If I had to level one criticism, it would be at the plastic display bezels. At 12mm on the top, 8mm at the sides and 25mm at the bottom, they are on the wide side and make the laptop look a little cheap. ASUS Chromebook Plus CM34 Flip is certified with ASUS WiFi Master for ChromeOS. Devices with this certification offer enhanced WiFi stability when a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interference is present, allowing users to stream smoothly when they are up to 225 meters away from a router. The antimicrobial treatment is tested by an independent third-party laboratory according to the ISO 22196 standard (measurement of antimicrobial activity on plastics and other non-porous surfaces), using bacterial cultures that include Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with antimicrobial activity (R) result of R > 2. R = 2 indicates a 99% reduction in bacterial activity compared to an untreated surface. The antimicrobial treatment is registered by the U.S. EPA and authorized under EU BPR.

ASUS internal tests show that ASUS Chromebook Flip CR1 can be safely cleaned and wiped using hypochlorous acid water or alcohol from a spray bottle. Individual sprays of up to 3 cc do not affect the performance of the Antibacterial treatment. The connectivity of WiFi 6 band may vary according to the regulation and certification of each country/region. The antimicrobial treatment is tested by an independent third-party laboratory according to the ISO 22196 standard (measurement of antibacterial activity on plastics and other non-porous surfaces), using bacterial cultures that include Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with an antibacterial activity (R) result of R > 2. R = 2 indicates a 99% reduction in microbial activity compared to an untreated surface. ASUS Antibacterial Guard is tested by an independent third-party laboratory according to the ISO 22196 standard (measurement of antibacterial activity on plastics and other non-porous surfaces), using bacterial cultures that include Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with an antibacterial activity (R) result of R > 2. R = 2 indicates a 99% reduction in bacterial activity compared to an untreated surface.Only devices that meet early access minimum requirements can run the game. Requirements include-- Operating System: ChromeOS 111, System Architecture: 64-bit (x86_64, arm64-v8a), Processor: Intel Celeron N4500, Intel i3-7130U, Mediatek MT8183, Qualcomm SC7180, AMD Ryzen 3 3250C or better, Memory: 4 GB RAM, Storage: Minimum of 1 GB game installation, maps, and other files. Actual battery life depends on usage, specifications, applications and environment, among other factors. The stated width of the side bezel is the distance between the edge of the non-active screen display area and the inside edge of the case. If the case width is included, the side bezel width is 6 mm. The stated width of the bottom bezel is the distance between the edge of the non-active screen display area and the visible edge of the display when the laptop is opened to 90 °. These measurements are based on the standard (without anti-glare) display configuration.

Two colourways are available: a blue-grey affair and a white one. The latter is by far the most attractive to my eyes, although the finish on my blue-grey model proved pretty effective at not showing fingerprints. The antimicrobial treatment is tested by an independent third-party laboratory according to the ISO 22196 standard (measurement of antimicrobial activity on plastics and other non-porous surfaces), using bacterial cultures that include Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with antimicrobial activity (R) result of R > 2. R = 2 indicates a 99% reduction in bacterial activity compared to an untreated surface. The antimicrobial treatment is registered by the US EPA and authorized under EU BPR. The absence of colour is noticeable when watching video on the CX34; the picture looks dull and washed out. You could argue a Windows laptop for the same money would be no better but, given the brouhaha surrounding the launch of the Chromebook Plus initiative, I expected more.Besides that, the display is pretty thin gruel, with only 60.1% of the sRGB colour gamut on show. With such a dull display, measuring the Delta E variance is almost a waste of time but I did it anyway, and the number was 6.7, which isn’t great. To be fair, though, this is no worse than the similarly priced Acer Chromebook 317. The CX34 comes with a 60Hz 1,920 x 1,080 IPS screen and, thanks to it only being 14in corner-to-corner, it’s nice and crisp with a 157dpi pixel density. The screen has a slightly matte finish which does a good job of keeping reflections at bay and that’s just as well because the maximum brightness of 287cd/m 2 is hardly searing. ASUS Chromebook CM14 is certified with ASUS WiFi Master for ChromeOS. Device certified with ASUS WiFi Master for ChromeOS feature WiFi 6 and offer enhanced WiFi stability when USB 3.2 Gen 2 interference is present, allowing users to stream smoothly when they are up to 225 meters away or more from a router. Battery performance is based on a mix of standby, web browsing and other use. Charging time requires the battery to be at least 5% charged, the device to be inactive and using the included charger. Actual results may vary. ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 series laptops undergo multiple laptop quality tests but are not subject to all tests stated.

Unless otherwise stated, WiFi speeds are based on theoretical performance. Actual performance may vary. Compared to Chromebooks running on Intel Celeron and Pentium Gold chips, the Core i3-based CX34 goes like the clappers. To be clear, its Intel Core i3-1215U is no powerhouse but with two performance cores among its six and a maximum boost speed of 4.4GHz, it’s no slouch, either. Synthetic benchmark scores aside, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 always felt nippy, managing to run even quite demanding tasks in Gimp, Kdenlive, Audacity and Libre Office under Linux without bogging down. This is where the 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage really come into play. It lets you use the CX34 as a real laptop if you want to. The stated 5.5mm width of the side bezel is the distance between the edge of the non-active screen display area and the inside edge of the case. The stated width of the bottom bezel is the distance between the edge of the non-active screen display area and the visible edge of the display when the laptop is opened to 90 °. Measured based on standard (not anti-glare) display configuration.

ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M6500, AMD Ryzen 5000 Series )

On the plus side, the CX34 is pretty light at just 1.44kg and it’s reasonably compact, at 326.4 x 214.3 x 18.7mm. It also has a good selection of physical connections, with two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports and a pair of USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports. Both those Type-C ports support DisplayPort video output and USB charging (you’ll need one to connect the dinky 45W charger to). LTE connectivity is optional. Nano SIM cards are sold separately and can only be used with the LTE SKU. If you buy a 128GB or 256GB CX34 you get UFS rather than SSD storage, which naturally reduces performance but it’s better than eMMC storage, which is what many cheap Chromebooks use. The CX34 recorded read and write speeds of 1,361MB/sec and 312MB/sec, which is slow but acceptable for a machine unlikely to be used for shunting large amounts of data around. ASUS Chromebook Flip CR1 undergo multiple laptop quality tests but are not subject to all tests stated. The testing data includes the requirements of both military-grade standards and ASUS quality tests. ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 series laptops undergo multiple laptop quality tests but are not subject to all tests stated.

Unless otherwise stated, all data-transfer speeds are based on theoretical performance. Actual performance may vary. ASUS Chromebook CX1 laptops undergo multiple laptop quality tests but are not subject to all tests stated. The testing data includes the requirements of both military-grade standards and ASUS quality tests. The ASUS Chromebook CM14 keyboard is spill-resistant, not waterproof. Water damage is possible if the product is submerged or exposed to large amounts of liquids for long periods of time. ASUS standard limited warranty does not cover problems resulting from accidents such as water damage. To prevent water damage resulting from large spills or other accidents, ASUS recommends turning off the notebook, then tilting the laptop to drain away the excess liquid, wipe it off and let it dry for at least 24 hours. In the WebXprt 3 test, the CX34 scored 281, which is a good showing, too. The higher-spec Acer Chromebook 516GE is only just in front with 299. It’s a similar tale in our ChromeOS multitasking test, the CX34’s score of 180 lagging behind the 516GE’s 217. ASUS Chromebook CX1 is certified with ASUS WiFi Master for ChromeOS. Devices certified with WiFi Master for ChromeOS feature WiFi 6 and offer enhanced WiFi stability when USB 3.2 Gen 2 interference is present, allowing users to stream smoothly when they are up to 225 meters away from a router.

RT-AX59U

Unless otherwise stated, Wi-Fi speeds are based on theoretical performance. Actual performance may vary.