How long it will take?

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 should last four or five years. Google extends software updates to older Chromebooks for many years. The warranty is a one-year limited warranty.

Should you buy it

Yes. If you are looking for a laptop under $ 500, the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is one of the best you can buy.

Editor's recommendations




06 Apr
Blog

Asus Chromebook Flip C436 Review: Chromebooks Have Grown Up

Asus Chromebook Flip

Asus Chromebook Flip C436

"The Asus Flip C436 is a newer, faster, and more expensive generation of Chromebooks."

  • Solid build quality

  • Excellent performance

  • Fast SSD storage

  • The battery life is mediocre

  • Too expensive

Chromebooks were once cheap laptops and nothing else.

Now the next generation of Chromebooks has arrived and they are targeting medium-sized Windows laptops. The $ 800 Asus Chromebook Flip C436 is the first in this new class and doesn't mess around.

Think about it before you spend $ 800 on a Chromebook. A Core i3-1011U CPU, 8 GB RAM, a 128 GB PCIe solid state drive (SSD) and a 1080p screen. It's such a healthy spec list as on a Chromebook. Is Flip C436 the best Chromebook you can buy?

Design and build quality

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Many early Chromebooks were budget options with the right build quality. This has changed over the years as more and more premium Chromebooks match the best available on other platforms. The Chromebook Flip C436 is such a laptop with an aluminum case that feels great in the hand. No bending, bending or twisting here. It's as solid as any Windows 10 laptop, some cost hundreds of dollars more.

In contrast to the previous Chromebook clip C434, the hinge of the C436 can be easily opened with one hand. However, it is not shaky. The display does not wobble in clamshell, presentation, tent or tablet mode.

It is also relatively modern in its aesthetics. The bezel is relatively small except for the large chin at the bottom of the display and has a screen-to-body ratio of 85%. This doesn't match Asus' ZenBook line, which reaches up to 97%, but is much better than the Google Pixelbook Go and many other Chromebooks that are slow to follow the trend.

The silver color is conservative but attractive, with the exception of the chrome hinges and the Asus logo on the lid. If you want more panache, Asus also sells an "Airgel White" option with a rainbow effect on the lid.

If you covered the Chrome label, you'd never know it was a Chromebook. This also applies to other newer Chromebooks. This shows that Chrome OS laptops have grown up – they look just as good and are well built like all but the highest quality Windows 10 laptops and MacBooks.

The Chromebook Flip C436 is light at around 2.5 pounds and thanks to the small bezel fits back into a rather small case for a 14-inch laptop, which is also thin at 0.54 inches. The Google Pixelbook Go is smaller, a little lighter and a bit thinner at 0.5 inches, but the difference is not profound.

Keyboard and port selection

Connectivity is an area where Chromebooks have been limited in the past. For the first time, Chromebooks offer the latest standards like Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. This contributes significantly to the fact that the Flip C436 is a legitimate Windows replacement.

Things are still somewhat limited in terms of ports. USB-C 3.1 has become universal in laptops, and the Flip C436 has two. However, Chrome OS still doesn't support faster and more powerful technologies like Thunderbolt 3. At $ 800, Thunderbolt 3 shows up on Windows laptops.

There are no USB-A or HDMI ports. This means you only rely on dongles and connectivity is limited to only the two ports unless you use a USB hub. However, the Flip C436 has a microSD card reader and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The keyboard uses a standard Chromebook layout, but the typing experience itself is outstanding. The Flip C436 has oversized keycaps and 1.2mm travel, a snappy feel, and a smooth ground movement that makes typing comfortable.

Next, the large format touchpad responds and supports the full range of Chrome OS multi-touch gestures. It's glass where the previous version was made of plastic, which gives it a smoother feel. There's also a touch display that allows you to scroll long websites with your thumb and tap pop-up buttons.

Finally, I didn't get a chance to check the active stylus available for the Chromebook Flip C436 – an add-on option that wasn't available on my review sample. However, the availability of an active pen is essential for 2-in-1 devices, and it's great that Asus at least offers it as an option.

display

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Display quality is another key performance factor, and the Chromebook Flip C436 meets these requirements. I was unable to use my colorimeter to test the display because Chrome OS is not supported. However, I found it bright enough for indoor use. It will fight under direct sunlight, but also most screens that reach a maximum of 300 nits.

The contrast also seemed to be sufficient, with black text and a white background that made my typing a breeze. It's a full HD display that's just sharp enough on the 14-inch panel, but not as good as some other newer Chromebooks. For example, the display on the Google Pixelbook Go is much nicer.

The advantage of the Flip C436 is of course a 2-in-1. It's a pleasure to put it in media mode and watch Netflix. The speakers won't blow your mind, but they're loud enough for a medium-sized room and won't distort at full volume. The bass is of course almost completely missing, as is the case with many laptops.

performance

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Chrome OS is a very efficient operating system and doesn't burden processors nearly like Windows 10 and MacOS. Only a very anemic CPU with low power consumption like an older Intel Celeron can slow it down.

The Chromebook Flip C436 doesn't have that. The 10th generation dual-core core i3-10110U would not be the fastest for Windows or Mac, but it offers sufficient performance for Chromebooks. If you use 8 GB RAM and a 128 GB PCIe SSD – no slower eMMC storage here – you have a Chromebook that can keep up theoretically at least.

You can even add a quad-core processor to the mix for an additional $ 200.

The Chromebook Flip C436 definitely keeps up with everything you want to throw at it. I opened a bunch of tabs in Google Chrome and couldn't slow them down no matter how many apps I loaded in the background. I'm sure I could have found a combination that would have raised some concerns, but to put it simply, you won't just tax the system.

It's the fastest Chromebook we've seen with 97 in the Tachometer 2.0 benchmark. And imagine: For an additional $ 200, you can get a quad-core i5-10210U and configure up to 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Yes, this very fast Chromebook can be even faster if you want to throw a little more money on it.

However, this investment may not be worth it unless you need tons of storage. You would have to open a lot of apps and tabs to exceed 8 GB of RAM, and a quad-core i5 is likely to be an overkill for everyone except programmers and developers.

Speaking of which, you can run modern Android games on the Chromebook Flip C436. The Intel UHD graphics can keep up, and the ones I tried – like Asphalt 9 – were fluid and entertaining. Switch to tablet mode and use the touch display. Even though it's a little hard, you can play games like on an Android tablet.

Battery life

Battery life is the biggest disadvantage of this Chromebook. The Flip C436 only has 42 watt hours of battery life – compared to 48 watt hours in the C434. In addition, it runs very fast and therefore burns the battery at an unfortunate speed.

Chromebooks usually have excellent battery life, but the Asus falls behind. In our demanding Basemark web benchmark test, in which other Chromebooks achieved double or more, it was only an hour and 44 minutes. For example, the Google Pixelbook Go ran for more than four hours.

The processor was connected at full speed during our battery tests, with the fans running constantly.

In our web browser test, the Chromebook Flip C436 again fell behind the package with 7 hours and 19 minutes. The Pixelbook Go ran approximately 13.5 hours and the Chromebook Flip C434 over 11.5 hours.

The reason for the mediocre battery life seems to be that the Core i3 was attached at full speed during our tests and the fans ran fairly consistently. I would add that hearing fans when using a Chromebook is a little strange – most of them are fanless, which is simply not possible with this processor caliber.

Our opinion

The Chromebook Flip C436 isn't cheap at $ 800, and it shouldn't be either. There are many cheap Chromebooks out there, but only a few offer this level of performance and build quality. However, the battery life keeps the Flip C436 from its true size. It's a traditional strength of Chromebooks, but it can't keep up with the competition here.

Is there a better alternative?

It has some advantages over the Pixelbook Go, but the $ 150 price difference between the base models is difficult to justify. They give up the 2-in-1 flexibility, but get a better display, a more attractive design and an excellent battery life.

Another competitor is the Acer Chromebook 13. They don't get the same build quality, but they do have a 13.5-inch screen with a higher resolution at 2,256 x 1,504. They spend $ 700 on a dual-core processor, but the storage space drops to just 32 GB.

If Windows 10 is more of your bag, consider the $ 850 Asus ZenBook 13 UX333 with an 8th generation Core i5 and better display. And Asus' build quality is there too, along with even smaller bezels and a nifty LCD numeric keypad built into the touchpad.

How long it will take?

The Chromebook Flip C436 is solidly built and seems to last forever. Its components should keep pace with years of Chrome OS updates. The one-year warranty is also disappointing, but Asus offers its usual protection against accidental coverage for 12 months.

Should you buy it

Yes. The Chromebook Flip C436 is fast, well built, and deserves its premium price.

Editor's recommendations




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