Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen review

What is the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen best price? What is good in it? The new NanoEdge design gives it an ultra-compact footprint, so you can enjoy all the benefits of a 14-inch FHD display in a chassis that is as small as many 13-inch laptops. If you use a ton of tabs or run lots of apps, this has the power to get it all done with ease. Find more in Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen review.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Sleek, premium design
• Backlit keyboard
• Large, smooth trackpad
• Great for split-screen
• Good battery
• Thin display bezels
• Vivid, 14-inch touch screen

Cons

• Downward-facing speakers are tinny
• Laptop sits awkwardly at times

Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen Specs

• Display: 14 inches 1920 x 1080
• LED-backlit NanoEdge: 16:9
• Dimensions: 321 x 202 x 15.7 mm, (12.64″ x 7.95″ x 0.62″)
• Weight: 3.19 lbs (1.45kg)
• Colors: Spangle Silver
• Processor: Intel Core m3, Intel Core i5
• Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 615
• Memory: 4GB / 8GB 1867MHz LPDDR3
• Storage: 64GB / 128GB eMMC
• Expandable Storage: microSD card
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 4.0
• Keyboard: Full-size backlit
• Ports: 2x USB-C USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1, 1x USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1x Audio combo jack
• Battery: Li-Ion 48Wh (10 hours) 45W USB-C AC adapter

Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen Price

The C434 is clearly on the premium end of the scale, priced between $530 for the 4GB / 64GB model and $600 for the 8GB / 64GB version.

When the Asus Chromebook Flip first hit the streets, it went for $649 (about £509, AU$926) with an Intel Core m5 processor, 64GB storage and 4GB RAM. That was definitely a huge price tag for a Chromebook.

At the same time, the Acer Chromebook Spin 13 for work goes for around $766 (about £604, AU$1,112) with an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage.

If you’ve been contemplating getting an HP Chromebook, the HP Chromebook 14 may be marginally bigger and come with an Intel Celeron N2940 processor, Intel HD Graphics 500, 4 GB memory and 32 GB eMMC storage. However, it’s considerably cheaper at $299 (about £234, AU$426).

The Samsung Chromebook Plus is unquestionably the biggest rival here, as it goes for about $499 (about £349, AU$725) and comes with an ARM CPU, a sharper 2,400 x 1,600 display and a built-in stylus, though it is fitted with half the storage and memory.

Compare Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen vs Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 13″ Laptop

Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen review

Build

Without breaking any ultrabook records it’s relatively thin and lightweight, and the silver aluminium finish adds a touch of class and style to proceedings. It gives the impression of being a Chromebook that’s going to last you a good few years.

Flip

The C434 can “flip” 360 degrees into tablet or tent mode. Interestingly, the laptop’s two sturdy chrome hinges lock into place at 180 degrees. From there, the display rotates backward until the transition into tablet mode is complete.

Size

At 0.54 by 12.6 by 8.1 inches and weighing 2.6 pounds, the Flip is much trimmer than the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14 2-in-1 (0.7 by 13 by 9.1 inches, 4 pounds). Asus claims it’s a 14-inch system in a 13-inch chassis, and indeed it’s barely bigger than the 13.3-inch Pixelbook Go (0.5 by 12.2 by 8.1 inches, 2.3 pounds).

Design

The Chromebook Flip C424 is slim and lightweight, especially when you consider the size of the machine’s display. At 12.6 x 8 x 0.6 inches and 3.1 pounds, the 2-in-1 is just as thin but heavier than the 12.3-inch Samsung Chromebook Pro (0.6 inches, 2.4 pounds) and the 12.5-inch Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA (0.6 inches, 2.6 pounds). The 12.3-inch HP Chromebook x2 (0.6 inches, 3.1 pounds) is about the same size and weight as the Flip C434.

Ports

That includes a USB 3.1 Type-A port, a USB-C port and a headphone jack on the left side of the chassis, along with a second USB-C port and a microSD card on the right side.

Both USB-C ports support charging, so you can plug in from either side of the Flip C434.

Display

The 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 display uses the 16:9 aspect ratio that’s great for widescreen videos but not as good as 16:10 for viewing longer webpages and documents – we prefer the latter overall but it’s very much a personal choice. Aspect ratio aside, the screen is sharp and bright and punchy, suitable for working outdoors as well as indoors, and in our testing it did its job well in everything from watching movies to editing documents.

Memory & Storage

Even though 4GB has been more than enough for my 20-tab sessions, the option for 8GB of RAM is welcome. I wish 128GB models were more widely available, but 64GB is more than enough to get by — especially with a microSD slot handy for expanding your storage when you need to load up on movies and music for a cross-country road trip or international fight.

Processor

More powerful configurations of this laptop are available, with Intel Core i5-8200Y and i7-8500Y processors on offer, and up to 8GB of RAM if you think you’re going to need it – though the price does then inevitably go up as well. In terms of the price vs performance tightrope that every Chromebook (and laptop) must walk, the base configuration that our Flip C434 had is the most appealing one in our eyes – you’re getting plenty of value for money, and enough power to make sure that Chrome OS can run comfortably.

Keyboard

The island-style, backlit keyboard on the Flip C434 offers a solid typing experience, despite providing just 1.3 millimeters of key travel (our preference is from 1.5 to 2mm).

The keys are large and nicely spaced, and they have 71 grams of actuation force (up from a measly 49 grams on the Flip 302CA), which gives them a tactile click. I prefer a slightly lower actuation force, since the keys felt sticky to my fingers, but that’s a matter of preference.

Touchscreen

Outlined in chrome, the 4.1 x 2.4-inch touchpad on the Flip C434 was a tad jumpy at times but responded quickly to my swipes and taps as I browsed the web. I also had no problems using Chrome OS gestures, like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger swipes to move back and forth between pages.

Brightness

The Flip C434’s display similarly falls in the middle of the pack for brightness. With a peak rating of 286 nits, the Flip 434’s screen is more luminous than the average Chromebook (235 nits); however, the displays on the Chromebook Pro (376 nits), Chromebook x2 (403 nits) and Flip C302CA (292 nits) shine brighter.

The 14-inch display covers 93% of the sRGB color gamut, according to our colorimeter. While the Chromebook x2 (114%) and Chromebook Pro (118%) have more-vivid displays, the Chromebook Flip C434’s panel is more vibrant than those on its predecessor, the Chromebook Clip 302CA (76%), and the average Chromebook (83%).Advertisement

Audio

Audio quality was also average. Volume didn’t get very loud but still suffered some minimal distortion, which makes it even less suitable for larger rooms. Mids and highs were present enough with the usual lack of bass. We suggest you pull out some headphones if you want to listen to some tunes or a Bluetooth speaker if you want to binge some video with a few friends.

Battery life

The Flip C434 extended its predecessors’ already respectable runtime (8:52) by more than an hour, enduring for 9 hours and 58 minutes on our Laptop Mag battery test. That’s longer than the Chromebook Pro (8:05) and Chromebook x2 (8:50) times and the lofty category average (9:02).

Webcam

Asus somehow fit a webcam on the thin bezel above the C434’s display. As a result, the 720p camera, which captures only average images, still beats the heck out of any nose cam.

My beard looked like a brown blob in a selfie I snapped in our dimly lit office, and my eyes looked glazed over. On the other hand, my hoodie was the correct tone of purple and the lights hanging above me were properly exposed. When I moved the laptop closer to the window, the sun brightened my face, revealing significantly more detail, like wrinkles around my eyes.

Apps in Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen

I got all the browsing I needed done, flipping between a dozen Chrome tabs and several Android apps at a time, and occasionally streaming some Spotify, downloading from the Play Store, or hopping on a Zoom call. No stuttering, no freezing or crashing. In Chrome browsing, the C436 was just about as fast as the i5-powered Galaxy Chromebook. The only place I noticed a difference was in demanding programs like Lightroom, where some processes took a few seconds longer. Most serious photo editors aren’t going for a Chromebook, so I’m not too concerned about that.

Most top Android apps ran great on the C436 (Solid Explorer, Podcast Addict, LastPass, 1Weather, Kaspersky), while some were usable but slower than their browser equivalents (Facebook, Slack, Maps, Drive, Find My Device), and a couple have serious problems (Call of Duty Mobile crashed every time I tried to play, CamScanner doesn’t connect to the webcam, I had to uninstall Messenger because Chrome crashed whenever I got a notification).

Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen Performance review

Our Chromebook Flip C434 review unit, equipped with an Intel Core m3-8100Y CPU and 4GB of RAM, had enough oomph that I could comfortably browse the web while running simple tasks. I quickly loaded 18 Google Chrome tabs and watched a 1080p stream of Israel’s failed moon landing while three other HD videos streamed in the background. I noticed some minor lag when switching between tabs, but the Chromebook Flip C434 did a great job overall.

The Flip C434 scored a 76.7 on the JetStream 2.0 benchmark for JavaScript performance. This is the first laptop we’ve tested using this new, more demanding benchmark, so we can’t comment on how it compares until we’ve tested more Chromebooks.

The 2-in-1 produced mixed results on our benchmark tests. With a score of 6,968 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the Flip C434 crushed the Chromebook category average (4,380) and edged out the Chromebook x2 (6,637).

The Flip C434 also performed below average on our WebGL Aquarium graphics test, powering 5,000 fish at 37 frames per second. While that passes our 30-fps playability threshold, other laptops, like the Chromebook Pro (48 fps), did even better.

Alternate of Asus Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 laptop 14 full HD touchscreen

The HP Chromebook x2 remains our favorite Chromebook overall, offering a very attractive tablet with great performance and battery life and a detachable tablet with a very sturdy keyboard base that works well as a clamshell. The $570 configuration offers less RAM and storage, but we still prefer that ultra-portable design to the C434.

You could consider Acer’s Chromebook Spin 13, which sports the same 360-degree functionality as the C434. It’s a bit more expensive than the C434, but offers a solid upgrade with its faster processor and higher-resolution display.

If you need to save some cash, then you could take a look at the Acer Chromebook 15. It’s a larger chassis and it’s not a 2-in-1, but it costs just $400 and offers solid Chrome OS performance, a 15.6-inch Full HD display, and great battery life.

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