Asus Chromebook Flip C436 – powerful Chromebook for new times

Summary

Expert rating

Opinion

This is one of the best Chromebooks we’ve tested, with high quality in most respects and few weak points. For a certain type of user, who knows the system and is tired of the traditional limitations of the Chromebook, this is a neat upgrade.
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Tested product: Asus Chromebook Flip C436

Award: From SEK 11,995 at Prisjakt.

Chromebooks have had a steady evolution towards increasingly powerful and luxurious builds that can rival standard Windows PCs in features, performance and lavish design. The new Chromebook Flip C436 from Asus is an excellent example of that, with slim style, top-notch build quality and a price of just over SEK 12,000. If it weren’t for the small Chrome logo in the upper right corner of the top, we would have mistaken it for a new Vivobook or Zenbook model.

It is a 360-degree foldable 14-incher with a touch screen and a chassis in aluminum and plastic composites that maintains a high standard in build quality. The touch layer in the screen with its glossy glass surface makes it a few millimeters thicker than it might otherwise have been, but despite that it is a slim and light laptop weighing 1.1 kilos.

The screen has thin margins on the sides, but is raised a couple of centimeters from the base, which means that it is not as super compact as, for example, a couple of Zenbook models of late. The screen surface has a certain tendency to reflections, so we would avoid too much sunlight when working on it, but otherwise it is bright enough for outdoor work.

The screen holds up well for the computer’s price level with a color palette that is said to match the srgb standard, and with the images and videos we test the computer with, we see no reason to doubt it. With an almost 180-degree flawless viewing angle, good control of blacks and generally even, neutral colors, it is perfect for both streaming movies, surfing and working in office apps.

Along with a good set of speakers, both on the sides and what appears to be an extra one at the top next to the hinge, we get a solid media experience. Music has both distinct bass and detailed treble. We might have liked to highlight the midrange a bit more, and unfortunately neither Chrome OS in general nor this computer specifically has any way to make equalizer settings. But then we are picky. This sounds undeniably good for any laptop.

The computer has a generously sized wide mousepad and a well-built keyboard with good tactile response in the buttons and clear backlighting. It’s possible that the mousepad is too wide, so you might accidentally reach for it when you’re typing. In one corner of the keyboard is a fingerprint reader for easy unlocking.

Usb-c ports and fast wifi

Since it is a foldable computer with tablet mode, the power button and volume controls are on one short side. Here we also find the computer’s only external connections, two type c ports, both with 5 Gbit/sec usb 3.1 speed. One of them you also connect the power adapter to, and the other you can connect an external monitor to via display port.

In addition, you get a headphone jack and a micro sd card reader. An extra USB Type A port might have been handy, or at least an included adapter. On the other hand, it is easy to get yourself. Also wireless more modern touch on the connections, with wifi 6 support and bluetooth 5.0.

Here we not only get good, modern laptop design and modern laptop functions, but also the latest in performance. The Chromebook Flip C436 is powered by a 10th generation Intel Core i5 for notebooks. It’s a Comet Lake model, which means it doesn’t have the extra graphics performance that comes with Intel’s Iris graphics, but in return is a bit more powerful in terms of cpu.

Cool, quiet and long-lived

For everything most users will do with a Chromebook, it works great, and solid Core performance, combined with 8GB of RAM, comes into its own for intensive multitasking and slightly more demanding web applications. We don’t expect users to do any extremely heavy tasks on a Chromebook, but with support for Android apps, and increasingly better support for Linux programs, the range of uses for Chrome OS is growing ever wider.

With a more powerful processor, it occasionally requires active cooling. Most of the time its fans are silent, but occasionally under heavier load some fan noise can start. For example, when we play games which may be a little outside of what the graphics circuit is actually capable of. However, it is nothing that disturbs more than marginally.

The computer is powered by a 42 Wh 3-cell battery that gives it a solid runtime. Asus themselves claim 12 hours of video playback, but we managed to stream video to it at full brightness for nearly 20 hours. It’s more than expected, but a contributing factor may be the video quality limitation that Youtube has temporarily imposed. In any case, we have no problems at all surfing, working in Office apps, streaming music and making video calls for both one and two working days without having to charge the battery.

Solid genuine ssd

As I said, Chrome OS has grown into a really interesting Windows alternative recently, with the Google Play Store and support for Android apps. The Linux support is still a beta feature and nothing we recommend other than experienced users to experiment with, but there’s a lot of potential there as well.

However, all this means that the storage requirements are increased. Old Chromebooks with 64GB emmc drives are both too small and too tough for a modern Chromebook. Fortunately, Asus delivers on that point with a decently fast regular SSD of 256 GB instead.

As always, whether a Chromebook is the right type of computer for you or not is a matter of what type of user you are. If you find that you do not use Windows and MacOS specific programs such as Adobe Photoshop, then there is really nothing that binds you to the traditional operating systems. Most of what you need is available in the cloud, or as apps for Android. If you are a regular Chromebook user, but looking for something a little more modern and sharper, the Chromebook Flip C436 could be just right for you.

Specifications

Product name: Chromebook Flip C436FA-E10005
Tested: March 2020
Manufacturer: Asus
Processor: Intel Core i5 10210U, 1.6 GHz quad core
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630
Memory: 8GB ddr3
Storage: 256 GB ssd, space for micro sd
Screen: 14 inch blank ips, 1920 x 1080 pixels, multitouch
Webcam: 720p
Connections: Usb 3.1 type c, usb 3.1 type c with display port, headset
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, bluetooth 5.0
Operating system: Chrome OS
Battery life: 19h streamed film (high brightness), 16h 30min mixed use (dim brightness)
Size: 32 x 20.5 x 1.4 cm
Weight: 1.1 kg
Rec. Award: SEK 11,999
Award: From SEK 11,995 at Prisjakt.

Performance

Speedometer 2.0: 93.9 points
Octane v1: 30,967 points
Geekbench 5 (Android): 1,002 points