Computer Shopper - UK (2020-10)

ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 25

IT’SBEENCLEARfor awhile now thatt
Chromebookshavegrownup,andtheAAsus
ChromebookFlipC436FAdemonstrates
preciselywhythisisaverygoodthing.
Notonlyisthisamongthefastest
Chromebookswe’veeverseen,butit’s
also an excellent laptop in its own rightt,
withspecificationsandusabilitythatrivval
many Windows models.
It’s very slim and lightweight, measuriinga
mere13.7mmthickwhenclosed.Theveryslim
bezels surrounding the displaymake it feel
small foralaptopwith a14in screen. It tips
the scales at just 1.2kg and it has asturdy
360° hinge,which means the displaycan be
pushed back all the wayaround so it folds
flat against the bottom.

GOTSTYLE
This is ahandsome laptop,too.There’s a
whitepearlescent finish on the lid, set off
beautifully by chrome-effecthingesand a
finely perforated grill at the rear of the
machine forventing heat.
Connectivity isn’t bad, although it’s not
extensive,either.There’s apair of USB-C
ports, one on each side,which can be used for
charging and connecting to external displays.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is foundonthe
leftedge,and there’s amicroSD slot on the
right as well, although you shouldn’t need to
expand the storage by much as there’s a
256GB SSD inside.
The keyboard isn’t the best on a
Chromebook; that honour belongs to the
Google Pixelbook Go (Shopper387). The keys
don’t have ahuge amount of travel or
feedback, but they’re spacious enough
and there are no big problems with layout.

ASUS Chromebook

Flip C436FA

★★★★★

£1,000•Fromwww.ammazon.co.uk

VERDICT

LikeGoogle’sownChromeOSlaptops,,
the Flip C436FAshowcases how good
Chromebooks can be

CHROMEOSCONVERTIBLE

There’s no Caps Lock key, but that’s an issue

shared by all Chromebooks, and you can

actiivatethhesameffunctiionbbypressiingthhe

Alt and Search keys together.

The keyboard is backlit, which helps

when typing in low light. However,the

transparentlettering on each keycan make

it difficult to read them in bright natural light,

such as when working outside or just near a

window.One bonus is that it has afingerprint

reader positioned in the top-right corner,just

abovethe Backspace key, which makes

logging in quick and easy.The touchpad, too,

is well-sized and responds sharply to

multitouch gestures.

The displayisevenbetter.It’s a1,920x1,080

IPS panel, so viewing angles are great, and it

outperforms the Pixelbook Go by covering

97.7% of the sRGB colour gamut to its 92.6%.

Its peak brightness of 303cd/m^2 is good, not

amazing, but the 1,700:1 contrast ratio is nice

and high. Generally,thisisalovely screen to

watch films and TV programmes on.

And you won’t have to don headphones

every time you do,either,because the stereo

speakers –located on theleft and right edges

of the laptop’s base –deliver full, clear audio.

There isn’t much in the wayofbass, but you

get enough warmth to make watching the

news or adocumentary perfectly pleasant.

FLIPPING QUICK

Assusual, our 4K benchmarks won’t work on

Chhrome OS, but the multiplatform Geekbench

4 rreveals some very impressive performance.

Byyscoring 3,978 in the single-core test and

12 ,,536 in the multicore test, it beats the

simmilarly priced Pixelbook Go on both counts

• aand not by small margins, either.That’s
  maainly due to the fact that the Asus employs
  a 11 0th-generation Intel CPU, the Core
  i5--10210U, while the Pixelbook is stuck on
  8th-generation chips.
  We certainly never felt the Chromebook
  Flip C436FAstruggle with any particular
  appplications, nor masses of browser tabs, and
  it’ssnot bad at all when it comes to battery life:

it survived 10h 24m of video playback, which

should translateintoafull day’s normal use.

However,thhePiixellbbookkGGoffareddmuchhbbetter

here,lasting 14 h15minthesameconditions.

Don’t forget that Chromebooks like this

aren’t restricted to just running browser-

based software any more.The Asus

Chromebook Flip C436FAwill run Android

apps, installable via the Google Playstore,and

it can run Linux and Linux-based software.

If you want to do the latter,you have to

choose to install Linux from the Settings

menu. Once done,it’s possible to install all

sorts of stuff directly from the command

line or by downloading DEB files and

double-clicking. There’s awhole world of

applications to choose from, ranging from

photo-editing software such as GIMP and full

office softwaresuch as LibreOffice to

development IDEs such as Eric and Wing.

CHROME COMFORTS

It’s hard to pick holes in the Chromebook

Flip C436FA. It’s expensive foraChromebook,

but that’s reflected in the quality: it’s

powerful and nicely made,with agreat

display, effective touchpad andlongbattery

life. We wouldn’t sayit’s outright better than

the Pixelbook Go,which lasts even longer and

provides asuperior typing experience,but

Asus’s effort is at the very least an equal in

the premium Chromebook arena.

JonathanBray

SPECIFICATIONS

Battery life

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

See page 82 forperformancedetails

PROCESSORQuad-core1.6GHzIntel Core i5-10210U•RAM

8GB•DIMENSIONS296x199x13.7mm•WEIGHT1.2kg•

SCREEN SIZE14in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•

GRAPHICSADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics620•TOTAL

STORAGE256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMChrome OS•

WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.asus.com•

PART CODEC436FA-E10033

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