- Usually with laptops,
the best, is probably the priciest.
But Chromebooks are designed to be budget devices.
The best value in a Chromebook,
isn't the most expensive one.
We've found that a lot of the coolest things happening
with Chromebooks right now,
aren't happening at the thousand dollar price range,
but at the 500 to 600 hundred dollar one.
So we asked every Chromebook maker to send us
its best in that price range.
And after a lot of testing,
we found the very best Chromebook for your dollar.
(upbeat music)
Of all the Chromebooks I've tested,
it's the Asus Chromebook Flip C434.
What's surprising about this laptop
is that it isn't the fastest.
It's not the cheapest or the most expensive.
It's not even the best when it comes to battery life.
But it's a joy to use.
And for most people, that makes it the perfect Chromebook.
Now, how did I get to that point?
I'm not gonna lie,
It involved a lot of boring charts,
I benchmarked these things.
I battery tested them.
I compared specs and prices.
That was all even before I started actually using them.
And ultimately it came down to just three major tests:
Which is the fastest? Which has the best battery life?
And which is just the most pleasant to use?
The Asus, technically only won one battle,
but don't worry,
there's still a lot of very good reasons
for why it won overall.
Hahaha...
It's gonna be great.
Test 1: Feel
Now how on earth can I say the Asus is the best Chromebook
for most people?
Because, the Asus Chromebook Flip is an attractive,
slim, and virtually bezel free beauty.
My other two favorites,
the Lenovo Yoga Book and the Dell Chromebook 3100,
do offer good speed and great battery life,
but they do so at the cost of your back,
and your shoulders, and any style you had up until
this point in life.
When it comes to using a laptop daily,
the Asus is the only one that really feels like a much more
expensive product.
Of all the Chromebooks I've tested,
this was the only one that actually felt like a real
joy to use.
That makes the Asus Chromebook Flip,
our winner baby.
Test 2: Speed
Now as exceptional as the Asus Chromebook Flip is,
it stops short of dominating on the benchmark
we have for speed, like WebXPRT or Geekbench.
Every single Chromebook tested,
uses a different processor.
And the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook,
has the fastest processor.
So of course it was gonna win.
The Asus Flipbook also didn't lose though.
In fact, it placed second or third on each benchmark.
So the Lenovo won the speed battle,
but the Asus didn't suck.
Test 3: Battery
The Asus didn't suck for battery life either.
Testing the battery life on a Chromebook
was just like testing any other laptop, tablet, or phone
at Gizmodo
We set them all to the same brightness.
In this case, it's 200 nits.
We turn off the extra stuff like back-lit keyboards,
bluetooth, and notifications.
And then we stream a 24 hour video on YouTube.
Again, there wasn't a huge surprise here.
The Dell Chromebook 3100 has a tiny, 11.6 inch display,
but the 1366 by 768 resolution,
which makes it the smallest display of all the
Chromebooks we've tested.
A smaller display,
typically means the machine uses less battery.
Dell, also has long, standing reputation
for making the longest, lasting battery for laptop.
Which is why we weren't surprised that the Chromebook 3100's
battery lasted over 13 hours.
Incredible!
The Asus lasted 8 hours and 24 minutes,
dismal compared to Dell.
But nearly every other Chromebook, including the Lenovo,
lasted less than 8 hours.
So the Dell won,
but again,
the Asus, didn't suck.
Now, if performance matters more than anything else,
the Lenovo is available.
But with some of the worst battery life
and a huge chassis, I wouldn't recommend it.
Meanwhile, the Dell crushes the competition in battery life,
but it's way slower and has one of the lousiest displays.
So even though the Asus didn't win every battle,
it came pretty close.
More importantly, it won the most crucial one,
cause it's the only Chromebook
that actually feels like a joy to use
every day.
That's why I like it.
It's under 600 dollars,
and it feels like a full feature laptop.
That makes the Asus Chromebook Flip C434,
our winner.