ASUS Chromebook C425 Clamshell Laptop

So, I knew about the daylight issue with the keyboard when I bought it, so you have to get the lighting right outside. Not a good choice if you love to work outside. The camera sucks, so not great for zoom or webex, which we all do all the time. But otherwise, I prefer this to Macs and windows computers. I use it to log into citrix for work and google for personal. It has a micro chip reader on the side and when my last chromebook failed I just slid the card into this one, logged into google and had all my apps, chrome extensions, cloud files and local files available instantly. I have dropped this thing many times, the battery lasts forever and charges fast. I travel with it loose in my suitcase every week. One power input has failed from landing on it hard, but it has 2, so no problem. Speaker sound is very good. The screen area is huge at this weight and size. Having both a touch screen and keyboard is great. As a tablet, you can play phone games on a huge screen. It can handle infinite windows, but you need to reboot every 4 days or so, because the sound gets confused from so many sources. High powered apps might crash while you are in other apps, but I think these are just software issues with too much memory and things getting literally hot. I don’t believe in using a computer for music production, so I bought an old Korg D1200 for that, in fact I got 2. Music hardware with tons of features and headroom with no crashing.At this price point you really need to be a chromebook person who does not need a gamer’s or artist’s laptop. So you are splurging for the best of its kind. With what you save, you can buy a dedicated music studio, new or second hand and a gaming console. I would buy another one as a back-up, but I don’t love the expiration date issue, so I’m holding off until this one fails. I just bought some $31 400g micro cards for double back-up of my local and cloud files, so memory is dirt cheap. Power cables are cheap on amazon so get some back-ups. I use it in 4 locations so I have 6 power cables, in case 1 fails and so i just move it without the cable. I also have a phone bank with “PD power” that can run the chromebook, so infinite battery life that way. Screen is sharp, but apple is a bit better.I give it 4 stars for the money. Reboot is very fast and not needed but every 4 days and I use it all the time for everything. My last ASUS only failed two days after i dropped a whole glass of water on it, and even then, it lasted long enough for me to get all my files on the microchip.Bottom line is that cloud software plus google apps is good enough for my needs and I prefer different hardware for gaming and music production. I don’t feel like troubleshooting hardware and software unless I’m getting paid for it. I like solutions out of the box. This thing is reliable and fast and has clocked a lot of hours. I don’t know why it costs so much more, but I love the results.

I use this laptop for personal use. It’s got great specs. The keyboard is a little strange because it’s a green laptop. It does not have touch screen capability.

I use this laptop for personal use. It’s got great specs. The keyboard is a little strange because it’s a green laptop. It does not have touch screen capability.

I was looking for a cover/case for my work computer, I have the Ausu Google Flip model C433T, I wasn’t finding many cases on Amazon that listed this exact computer model but this one fits it perfectly, feels snug, and it also helps with opening the computer…to me this laptop has been somewhat difficult to open up and this case gives it a little lip around the edge therefore helping in opening. I chose the color black, the magnets seem to be strong, stays closed, overall I’m happy with the purchase and would recommend this case for anyone with the Google flip C433T model laptop.

It does not get better than this! My wife couldn’t be happier.Solid Chromebook!

So, my family has been using an Acer aspire for 13 years now. My sister poured a glass of milk and tea on it. Never broken down, still working like the first day.I think battery is a wide issue for acer pcs, but other than that everything is amazing.Now I have this acer for a few days and it is just as I expected.The only thing is amazon dropped its price by 17% 2 days after I bought it. Gimme my money back guys, seriously.

So, my family has been using an Acer aspire for 13 years now. My sister poured a glass of milk and tea on it. Never broken down, still working like the first day.I think battery is a wide issue for acer pcs, but other than that everything is amazing.Now I have this acer for a few days and it is just as I expected.The only thing is amazon dropped its price by 17% 2 days after I bought it. Gimme my money back guys, seriously.

Easy keys and screen use for simple purposes email checking balances etc

Easy keys and screen use for simple purposes email checking balances etc

I bought this for my 7th grader, who can be very rough with her things, and this has been perfect. The battery life is about 2 days, cause she will forge to put it on the charger. It was very easy to set up, and it is super durable, she will literally thow it in her back pack and run out the door. The price was not too bad either. If you have an easily distracted, accident prone child this computer is for them.

I love Chromebooks. This one has been performing well for the past six months. The keyboard is a little louder than I would prefer, but is very easy to use. The silver plating on the keyboard and surrounding areas is peeling off, which is very disappointing. The screen doesn’t get as bright as I would like. I am enjoying the dark mode that is automatic on the browser and some apps as it ties to sunrise and sunset. The weight is acceptable. A little heavier than my last one. The look and feel isn’t as clean or sharp, but the function is good.

I bought this product to replace an older Chromebook. It has a beautiful display, easy keyboard to type with, and the mouse works smoothly. It does what I need it to do without being splashy about it.

I bought this product to replace an older Chromebook. It has a beautiful display, easy keyboard to type with, and the mouse works smoothly. It does what I need it to do without being splashy about it.

I’ve only had this laptop for 4 days and besides the E and 5 button not working at all anymore, the laptop will continue to turn off and show a “chrome is missing or damaged error” unless i hold down any button on the keyboard. I paid for a new laptop (not refurbished from my knowledge), and I have not spilled or dropped it… which leaves me to believe that it’s an issue with the keyboard itself.

I’ve only had this laptop for 4 days and besides the E and 5 button not working at all anymore, the laptop will continue to turn off and show a “chrome is missing or damaged error” unless i hold down any button on the keyboard. I paid for a new laptop (not refurbished from my knowledge), and I have not spilled or dropped it… which leaves me to believe that it’s an issue with the keyboard itself.

How do use the product for editing videos. The speed is just what I needed and memory

My daughter needed a laptop for college and this was perfect! She likes the touchscreen part.

I’ve never had a Chromebook so I was a little surprised at the reduced features like no Delete or Caps Lock keys. This is a small sacrifice for the amount of money I saved compared to the Mac I originally intended to buy.It may be me, but the track pad seems a little “loose”, like there is some play in it when I tap on it; again, compared to my old Mac.It’s only been a couple of weeks but so far I definitely recommend this Chromebook. I debated giving it a “5” and probably would have if I had any prior Chromebook experience at all.

My daughter needed a laptop for college and this was perfect! She likes the touchscreen part.

I’ve never had a Chromebook so I was a little surprised at the reduced features like no Delete or Caps Lock keys. This is a small sacrifice for the amount of money I saved compared to the Mac I originally intended to buy.It may be me, but the track pad seems a little “loose”, like there is some play in it when I tap on it; again, compared to my old Mac.It’s only been a couple of weeks but so far I definitely recommend this Chromebook. I debated giving it a “5” and probably would have if I had any prior Chromebook experience at all.

I gave this laptop 4 stars because there are indeed a few things that I find lacking. But overall, it’s an excellent buy for the money. It was the best deal that I found at the time that had the major components I was looking for, which are, the most current i7 processor, adequate RAM, and solid state hard drive. The slight drawbacks are, the battery life. It doesn’t last nearly as long as I would like it to when unplugged. Secondly the screen resolution, while not bad, is not as good as the portable monitors that I own that are of the same resolution and type. Lastly, one of the major exhaust vents is located just below the monitor on top of the keyboard. When it’s on, you, and everyone around you can hear it. Quite honestly, it’s annoying, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. Overall, this laptop is definitely a good buy for the money. I don’t really care about all the environmentally friendly stuff. I honestly think that’s more gimmick than it is anything else.

I gave this laptop 4 stars because there are indeed a few things that I find lacking. But overall, it’s an excellent buy for the money. It was the best deal that I found at the time that had the major components I was looking for, which are, the most current i7 processor, adequate RAM, and solid state hard drive. The slight drawbacks are, the battery life. It doesn’t last nearly as long as I would like it to when unplugged. Secondly the screen resolution, while not bad, is not as good as the portable monitors that I own that are of the same resolution and type. Lastly, one of the major exhaust vents is located just below the monitor on top of the keyboard. When it’s on, you, and everyone around you can hear it. Quite honestly, it’s annoying, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. Overall, this laptop is definitely a good buy for the money. I don’t really care about all the environmentally friendly stuff. I honestly think that’s more gimmick than it is anything else.

It’s really goodAnd for games

It’s really goodAnd for games

This is a nice laptop, but for some reason it seems to have little hickups that causes delays opening certain programs. Not sure if a software or hardware issue, but it is mildly annoying considering how expensive it was.

I love my new laptop, but the colors displayed on screen are just ok…not very vibrant, average for my own use, and can be fixed a bit tilting the screen at a better angle. I was online shopping and some of the clothing looked very light and images were not very saturated…I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone using this laptop for design etc. Good for basic home use, work use, student use. Beautiful background themes to choose from, excellent Google product use, and I easily installed a wireless bluetooth mouse. The screen is nice and large, especially at this price point of around $200. I bought this on Prime Day and I’m happy with my purchase. I can run Google with many tabs open without any problem. I do wish the speakers were a bit better. I listen to music on my phone or Alexa instead because the speakers are small and located in an odd place….right on the front outer rim of the laptop on either side of where it opens. I used it to watch a movie on my bed and had the volume at max and still had a little trouble hearing everything. The bedding also sometimes blocked the speakers because of their location. Basic volume on regular Zoom meetings, YouTube etc. would be fine. I recommend this laptop for normal basic use…it works fast, beautifully designed and has lots of ports which is very convenient. Another thing I wanted to mention is that it wouldn’t turn on at first even after charging for hours. I had googled many troubleshooting ideas and nothing seemed to work. Finally after cursing it and almost giving up, it magically made a “bling” sound and came on. Make sure to charge it from a wall outlet; not an extension cord or power strip. I think it was still in shipping mode, so I had to google what keys to hold down to make it boot up for the first time. There are just those few things, otherwise I love the laptop for my needs, and would recommend Asus products. Touchpad is very quick and responsive. It is not a touch screen monitor…I’m thinking people are confusing touch screen with touch pad. Keyboard is comfortable and battery has been long-running.

I love my new laptop, but the colors displayed on screen are just ok…not very vibrant, average for my own use, and can be fixed a bit tilting the screen at a better angle. I was online shopping and some of the clothing looked very light and images were not very saturated…I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone using this laptop for design etc. Good for basic home use, work use, student use. Beautiful background themes to choose from, excellent Google product use, and I easily installed a wireless bluetooth mouse. The screen is nice and large, especially at this price point of around $200. I bought this on Prime Day and I’m happy with my purchase. I can run Google with many tabs open without any problem. I do wish the speakers were a bit better. I listen to music on my phone or Alexa instead because the speakers are small and located in an odd place….right on the front outer rim of the laptop on either side of where it opens. I used it to watch a movie on my bed and had the volume at max and still had a little trouble hearing everything. The bedding also sometimes blocked the speakers because of their location. Basic volume on regular Zoom meetings, YouTube etc. would be fine. I recommend this laptop for normal basic use…it works fast, beautifully designed and has lots of ports which is very convenient. Another thing I wanted to mention is that it wouldn’t turn on at first even after charging for hours. I had googled many troubleshooting ideas and nothing seemed to work. Finally after cursing it and almost giving up, it magically made a “bling” sound and came on. Make sure to charge it from a wall outlet; not an extension cord or power strip. I think it was still in shipping mode, so I had to google what keys to hold down to make it boot up for the first time. There are just those few things, otherwise I love the laptop for my needs, and would recommend Asus products. Touchpad is very quick and responsive. It is not a touch screen monitor…I’m thinking people are confusing touch screen with touch pad. Keyboard is comfortable and battery has been long-running.

Amazing craftsmanship put into this laptop, but plagued by the quirks of intel 12th Gen. It will be condemned to poor battery life of around 4 hours until Intel updates their own drivers and firmware to fix the issue. Nothing wrong with laptop and ASUS chose quality components. You have to accept it’s a bit overpriced because of the niche market that would appreciate this laptop for a celebration of their history and space flight.

The 2nd screen is the most important feature of this laptop. It’s great for productivity and can be really helpful. As a translator, it helped me open more documents and webpages at the same time and work more efficiently.However, the 2nd screen is dim. If you’re in a bright room or outside, it can be barely visible. Sometimes, I need to adjust the lighting in the room so that I can properly view the screen. It’s a shame because many sacrifices have been taken to make room for the 2nd screen such as a bit crowded keyboard and small, unusually placed touchpad.Overall, it’s not a bad purchase. But you must be someone who really needs a second screen in their laptop.

I’ve been a Chromebook user for 7 years. My old one hit its end of life, so I ordered this model a couple of months ago and have been using it daily.Highlights:- Excellent battery life. The best battery life I’ve personally experienced on a laptop. Can go a couple of days on a charge.- It runs cool. No fans, so no fan noise.- Nice big smooth Gorilla Glass track pad. Very nice. Premium feel.- Aluminum top cover with chamfered edges. The rest of the body is plastic but solidly built.- 8-Core ARM CPU with a 26K Octane Score, almost twice as fast as my previous Chromebook which already was sufficiently fast.- 8GB Memory. Many other Chromebooks in this range have 4GB.- The device will receive Chrome updates until June 2029. 7 years. Nice.- Wi-Fi 6 wireless- 2 USB-C ports, 1 USB 3.0 port.- USB-C Charging- Thin. Under 3 pounds- Very good keyboard feel. Backlit keys.Other features:- The screen is Full HD, IPS. Nice, but could be brighter. No problem at all for indoor use. Not really bright enough for outdoor (I tested it,) although the matte screen is helpful there.- Headphone jack is there if you need one.- The Chromebook comes with basic travel sleeve. Nice perk.- The 720p Webcam is nothing spectacular but will get you through meetings- Storage is a 64GB eMMC, not an SSD, but it will do.Not necessarily negatives but worth mentioning:- No HDMI slot. I don’t really need HDMI anymore because Chromebooks can wirelessly cast the screen to my Chromecast. Or it can cast YouTube to my Roku. Beyond that there’s always a USB-C to HDMI cable I could purchase if needed.- No SD card slot. Would be nice to expand storage if needed in the future, but I suppose a USB flash drive could be used instead.Could be better:- Speakers – I guess I was spoiled by my Toshiba Chromebook 2 with fairly robust speakers, because these Acer speakers, while up-firing, are not nearly as good. For music they lack any bass and are tinny sounding. For voice though, they’re clear and good enough. But for music I will be bluetoothing to my external speaker or wireless headphones most of the time.Summary:Overall an excellent mid-range Chromebook! If the speakers were better, it would be darn near perfect to me in this price range. Highly recommended.Update – November 2020: As I see other reviews have noted, occasionally the laptop will not connect to wi-fi when you first turn it on. Rebooting it resolves the problem and luckily Chromebooks reboot very quickly. But this does seem to be a recurring albeit infrequent issue. I hope Acer will send an update in the future to address this. (The issue does not occur when waking the laptop from sleep.)

Ok, I realized going in that Chrome was oftentimes complained about and that this is a Chrome machine. I am not saying that Chrome is a crummy system, in fact, I find this computer runs Chrome fast and with very few hiccups. The problem is Chrome will not do many things I have come to expect from Windows or MS DOS [or whatever it’s now called]. It is fast and every halfway normal operation can be accomplished. But problems do arise. For example, I can put my own photo in as wallpaper for the opening menu but I can’t manipulate it. My photo was too large for the screen and that couldn’t be adjusted. I had to use their supplied pictures. Not a big deal, but that ability was something I expected and was stunned when the program refused to do it. There are several other “what’s going on “ moments, but I think you get the idea.This machine is fast. I surfed the web with no problems, looked all over Amazon, read books with numerous graphs and complex pictures, and looked over a few of my own photos without difficulty. The ASUS did load Google Documents and Documents then loaded my document files from the iCloud in nothing flat. To augment the internal memory I added a 256 gb microchip which was instantly recognized; however, I had to jump through some hoops when I realized nothing was being saved or moved to the chip. I found the needed adjustment in settings and I was moving ahead again. I really enjoy being able to add memory to the computer with a chip. I think this is a major advantage over machines that don’t have this capability.The machine does have a few problems that might be considered deal killers to other people. First, the keyboard is not good. It is difficult to type on and this resulted in numerous corrections having to be made. I have actually purchased another keyboard from logitech that hooks up to this computer by Bluetooth. Once this keyboard was successfully paired I was able to begin typing on what I consider to be a standard keyboard and many of my errors disappeared. I think the keyboard is a big problem with this computer. The backlight on the keyboard is almost useless. I will note that when the back light is at a low setting it is extremely difficult to see the keys. You can increase the brightness by pressing the alt key and then pressing the increase brightness key on the function keys across the top. The keyboard will increase substantially in brightness; however, I find that even at the brightest setting the keyboard is difficult to see. It may work well in low light conditions, but in a room with regular light it is still difficult to ascertain which key is which. An experience typist will not find this a problem, but to people like me I think it is a substantial problem.On the keyboard there is no caps lock. Why this was omitted is confusing. I find that using the caps lock is a constant undertaking. To achieve capitals the operator must press down the alt key and the little magnifying glass key then the machine will lock on cabs.The weight of the computer is nothing to sneeze at. While the number of pounds seems small, try holding it out at arms length for more than 10 seconds and you will quickly see the weight is a necessary consideration.In my opinion, the screen is sharp and easy to read. For more demanding screen details you will have to go up in price. Viewing movies isn’t a problem, in fact it looks quite nice.I have saved the worst for last. This particular computer from ASUS does not, stress not, have a good stylus associated with it. I bought a stylus from Amazon and had to be especially careful to use the exact number for this computer because there are other models very near in number to this model and styluses that work with other models will not work with this computer. The stylus I bought does not allow one to draw on this computer. The stylus badly lags when used for drawing, and the stylus is not accurate in placing the line. This may be the computer itself and not the stylus; however, this lack of ability to accurately use a stylus is nearly a deal killer for me. I am very used to using the Apple iPad Pro 12.5 inch. Not being able to use a stylus is almost incomprehensible to me at this stage of computer development. Having this ASUS computer only work with a very few highly specific styluses is most disappointing. It took me over a week to start looking for a stylus to pair with this machine. Had I known the limited availability of styluses, and the nearly usable nature of a stylus with this particular machine, I would not have purchased this laptop computer. I really enjoy drawing, and drawing on the iPad is one of my favorite hobbies. I was looking forward to being able to sketch on this ASUS computer, but I find this is impossible with this particular machine. It is unfortunate the previous reviews I read did not mention the difficulty in pairing a stylus with this computer and the horrible nature of the resulting stylus lines if a person attempted to draw. Amazon’s return policy on computers prevents me from returning this machine. I suppose I could trade this in somewhere and try again, but that would be quite expensive. The next machine will avoid Chrome and will definitely either come with a stylus or have a good stylus readily available. A machine that I cannot draw on is an anathema to me.AD2

Very nice leather and allows use of the Chromebook as a laptop, tablet or tent. I did adjust the screen display to get inside the corner straps that cover a few functions in the upper left and right corners. You could avoid this with some two sided mounting tape or some stick-on Velcro but I just adjusted the display size. I use it every day.

I only used this laptop 5 times and it already has problems,I took it to BestBuy to have them check it out and they said they could not fix it what a waste of money I would not recomend buying a laptop from Amazon

I’m actually writing this review on the laptop being reviewed here.This isn’t my first Asus laptop. I have two others that have served me well over the years. Asus has become a brand I like and that I’ve had great experiences with. This laptop is no exception. I’ve only had this laptop for about a week and a half, so time will tell how long of a life I get out of this laptop.The Zenbook Duo series was primarily designed for creators and professionals, However I applaud Asus for thinking of those of us who aren’t power users but who would also benefit from the same dual screen formfactor without the higher specifications and bigger price tag of more powerful computers. I think this is also the reason this base model (UX482EAR) doesn’t include the stylus or carrying case as the more powerful versions do because to many, those are unnecessary bonuses that not all users need or want. I did want the stylus, so I ended up buying that separately.This laptop gets great battery usage although I really have nothing to compare it to. I get about 8-10 hours on a full charge with the ScreenPad+ on. I’m sure I’d get more battery life if I turned the ScreenPad+ off which is easy to do by hitting the middle button above the trackpad. Charging is relatively fast with the included 65-watt charger. Charging uses the same port as the USB C thunderbolt ports and you get two of those. Keyboard is backlit for usage in a dark or poorly lit environment and the backlighting brightness is adjustable,The ScreenPad+ is amazing! It’s actually useful and not simply a gimmick. I usually put messaging/email windows down there as well as note taking apps while keeping my web browser up on the main display. I also like the flexible configuration options such as dividing the ScreenPad+ into thirds or halves amongst apps and windows as well as “waterfall mode” where a window or page is stretched between the two displays. Some applications work best with those various configurations.Touch and stylus support works smoothly on both displays. This isn’t my first touch screen laptop and I do find myself using the touch screen as much as the keyboard and trackpad. Just easier to navigate the computer. Now as mentioned previously, on this entry kit, the stylus isn’t included like it is on higher specified variants. I did end up purchasing a 3rd party Tesha Active pen for 34$. Asus charges around 60$ for theirs with similar functionality. Both screens work well with the active pen input although the ScreenPad+ can take a second or two to recognize the stylus initially, but once it does, it works smoothly. Haven’t noticed this with the main display though as the pen is detected immediately.The keyboard as mentioned by others is configured oddly to accommodate the ScreenPad+. That can take some getting used to for those who are coming from other more traditional laptop form factors. Hasn’t been an issue for me as I haven’t been a heavy laptop or PC user in more recent years and have become more accustomed to using a smartphone so there wasn’t as much of a learning curve to the keyboard and trackpad. Yes, the trackpad is small, but the vertical rectangle matches the configuration of the main display plus the ScreenPad+. Trackpad recognizes similar multi-finger gestures as smartphones such as pinch to zoom. Using two fingers to scroll vertically or horizontally. The keyboard has good travel even right now as I type this review. Keys are nice and clicky. As mentioned before, the backlighting is nice. With the push of a button the brightness can be adjusted or turned off completely. If sitting in a darkly lit room, the lowest setting is adequate to be able to see the keys.Sound quality is great. I’m not too familiar with the Harman Kardon sound system as previous laptops didn’t have that, but it sounded great last Sunday when I watched a church service online. The sound was clear, and I think the way the ScreenPad+ lifts up with the Ergolift hinge allows for better amplification and broadcast of sound from underneath that panel where the speakers are located. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the video quality as I have yet to use the built-in camera. Maybe in the future I can revise this part after I’ve had a chance to use that.Aside from that, the laptop isn’t too heavy, and I like the offset concentric brushed celestial blue. The same Celestial blue is continued on the keyboard and trackpad which is nice.The only thing I had issues with, and this is likely due to the nature of the device compatibility, if you own an iPhone like I do, the “Link to My Asus” app is next to useless. Can be difficult to transfer media between the two devices and the phone call function doesn’t work at all. However, this is to be expected that iOS devices experience some degree of incompatibility with Windows devices as opposed to a MacOS device with Apple’s ecosystem. But no biggie. I didn’t purchase this laptop to work with my iPhone otherwise I would’ve looked at a MacBook.It’s been a blast using this computer and hopefully it lasts for several years.

Where to start? Has to be the design because if you’re buying the laptop, the design is the biggest part. It’s very good and an attention getter. Design standouts include etched space edition branding (simulating external paneling on a space station), an OLED external display with an astronaut screensaver (among a few limited others), and a subtle darker(ish) titanium color evoking most premium laptops since the Apple Powerbook G4 (damn I miss that one). DId I mention how much of an attention-getter the external display is? Not quite on the level of wearing Google Glass but on the same spectrum.Performance wise this laptop is meh. Why? Battery life. It is atrocious (especially at this price point)! Notice how battery life numbers are left out or buried in the marketing materials for the space edition laptop? I have the latest Apple Macbook Pro 16″ (both an M1 Pro and M1 Max) and these both destroy the latest Intel chips (Alder Lake) in the battery life department. I acknowledge that they are different CPU architectures so Intel fanboys could easily argue that it’s an apple to oranges comparison (get it?). Nevertheless, from a practical work standpoint (compiling Android apps, running multiple docker containers, etc.), I have to charge this laptop after ~4 hours of use while my Macbooks sip power and get me through the entire day (~10 hours) on one charge. This isn’t just a one off Asus issue…I tried the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 (using the latest Intel chips) and the battery life was even worse than this laptop (running substantially lighter workloads).Linux support: Running Fedora 36, support is good using the latest 5.17 kernel (audio support…yay!). While not on the same level as my Thinkpad X1 (Gen 9), it is better than the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 (that was a nightmare). Latest version of Gnome has built in dark mode support (for the OLED screen) and it is pretty intuitive when using the multi-touch screen. Avoid Ubuntu 22.04 as the experience is completely sub-par to Fedora 36.

I liked it well enough until yesterday when it had to be updated. 2 min later the screen was black and it said HARD DRIVE ERROR. I think it needs a new hard drive. 🙁

cannot believe how incredibly slow this junk is, if it will load at all, do not waste your money

So this computer is pretty nice to look at and sports respectable specs for its price point. The keyboard’s responsiveness is refreshing and I love the special keys for flipping the program windows / displays. It has certainly made working + using a source (doing excel and reading a document) more comfortable with the dual display.Speakers are ok – not MBP quality but if you’re home / in the office trying to do conferences w/o a additional mic, this PC will do well. Trying to bump music, ehhh.I do not game with this machine really, sorry

Really nothing to say that I dislike about the CBook. I’ve owned a number of them before. As I mentioned in the headline, the weight is heavier than I expected, but I don’t carry it around all day. It does seem to “hang up” when I am on some sites, but that appears to be the site loading Adv. after Adv. while I am trying to read something. I am going to add an Ad-blocker to cut that delay back. It’s a shame the advertisers are killing the golden goose(geese) by over-loading every page with more and more interruptions. The CBook is great for me.

July 8th, 2022 Edit:Linux on ChromeOS (Crostini) issues seem to have been fully resolved in one of the updates around ChromeOS 100. Starting up apps is faster, putting the Chromebook to sleep doesn’t crash them, and increased battery drain is no longer noticable. I’m *very* happy with this little guy’s performance. I will note, that the startup times vary dramatically between having only a few tabs vs having a few hundred tabs open. Just something to note.Original review:I have a big gaming machine for game development, but while it’s not massive it _is_ heavy and the battery life leaves a lot to be desired. As such, I always like to keep an ARM-based Chromebook around for day-to-day tasks where I might not have access to power for long stretches of time. I have a few requirements for any Chromebook I buy. It needs to have a relatively powerful ARM-based processor, above-average battery life (right now the average seems to be around 10 to 11 hours), more than 4GB of ram, and ideally have a decent keyboard, trackpad, screen, and still be small and lightweight enough to be easy to take places.One reason I specify that I need an ARM-based Chromebook is that they generate almost no heat, so there’s no need for fans or huge heatsinks, and due to their RISC-based architecture, they use WAY less power than Intel/AMD’s CISC architecture. The lowered heat also potentially means it’ll degrade slower and since I mostly wanted this for away from power use, less power needed and less waste heat produced is a big deal. Often, as in this case, it also means the machine can be made thinner and lighter.My last Chromebook (now 6 years old) began dying, so I began looking for a new one and found that very few still ran ARM-core processors. And despite ARM-core processors being cheaper and easier on average to make, I’m surprised that many of the ARM-based Chromebooks are priced closer to the higher end of the price scale. While I do think the price of this Chromebook is quite high for what it is, I think it’s very reasonable amongst the many unreasonable prices found throughout the Chromebook market.This Chromebook checks literally every requirement I had, though I might have preferred something smaller like a 12 or 13 inch, as my last one was a little small at 10.6″, but the 14″ of this one feels just a tad too large to be easily carried everywhere. That’s something I’m willing to live with for the specs, though.So far, the battery life has been amazing, the processor is so fast that unless you’re purposefully pushing it, you likely won’t even notice the difference between this and something faster. My gaming rig with its 8 core AMD processor and 40GB of ram doesn’t handle Chrome any faster, though it can handle orders of magnitude more tabs being open simultaneously. The screen is quite good for the price point and it even handles Crostini (full Linux apps installed in a container) apps with grace and ease.That said it’s not all perfect, I’ve had a few issues with the OS bugging out or even crashing entirely. Nearly all of these are possibly attributable to Crostini (which is still in beta) aside from the first bug which didn’t allow me to sign in with my personal account on setup, instead got stuck on a loop of quickly flipping between the wifi setup page saying there was no internet, waiting 1 second, saying there was internet after all, then going back to the wifi page insisting there was no internet before finding it again. I got out of the loop by continuing as guest and attempting to set up an account from there which worked fine. I did have one weird issue I never technically got resolved where I installed Telegram from the play store and docked it to the right side of my screen and docked the Chrome window to the left side, I then adjusted the width of both as far to the right as they would go. If I left the telegram window to check notifications or clicked on a notification bubble, it would resize back to taking up half my screen. Chrome did the same if I full-screened a video on YouTube and came out of full screen. I got around that by installing the Linux Desktop version of Telegram inside Crostini and it’s worked like a charm since, though Crostini has issues with the Chromebook going into sleep mode which happens automatically if you close the lid so I’m not sure I can recommend that route to everyone. :/All in all, I do love this Chromebook, it has more than enough power for the OS in its current state and has promised updates till 2029. Unlike many other Chromebooks on the market, I think this one will be able to handle anything they add to the OS in that time.

seems with each new electronic device i search for a nice case and always end up with a fintie when the research is done. like my other cases this one is sturdy and stylish and at the price i wanted to pay – i expect it will last through the life of the device as have my other fintie products. this brand never lets me down which is really nice in this crazy world

I am very happy with the processor, storage space, and monitor. I was disappointed that there was no ethernet port. I understand that direct ethernet is not a necessary feature on laptops, until you are having wifi problems. When I turned on the computer, the wifi would not stay connected. It would connect and for a short time and then lose the connection. Fortunately I have a desktop computer to help troubleshoot. After trying several methods to correct the problem I finally came across an article where other people were having trouble using the Intel WIFI 6 chip. There was a link to the Intel download site where I downloaded the latest driver. I had to use my desktop to download the file, then transfer it to the laptop with a thumb drive. Problem solved! The laptop now has stable internet. I would have given this 5 stars, but due to the WIFI problem I had to drop a star.

I’ve always been a Windows guy for PCs since Windows 3.0. Can you imagine that? And always Android since my first Motorola back in the day. This is my first dive into a Chromebook which I have been tempted to try for some time. I had been concerned about performance and the learning curve but a reason came up to give it a try.I have two notebooks, one Dell and one HP, the later for remote working, the other for personal use, finance, volunteer work etc, etc. Also have a kindle fire, a Samsung Tab 4, two Paperwhites, and a Pixel 6. Rest of the family is on iPhone and Macs, not me.Why would I need another device? Well I’ve started to pursue a side gig career as a freelance writer. So I wanted a device totally seperate from work and other life digital activities. I wanted a tool that was only for writing. I chose this device and am so happy. Beautiful design, fast, clear, great wide keyboard, which is important as I have big hands. The screen is great visually and good for touch, backlit keyboard for middle of the night work. So easy to setup, all my Google stuff came over easily.All in all very happy with this device and I really like the Chrome OS experience, nice to get away from Windows for awhile.

Very easy lap top to set up and operate. Also small and easy to transport. Long battery life.

Nice

🤪 This is a Very well made Labtop that im proud to have. Build quality is superb.💯 The base has no wasted space. Touch pad has zoom in/out feature and one tap is also a click so you don’t need to really use button left click if you don’t want to (Cool feature) . I think the extra screen could be more brighter but I use both screens on dim to protect my eye anyways. Both screens are touch screen. Beautiful displays. Would be cool to have two different wallpapers but I dont think possible. You can use this bi screens as one big display but honestly I never got used to that gap (the hinge space) between screens Yet. I mean it still is usable as 1 big screen and I use a labtop stand so the base screen is angled more to me Which Does Help me view bottom easier and I never felt my labtop get hot yet to. I do highly recommend a stand. 👍 iIts a good labtop, Unique experience that Does grow. Regular solo screened labtops is inferior in my own opinion after my short ownership of this Asus ( I got cheapest version of the line). Buy it, Learn it, Live it, Love it. 🤗 Aloha.

The product came in great condition and had very secure packaging. The laptop overall was a great computer but the trackpad is small, so you need to purchase a separate mouse in order for the laptop to work at its fastest. At some point the trackpad didn’t work anymore and the curser wouldn’t show up, but the separate mouse I purchased for a couple of dollars worked perfectly fine. The battery life overall is ok and is considered short compared to other laptops that can be purchased for the same price. The material of the laptop was very smudgy and fingerprints could easily be seen from the case. The laptop size overall was pretty bulky and heavy with a small screen. The length of the screen was large but the width was pretty small.The multitasking feature works very well and I am very happy with how it functions. When you drag a tab to the second smaller screen, it sizes it perfectly so that you can see the tab and use it easily. You can have up the three tabs on the bottom screen and even more on the top. A function that I found to be very useful was how you could resize, drag, and drop the different tabs in different locations of the laptop. It was great for multitasking and I have no complaints in that area of the laptop. The touchscreen was like any other and works well with stylists. It is pretty much like a iPad or a touchscreen computer.Overall, it is a great product for work and school life where you need to be able to look at a lot of tabs at once.

I had an ASUS laptop for 6 years, a 2-in-1, but I unfortunately dropped something on it and cracked the entire screen. I had no other troubles with that laptop therefore I didn’t really want to look at other brands. And especially after having this one for two weeks i’m not sure I ever will. I personally enjoy the cursor pad/whatever you wanna call it being to the right of the keyboard, the placement makes a lot more sense than the normal. I bought this laptop for the convenience of having split screens. It makes writing papers as a college student a lot easier. As well as taking notes. There’s really no trouble with seeing the screen on the keyboard, unless your posture with it on your lap sucks and the angle causes a glare. Its also a bonus that the screens have separate adjustors for brightness. The quality overall is incredible. I’ve had no problem running multiple tabs, apps, etc. My only wish it that it came with a spot to put a stylus, but really not a big deal considering I have a pouch to carry the charger in.

update… glitches seems to have fixed itself for now. Fingers crossed it lasts.have had this for six months. It’s already slowed down and now the screen constantly glitches. I’ve taken excellent care of it so it’s frustrating.

I wa shocked at the price in the beginning thinking this is going to be A waste of my money, but i am rather happy with my purchase.It runs smoothly right down to the battery at 1%. Turns on nicely and works great. Figuring out how to run a chromebook was probably the hardest thing about this buy.I am not a fan of the quality of the video or picture that it takes. But i have seen and delt with worse. It does seem to get on the warmer side when streaming videos or when im working many hours on it even on a hard breathable surface. Not sure it did anything negative to my laptop tho cuz its still running great! I would definitely suggest getting a wireless mouse with it tho (i couldnt find one with a C type pulg only USB) so good luck. And the fact that it has no USB and only C type is a bit annoying. But manageable.Price is a little much but still not horrible for all the things it can do.

I wanted to like this machine. I recommended my girlfriend get it for the purposes of virtual education; she needs to be able to annotate documents via the touchscreen. I have other Asus products that work well. Unfortunately, for the purposes of touchscreen use, this one is a miss. The primary reason is that the touchscreen is completely inconsistent for capturing input. We tried 6 different types of styluses; the only input that was at all consistent was using your finger, and that’s not a viable solution for precision input. We also observed random “dead spots” that would come and go; one time half the screen literally stopped taking input. Then it came back.Now, you might say, you got a bad one, send it back. Well, the issue is that we also got a C214 chromebook for a different purpose, and the touchscreen was the same – inconsistent across multiple different styluses. In that case though, we don’t really need the touchscreen, and it otherwise works fine. However in this case, we replaced with a Dell, and the touchscreen on that one was completely consistent and reliable. I tend to think this is therefore a manufacturer issue, though of course I can’t guarantee that on only 3 examples.The other issue that made this model difficult to use as a touchscreen chromebook, which is in fact marketed as a benefit, is the “NanoEdge” extremely small screen border. While cool and increasing the screen size, you effectively can’t use it as a tablet without touching the screen, because you can’t hold it otherwise. For a non-touchscreen chromebook, this would probably be really cool; unfortunately if you want to use the touchscreen it really makes the average use case frustrating and inefficient.One more comment – as several reviewers say, while some of the documentation says that it does come with a stylus, this particular vendor does not sell the version that has it. You may desire to then buy one; my experience suggests that you will not find one that works well. We tried active, passive, EMR, Active EMR. One of the reviewers mentions an EMR stylus by Staedtler Noris. Can confirm that one does not work (at all). You can find information online on the one that is supposed to come with the laptop; however (at least for right now) there doesn’t seem to be a way to purchase separately.Aside from the touchscreen though, I can confirm that the materials and capabilities are as advertised. It’s a powerful, light, slick machine that works well for non-touchscreen operations. If it’s not your key feature need, you can probably be plenty happy with it.

I bought this to donate to a charity event. I did not use it myself.

Tremendous laptop. Three stars because they decided to put the speakers on the bottom…What makes sense about that?I’m absolutely baffled they put small speakers. That are constantly under powered. That rattle. On the bottom.I just wish I would have read this before I purchased the laptop.

Original reviewWe like everything about this except the backlighted keyboard, which really doesn’t do anything. Besides the size, (small) my 90 year old mom had two criteria–two only! Touchscreen and backlighted keyboard and $500 or less. And more than two years of update life. Since most chromebooks with other basic features she needs are more like $250-300, we were willing to pay more,. I read every review. My first choice, a Dell, had it all, but when it arrived it was just too heavy so I returned it without even turning it on. Thes next choice had everything and probably would have been great but would only be updated til 2022. That did not seem long enough (she’s planning to live a lot more years!) This was my next choice and the reviews are all great. I sacrificed the touchscreen just to get the backlit keyboard and boo hoo. Used to a Microsoft Surface, the chromebook lighted keyboard is a poor cousin.Update June 17: I used this computer today for the first time because I could finally get into my mothers senior living facility. I have to say I am so sorry that the return window is closed I absolutely cannot read the keyboard unless a light is shining right on it. The keys are gray and the backlight is gray and the keys are completely unreadable unless I tilt the keyboard nearly vertically and hold it towards a light. My mother knew I had chosen this especially for her and I think that’s why she didn’t complain. I can’t believe it. The only thing I can think of to do is write the letters on the keys with a sharpie. Seriously in normal light sitting at a table I can not see one single letter. I’m dropping my review down to two and I’m sorry about it. Maybe somebody here can tell me something that I can do to help we able to read the keys.

Original reviewWe like everything about this except the backlighted keyboard, which really doesn’t do anything. Besides the size, (small) my 90 year old mom had two criteria–two only! Touchscreen and backlighted keyboard and $500 or less. And more than two years of update life. Since most chromebooks with other basic features she needs are more like $250-300, we were willing to pay more,. I read every review. My first choice, a Dell, had it all, but when it arrived it was just too heavy so I returned it without even turning it on. Thes next choice had everything and probably would have been great but would only be updated til 2022. That did not seem long enough (she’s planning to live a lot more years!) This was my next choice and the reviews are all great. I sacrificed the touchscreen just to get the backlit keyboard and boo hoo. Used to a Microsoft Surface, the chromebook lighted keyboard is a poor cousin.Update June 17: I used this computer today for the first time because I could finally get into my mothers senior living facility. I have to say I am so sorry that the return window is closed I absolutely cannot read the keyboard unless a light is shining right on it. The keys are gray and the backlight is gray and the keys are completely unreadable unless I tilt the keyboard nearly vertically and hold it towards a light. My mother knew I had chosen this especially for her and I think that’s why she didn’t complain. I can’t believe it. The only thing I can think of to do is write the letters on the keys with a sharpie. Seriously in normal light sitting at a table I can not see one single letter. I’m dropping my review down to two and I’m sorry about it. Maybe somebody here can tell me something that I can do to help we able to read the keys.

I will start with who I am because it could help you make your decision. I didn’t go to school for anything, yet I own a very web tech related company. My father, who did go to school for electrical engineering, taught me to buy things made out of metal. Things that will last decades and that you can pass down to your offspring. I have his drill. I will pass it down to my own son, who will probably pass it down to his son. When I buy things I dig deep. I rarely buy a dud. I often find something that was out of stock because I thought about it and went to another part of the store where somebody misplaced the item.So let’s talk about this Chromebook.I would tell you to buy it. Yes, I gave it four stars, but for a good reason.Screen. My regular computer has a massive screen. My go-to laptop has a massive screen. This one is big, but resolution wise? It’s missing a lot on the right and a good amount towards the bottom. But seriously, it’s bright enough, it’s big enough, and it is a touch screen. Now I want computer to do this! One half of the star I removed was because it isn’t as responsive as the touch screen on my Dell laptop. But it ain’t fuzzy like people said. I use tech. This is just fine. Oh, it ships with a crappy resolution by default. You have to set it higher and it will be nice and crisp.Okay. Wow. So I now know why people had issues with the screen. Settings, search display. Change resolution. I liked it before. Now I love it! Strike my previous comments. It has plenty of real estate to the right and bottom. The default is to have it work for Grandma. I made it native 1920×1080 and it’s perfect! But wait! There’s more! Literally. It will do 2194×1234. Hmm. But I liked the native better.Keyboard. It’s backlit. But the etching on the keys is too deep. So looking directly down on it, it’s pretty. But looking from a normal angle? Completely trashed. Luckily I type without looking at keys. But! Some keys are off. Where they feel they should be. But, whatever. If you can type without looking, you’ll adapt quickly.Speed. This thing is peppy! Installing apps is very fast. Almost instant. Swapping between apps, etc is quick.Battery. This thing lasts forever. Granted I don’t watch a lot of video. But really, I’ll get like 6 hours of work time unplugged! And I’m all over this thing. I plugged my pixel into it and it quick charged my pixel. Took about 16% of the battery to do it. My pixel needed about 70% charge.Track pad is alright. Says it tries to ignore your palm. I found that it found it here and there. I prefer a mouse anyway.Sound. It ain’t a gaming laptop. Sound wasn’t great. But it wasn’t total crap either. It works. It’s fine. It’s a Chromebook, not Beats by Dre.It will be updated with new chrome os updates for years. So no worries there.Linux is now part of the OS. So pretty cool.You can have multiple users. Like windows they are in their own compartment.Lots of keyboard shortcuts to look up in Google. Make it very fast to get around this thing.Overall I would say you should buy this. I got the 8 gig RAM version. I got it to use while traveling in our van across country. My Dell drew way to much power for a cigarette lighter inverter. This thing just rocks.Do get the Amazon basics bag to carry it. Don’t worry about the straps issue there. This thing is light. So it won’t cause the straps issues.When you register it for the warranty with Asus you have to select the commercial NB product type. Apparently this is the company level netbook.

If any good can come our of having to keep our kids home from school and have them be taught virtually, it is having to purchase a Chromebook sooner than I had planned.I wanted to get one for when I work from home, and finding out my daughter didn’t qualify for a school book because she’s in 1st grade prompted me to purchase this.Set up: Super easy to set up each account. I have my work account, and she has her school account. It runs almost similarly to a PC, the only thing I didn’t know was how to right click (two finger tap on touchpad)Speed: It loads super quick, each app launches really fast as well. I remote into my work computer and do all my work from the Chromebook, and it works quicker than my desktop PC, and power wise, my desktop has higher-end components than the Chromebook, so you can tell it’s designed to be quick, even with lesser components.Gaming: I’ve played some of my apps on the Chromebook, about half work, and run well. Not having a touchscreen makes some difficult to play. The other half isn’t supported. So it’s not ideal for gaming but will run some, and when it does run a game, they run pretty well.Storage: With most of the storage happening on Google drive, it hasn’t been much an issue yet.Streaming: I have been stream Netflix and it runs well. The LAN card doesn’t seem to cause any slowdowns, and it’s just as fast as other wireless devices in my home.Casting: I cast Zoom workouts to my TV in the workout area we have in the basement. It is fast and almost no issue. The larger issue I have is the TV is older and not good quality.Overall, I’m extremely happy with this purchase, it surprised me with how well it runs. I’ve had people tell me to avoid buying a Chromebook, and I can’t tell you how wrong they were.

I have purchased two of these for my kids to use for school work since COVID-19 started. They work great. Zero problems and you don’t have to worry about virus protection with a Chromebook.

I’m not completely new to Chromebooks, my Children both use them for school and I’ve messed around with them off and on for a couple of years. Recently my 10 year old Macbook’s battery finally gave up and I found myself in the market for a new laptop.I grabbed my son’s Asus 302 and started messing with it to see what I could get it to do, and very soon realized that a Chromebook could meet the vast majority, if not all, of my day to day needs:Since my Son’s 302 has held up so well for over two school years of daily use… I decided to give this 434 a try. I’m really glad I did.The Great:The screen and itty-bitty bezel gives a whole lot of extra screen space in a size only a fraction larger than my Boy’s 302. It’s a 14 inch screen in what is basically a 13 inch body. The resolution, color fidelity and brightness are 100% fine for me. In strong sunlight the screen struggles – but – really… I can’t see how I could ding it for that. I ride a shuttle bus to work with tinted windows. If full sun is shining through the windows directly on the screen it gets washed out. For the price I do not think you could expect much more. If the light is not shining directly on the screen I’ve found it fairly easy to adjust brightness to compensate.Size wise it is 100% perfect for me – maybe a little tight on that shuttle, but I’ll take the extra screen any day.Processing power and memory:Well – I have to say I wish I could have gotten a model with 8G or more memory… That being said – I have no real regrets with the base model. So far I can open as many tabs as I ever wanted to have open while also running a android app or two – sometimes even a Linux app or two, and I have not yet encountered a situation where I felt the machine was struggling.The battery – OMG the battery!I’m coming from a 10 year old Macbook – so needless to say I was shocked on my first full day of using this thing…In the morning I got on the Shuttle (free shuttle WiFi – FTW!) for my hour long ride to the office – check my e-mail and then signed in to my desktop at work via Citrix/Chrome and started my workday. Once at the office I spend another few hours working from a couch in the atrium instead of at my desk just enjoying that I can do this without worrying about where the nearest outlet is anymore. Back on the shuttle and on the way home some last second work tasks and then streaming some YouTube and surfing. Back at home – more web surfing, streaming some TV shows to catch up. Some genealogy research, played with a python script for awhile, and finally off to bed around 11. The dang battery was still at 58%. A month of day to day use says the battery life advertised is true in real life.Cant praise the battery enough.”Tent” configuration works awesome for streaming video in bed and the speaker placement works well like this to give really good audio.What’s kinda great:”Tablet” configuration… It works and the speaker placement complements this setup as well – the only downside is this thing – for my taste -is really just toooooo big for really comfortable use as a tablet – except “flipping” it so the keyboard lays in your lap or on a surface with the screen angled works well in that use case… Overall on this point – I’m still glad I paid extra to have a device with this flexibility. I have encountered situations where I have used each of the set-ups.Android apps… Sadly and I hope this gets better with time – many Android apps I’d like to use are not working on my Chromebook. I see the “Not compatible with your device” message on the Play Store – or install the app and find it does not work properly. Overall – The Android app on Chrome experience is Great-ish and I hope it continues to improve.Linux(!)Linux support is BETA. But – Great-ish. LOL. I’ve installed “Gramps” for some Family Tree research… LibreOffice Suite for a offline MS Office like set of tools, and PyCharm IDE for working with Python. All of these tools are working so far with little difficulties that I will not “complain” about at all – these tools work for me perfectly most of the time and perform well on the device. It is not a perfect world and I remind you that Linux support is “Beta”. Set expectations accordingly and if you like Linux – I think you will like it on a Chromebook!What’s OK:The keyboard… Key travel, placement, “click-y” feel are awesome for me. The OK part is the odd-ish design decision to color the keys silver with translucent white letters… In certain lighting situations the letters on the keys – sort of vanish… In nearly every case I’ve been able to work around this issue by adjusting the keyboard backlight – actually most of the time I have the key backlight turned off completely. This makes the letters look almost black in color – unless there is strong light on the keyboard… That’s when the white color of the letters make them nearly vanish against the silver background of the keys. In any other lighting situation you can adjust the keyboard backlight to get at least a very workable if not 100% perfect experience – IMHO. In a dark setting the backlight works fine and makes working in very dim or dark conditions easy.The trackpad… For me. It is 100% OK… Not something I’d call awesome – and not anything that is bothering me after a month of daily use.So this is where my list ends. I actually can not think of a single thing I’d say is bad or sucks. I imagine if I got into really compute/io heavy video or graphics editing, or the giant pivot table from hell , or maybe the dreaded 100 page Powerpoint – I could make the thing struggle… Note I am NOT a gamer either… I just have to say that for at least 95% of what I do daily… This is all I need. I keep waiting on it to disappoint me – and it has not yet – quite the opposite.One final-final note: I dismissed Chrome OS for years thinking it was only good with a always on and fast internet connection. That might have once been true but I think not anymore. Getting offline work (or playing) done without a always on internet connection is entirely possible with minimal planning in advance. In my humble opinion using a Chromebook without the internet connection is just as doable as working with any Windows or Mac based product when you are offline.

Non-techie review:I’ve had this for a few months now. It was incredibly easy to set up. Basically, you open it up and it’s working. It took a little while to get used to the Chromebook operating system vs. Windows and Mac that I’ve used before, but since I already used Google Drive, Documents, and Gmail, it was easy to get along with the new layout. Setting up my HP printer was probably the most difficult part, but that’s because of HP. I had to download some drivers for Chromebook manually, yadda yadda yadda.I use this primarily for surfing the web, watching Netflix, reading digital media, and downloading/printing quilt patterns. I don’t have any problems with having 15 tabs open at a time, but I’m not running anything in the background. Screen quality and sound quality seem fine for someone who has absolutely no clue about these things. Movies look clear and nice. Pretty things look pretty. I am partially deaf so I’m not expounding on sound quality, but I can turn up the volume pretty loud. The Bluetooth does not connect with my hearing aids.My BIGGEST beef with this particular model is that where Dell puts its delete button, Asus decided to put a power button. I keep hitting the power button when I want to delete something, only to frustratingly realize once again that I have to scroll to the end and backspace. Whoever decided to remove the delete button, you’re fired. I also wish there was an easy menu to access for the shortcut keys. If there is, I don’t know about it, so it’s not in a user friendly “hey idiot over here” spot.Overall, it’s a very inexpensive laptop with good battery life for surfing the web and watching movies. It is very lightweight and will be great for traveling. The aluminum case is a bit flimsy—already a large dent and I have no clue how that happened. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’m pretty happy with it—except for repeatedly trying to shut it off when I want to correct my typing.

This package delivered quickly and arrives with very good condition. Opened the box immediately and started to use. All apps pre-installed runs well. Installed all other apps and works well with the hardware. Good quality. Will come back again from this seller.

I purchased this during the Black Friday sale for $340. At that price this is an excellent buy. So, likes and dislikes:Likes: Size and weight, Battery life, speed and responsiveness, There is a 14″ screen in a 13″ footprint and it weighs less than 3 lbs. I can not understand why so many chromebooks weigh in excess of 4 lbs, there is nothing in them! This CB lasts all day and then some for me, with my mix of browser use and Spotify in the background. And I find the Core m3 is more than adequate with 8GB of memory. Personally I rarely have more than 8 – 12 tabs open at a time. I can’t keep track of that many, how anyone can have 50 or more open is beyond me. With a dozen tabs there is no noticeable slowdown of system performance.Issues that may bother some: The Screen. This is not a touchscreen. I don’t mind as I don’t find touchscreens particularly useful. There are few Android apps that make use of a touchscreen and work well with a chromebook, and when using in laptop mode touchscreens are basically useless. But if you find touchscreens useful, you may miss it ion this CB. Also, the screen will lay flat (180 degrees), but doesn’t flip. Again, I don’t mind as I never used my older flip in that mode. Also, this does have a plastic bottom. The top is aluminum, but the bottom is plastic. If that bothers you, I think you worry too much about status. But, be aware. Overall I think it has a decent polished finish and it feels solid.Definite drawbacks; Keyboard. The feel of the keyboard is fine! It is not substantially different from most modern laptop keyboards and I don’t mind typing on it. But, as has been mentioned in other reviews, the markings on the keys are a medium grey color and it lacks significant contrast to make the keys easily readable. This problem is worse with the backlighting on and in a bright office environment. I generally turn off the backlighting in the office.Overall I think this is probably the best inexpensive Chromebook I have seen. At the $340 price point I consider it a bargain. Personally I wouldn’t spend more than 400 on a Chromebook, as they really still cannot replace a real laaptop!

I have had this chromebook for three weeks now, and I have used it on a constant daily basis of about 8-10 hours per day. I am impressed by the build quality and usability. I haven’t had a chromebook for a long time. I had an original Samsung Chromebook for a couple years, and back then Chrome OS was still edgy enough to not always be able to fill my needs as a student and teacher, but it was enough to get by until I got home to my desktop. Since getting this Asus c434, however, my desktop has been collecting dust. I work two teaching jobs and attend school, so I am constantly on the computer planning lessons, reading, typing documents, doing research, or just streaming Netflix or Hulu at home.Screen: I love that it is compact and light, but still packs a 14″ touchscreen. I use the multi-position screen either when I’m using it like a tablet, or I’ll fold the screen back and use my own bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The hinge is tight and holds the screen in any position very nicely. The colors are good, and movies are clear and crisp. The touch panel works smoothly, and I find myself using my fingers almost as often as my mouse. Also, I often plug in an additional screen while I’m teaching or working, and I haven’t had any issues with that at all. It just does everything automatically, and the processor doesn’t get bogged down at all.Keyboard: I read dozens of reviews before purchasing this one, and the top negative comment was about the keyboard backlight making it difficult to see the letters sometimes. This is true, but the easy fix is to simply turn down the backlight when there is a lot of ambient light. Otherwise the typing is smooth. I don’t love chiclet keyboards in general, but this one is not bad, even when I’ve typed a few pages on it.Battery: I have gone a full ten hours on this thing while just using browser tabs and typing or viewing. However, there are certain apps, like one game I enjoy playing, that drain the battery more. Even if I play that for an hour or two, I can still get 6 or 7 hours of use without a problem. Usually I just charge it once at night and then carry it with me throughout the day without needing a recharge.OS: Chrome is smooth and fast, and if like me you mostly use web-based applications like Google office, Office 365, Canvas, Blackboard, etc., then this is perfect. I also love that now Chrome can run a lot of Android apps. I run a lot of the same apps that my Google Pixel phone can run, including some games. In addition, it can now run Linux at the same time as Chrome with the simple click of a button in the settings. I installed a couple of Linux apps just to test it out, and it’s pretty cool, like GIMP or LibreOffice. My only gripe with the Linux is that I can’t copy and paste between the Linux apps and the Chrome/Android apps. The Intel CoreM processor seems to handle everything like a champ, whether it’s having open 20 tabs with 2 screens, or playing an intense Android game. Oh, and I haven’t had any issues with the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth so far.Downsides: Overall, this computer fits my needs almost perfectly. Perhaps the only glaring con I will mention is the speakers. They’re really not very loud. Even at full blast it can be difficult to hear in a room with a moderate noise level. Luckily I don’t need this feature very often.TL;DR: I highly recommend this Chromebook to power users of Chrome. It’s features and build quality are well worth the higher price.

To give some context, I’m a 10+ year Apple laptop user that wanted to make the jump to a Chromebook a couple months ago. Everyone was raving about the Asus434, so I went for it. Since then I went through two more of the same laptop because of issues. The experience was so frustrating, and I was about to totally give up. Until out of nowhere Asus drops the C425. A lot of this review will compare the two since that was my experience.After handling the Asus434 and the aluminum build, it feels like the C425 doesn’t have that. I could be wrong, but it feels somewhat plastic (and maybe it is). It still looks clean, but I noticed the difference. The screen on the C425 looks great. I don’t know the specs on whether it is the same setup as the 434 (which looks amazing), but it’s really nice. There’s a thin black frame on the screen that I really appreciate. Having also tried out the HP x360 Chromebook, I appreciate the way Asus tries to maximize the screen without putting a thicker black frame with their logo on it.The biggest wins for me with this computer (after only a few days of having it) is that I haven’t had the screen flicker randomly (which happened all the time with the 434). And probably the most important part for me is that the selling price is more reasonable (in my opinion) than what the 434 (8-gig) was/is. For a Chromebook that expensive it should handle a lot better than what it was. I will also say it’s slightly lighter than the 434, which I’m a fan of.Lastly, I thought that losing the 2-in-1 feature and touchscreen would be a deal breaker, but so far it’s been fine. Like anything, I guess you gotta know what you want the computer for and when you’ll actually be using it. They may be deal breakers for you, but it also might be giving it a test drive to see if you can live without it. So far, after two months of frustration and research, I think I’ve landed on the Chromebook for me.

I haunted the Asus and Amazon websites waiting for the right oppotunity to grab the 8gb/64gb version of this chromebook. I really wanted the 8gb/128gb version, but I can’t find that anywhere and Amazon seems to be the only vendor selling this chromebook with 8gb ram. Before, I had the Asus c302 with 4gb of ram/64 gb storage, and that was an awesome chromebook. After giving it to a relative, I decided it was time for an upgrade, and I went with the Asus c434 with 8gb of ram.So, after working with this chromebook for a month, overall I am happy. This chromebook is so beautifully designed. The sleek aluminum casing, the hinges that slightly lift up the keyboard, and the screen itself are a joy to behold. This version of the Asus chromebook is about a pound heavier (about 3.3 lbs) than the previous version (about 2.4 lbs) but the chromebook is so well balanced that the additional weight is hardly noticeable (to me). I love using Chrome OS. I use Chrome OS everyday, and I use my chromebook more than my iPad and way more than my Windows laptop (which has been relegated to a cabinet). The keyboard is really easy to type on. And, although some reviewers have dinged the touchpad, I find it very easy to use. The battery life of 8-10 hours is as advertised, so no complaints there. The laptop is very snappy. I open up numerous tabs all the time and this laptop doesn’t skip a beat, so that is terrific. In addition to the usb-c ports on either side of the laptop, there is a usb-a port, a welcome addition.But like I said, i’s not perfect, so I couldn’t give it 5 stars and the 4 stars are really more like 3.5 to 3.75 stars. Asus has broken some things in its drive to upgrade and improve its flagship chromebook:The decision to make the keyboard silver instead of black was misguided. It looks great, but as many others have stated, with the backlight on, it is unnecessarily difficult to make out the keys. This isn’t a dealbreaker for me, however. I just turn off the backlight. Another solution that I haven’t seen mentioned is using a keyboard cover. Mubuy makes a keyboard cover skin for the Asus c302. It’s sold on Amazon for about $7.99. This cover also fits the Asus c434. The only hiccup is that the cover designates the laptop lock key as the power on/off key. Other than that, the cover fits the c434 like a charm. It not only solves the backlight issue, but it also keeps debris out of the chromebook keyboard. Problem solved!Others have mentioned that the microsd card slot does not allow a card to fit flush. I don’t know how Asus missed this. I have found over the last month that several times I have dislodged the card, without intending to. Because this laptop has only 64 gb of storage, being able to securely keep data on a higher capacity microsd card is of the utmost importance. In the c302, the card fit all the way into the spring-loaded slot. Never once was it unintentionally dislodged. Boo Hiss, Asus!While the screen is beautiful to look at, it glitches once in awhile. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it shouldn’t be happening at all. I don’t remember this issue with the Asus c302. There are times when I am working with a webpage and the screen will just go black – for no apparent reason. It seems to happen when I am using the keyboard and trying to enter data. It doesn’t seem to happen when I’m watching a video or playing a game – as far as I can tell. It happened as I was writing this review! I don’t lose my info when this happens, but it is troubling, nonetheless.The touchscreen can become nonresponsive, again for no apparent reason. The mouse works consistently, so I can keep working, even if the touchscreen stops. The touchscreen works most of the time, but this “glitch” is troublesome. The screen blackouts and the touchscreen issue alsmost made me send this chromebook back to Amazon. But while these defects are an issue, they happen seldom enough that I decided to live with them. But these issues are why this laptop doesn’t merit 5, or really even 4 stars, unfortunately. The quality control at Asus manufacturing needs to be improved, ASAP.Another issue is Android apps. While this is not the fault of Asus, I have to mention that playing and working well with Android apps has still got a ways to go. These issues/problems keep a good experience from becoming great.But what can I tell you?? In spite of these issues, I love using this chromebook. I use it practically every day. And, at the end of the day, I’m glad I bought it (mostly 😉 ).

I was really looking forward to this Chromebook when it was first announced back at CES, but due to some glaring issues explained below, I ultimately returned it.First off, it is as others have mentioned, a lot heavier than it looks. At 3.1lbs, it’s a good half pound heavier than my wife’s Zenbook from 2015. It’s a little thicker than I anticipated, though I suspect that’s to support the various ways you can prop the device up. The weight made tablet mode unwieldy so I didn’t use it often. Overall the build quality felt rather premium.The screen was fantastic. The 14 inch display is probably the stand out feature. Watching media is a joy with it’s 16:9 aspect ratio. Viewing angles were excellent and I had no problems with display brightness or colour accuracy. The one major issue I did have and one of the reasons I ultimately returned it was due to a horizontal ‘screen flicker’ that occurred when scrolling through a webpage. The ‘flicker’ took up about an inch of the screen and would show my wallpaper background. It would happen for a split second, but it was enough to drive me a little nuts as I couldn’t reproduce the problem. This happened even when scrolling in portrait view in tablet mode. I couldn’t tell if it was a hardware issue or a software issue, but doing some searching, it appears others face the same problem. I can say the issue persisted in V74, V75 and V76 dev channel (the last version ultimately broke the way Android apps worked, so that was unacceptable to begin with).Keyboard and trackpad were fine. There was enough key travel that typing was not an issue, but the left ‘Ctrl’ key was not properly installed, so it kept sticking. I eventually fixed it, but I shouldn’t have had to deal with that on a brand new device. As others have mentioned, the keyboard can be a little hard to read, especially with the backlight on in a well lit room. Turning off the backlight made it better, but I wish they stuck with black keys and white lettering for better contrast. Speaking of the backlight, it didn’t feel even as some spots were brighter than others. When turning the computer on initially, the backlight would flicker as well (resolved by adjusting brightness – but again, I shouldn’t need to do that).The trackpad is plastic, so it’s not smooth to the touch as glass would be. It was acceptable, but at times it would register a click when I lifted my finger which got annoying. Another bug I ran into was when waking from sleep, sometimes the mouse cursor disappeared and I was forced to use the touchscreen as the trackpad became inoperable. I had to either restart or flip it into a different mode then back again which suggested it was probably a software issue.Speaking of the touchscreen, again, it was fine but animations were not as smooth as say on an iPad. Scrolling lead to some jelly effects that wasn’t particularly pleasant to the eye. Using this as a tablet was not the best experience, sadly.Last thing I’ll mention is the speakers. They’re down-firing and I didn’t find they got particularly loud. It sounded a little ‘tinny’ lacking any sort of bass and really only usable when working on a flat surface. Trying to listen to something with the laptop on my lap was difficult. Since they’re down-firing speakers they get covered when in tablet mode so they became useless. Only tent/stand mode made it acceptable.I’m disappointed I came across so many issues/bugs with this device. I really wanted to love it, but not knowing if the issues would be fixed by a software update, or if I got a defective device, ultimately lead me to return it. It’s a shame as this device is being touted as the successor to the C302 but I don’t think it’s there yet. I would consider the C302 instead, but updates are only guaranteed until 2022 whereas this one would be updated until 2024, as it goes with Chromebooks. I may consider purchasing this again if the issues are worked out, but until then I’ll probably consider the next iteration.