Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA has an Intel Core m7 processor and was released back in early 2018. The convertible laptop has a higher price than the Intel Core m3 variant that came in early 2017. Then came the Core m5 variant and now we have the Core m7 variant.
This variant of the Chromebook Flip C302CA is powered by a chip, the Intel Core m7 6Y75 processor, that’s way more powerful than its two siblings and runs at 1.2 GHz. The laptop also comes with 16 GB RAM and 64 GB SSD.
It features a 12.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display and weighs 1.2 kg. It’s available in silver colour and is made out of aluminium. You can use the Chromebook Flip as both a laptop and a tablet. The screen can be flipped (hence its name) all the way around. Also, the display is touch-sensitive.
All three Asus laptops have the same overall design and are completely identical, even though the hardware inside is totally different. However, the Intel Core m7 variant is more expensive than the other two. Does it warrant its price and should you consider buying one? Read further to find out.
Specifications
Processor | Intel Core M7-6Y75 / 1.2 GHz |
Display | 12.5-inch Full HD Touchscreen Display (1920 x 1080) Resolution |
RAM | 16 GB |
Storage | 64 GB SDD |
Graphics | Integrated Intel HD 515 Graphics |
Operating System | Chrome OS |
Design
At first glance, you might mistake the aluminium Chromebook Flip for a MacBook. That’s understandable because it looks and feels like a MacBook, which is not a bad thing at all. The Chromebook’s 360-degree hinge is very stable and makes it easy to go back forth between laptop, stand, tablet, and stand modes.
Weighing 1.2 kg and measuring 0.6 inches thick, the Chromebook Flip feels lighter than most of its rivals. We had no problem carrying it around for half a day during our tests.
You can charge or connect to peripherals through any two of its USB Type-C ports, which are placed on the left and right side of the Flip. There’s also a headphone jack, power and volume buttons on the left side, while a microSD card reader is on the right.
There’s no Type-A USB 3.0 port here so you should buy an adapter if you want to attach any older device to this machine. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it proves that Asus is firmly looking towards the future.
Display
The Chromebook Flip has an excellent display. This where probably most of the money went after the processor. Now we don’t have to suffer through low-end Chromebooks with grainy 1366x768 displays as the Chromebook Flip has a Full HD display. It’s got a 16:9 aspect ratio, wide viewing angles, and high brightness. The best settings are medium-high or high.
However, due to higher resolution, icons and texts are smaller. Also, the display will demand more power from your battery if the brightness level is high.
All in all, this is a much better screen than we’re used to on Chromebooks. You’ll definitely have fun watching movies and TV shows on this device.
Performance
As we mentioned before, this Chromebook Flip costs more than its previous variants and most of that is due to its processor. The Intel Core m7-6y75 is the fastest processor in the power-efficient Core M “Skylake” chip family. It also has a higher clock speed than the m3 and m5. If you want your Chromebook to do more than just look good then this is the variant for you.
For anyone wondering about the performance of the Core ‘m’ series when compared to the main Core ‘i’ series, the ‘m’ series processors don’t lag much behind their ‘i’ series counterparts and consume a lot less power.
We found the m7 processor to be quite capable. It perfectly handled our daily computing needs like web browsing, working on productivity apps like Word and Excel, multimedia playback, and other light to medium tasks. There was no noticeable lag or delay whatsoever.
The processor can also play some basic games as well, thanks to Intel HD 515 integrated graphics. Mind you, we’re only talking about older titles like BioShock Infinite and SIMS 4. We don’t recommend playing any modern GPU intensive games on this machine.
Also, you can’t do any demanding tasks like video and photography editing. But then again, this laptop wasn’t made for those tasks. Otherwise, it would consume more power, need larger and noisier cooling solutions, and couldn’t be put into an extremely thin machine like this one.
Battery Life
The battery life on the Chromebook Flip is insane when its performance is taken into account. We expected this machine to last 7-8 hours max, but it actually gave us over 10 hours of screen time. You normally don’t see relatively good performing machines to last this long so this came as a pleasant surprise to us.
Now we can confidently recommend the Chromebook Flip for work. It’ll tackle all of your everyday tasks and will outlast a full working day without any additional charging.
Verdict
The Asus Chromebook Flip might be more expensive than its previous variants, but the battery life, display, and performance warrant the price tag as there aren’t many Chromebooks with this much quality on the market. In the end, it all comes down to your priorities.
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