hey how's it going, Dave2D here
this is the ASUS C302, it's their
chromebook, their top-of-the-line
Chromebook, and I don't do much coverage
of Chromebooks on this channel, at least I
haven't in the past because I feel like
this type of hardware, Chromebooks, their
value is highly dependent on their
software like without a good software
experience this whole ecosystem doesn't
work very well, and in the past that has
been great but recently, actually in the
very near future these will become
awesome. So, before I get into the whole
like review of this particular unit I
need to talk about the state of
Chromebooks in early 2017. So Chromebooks
have traditionally been just like ok if
you don't know what a Chromebook is, it's a
inexpensive laptop like device, well it's
basically a laptop, and it runs Chrome OS
which is a software made by Google.
Now, in order to put applications on these
things traditionally you go to something
called the Chrome Web Store which is
kind of like their app store so iPhones
have the app store, android phones have
the google play store, Chromebooks have,
they used to have, something called the Chrome Web Store
which is their application kind of
library. The problem was that developers
just didn't develop much for the Chrome
Web Store, like most of the popular
applications weren't available on the
Chrome Web Store so Google did this
thing last year whether like 'hey we're
going to allow Android applications, the
ones that you would see on your android
phone, we're going to put those on to
Chromebooks in the near future' and that
is right now. In the next week or two
they're going to be rolling out across
most Chromebooks at least all of the
current generation one and future
generation Chromebooks they're going to
be able to run android applications. So
at first glance it's not like a huge
thing, yeah it's like a bunch of apps, are
coming into the system but this really
is a game changer. So not only do you
have just a gigantic library of apps now,
you're now able to do stuff offline so
if you want to do editing of documents offline,
if you want to play games offline
if you want to download videos and
watch stuff off netflix offline, you can
now do this on a Chromebook, these are
basically full-fledged computers. So the
addition of these android apps into this
chromebook ecosystem I think it's going
to heavily affect the sales and
the livelihood of Android tablets. This is
a Galaxy tab S3, came out a week,
maybe two weeks ago, and I I feel like
these products are dead on arrival. I mean,
why would you purchase that when
you could buy these for half the price
and they're just as if not more capable
than those. Some apps don't work yet, like
VISCO Cam, this is a really popular
photo editing app, and when i try to
install it, it says it's incompatible, but
chances are if your favorite app isn't
available right now, there's going to be
an alternative or two or ten that are
available and able to run on Chromebooks already.
So in general, I think if you are
an average user - I mean I know a lot of
my audience are like, they're heavy
gamers or just photo or video editors; if
you're one of those people then you
probably won't be able to use this as
like your only machine, maybe as like a
secondary device, but for most people you
can get by with a Chromebook;
the App Store selection is huge, so yeah I think
that's just the state of Chromebooks
right now. So I want to talk about the
device in specific now. So this is the
ASUS C302 and personally I think this
is the best Chromebook right now; it's
expensive - it's five hundred dollars, and
I guess let's talk about the things that
I do like about first. So it's got great
build quality; full aluminum build,
everything is solid - there's no plastic
on the device, everything from the hinge
to the finish feels like a top tier device.
There is like you can see over
here that it wasn't milled from a single
block of aluminum there's like two
pieces that they put together, but the
build quality on this thing is quite
good. There's two USB-C ports and there's
no USB-A ports - obviously not a huge
selection of ports, but it's a Chromebook
and you probably won't be connecting too
many devices to this thing. You also have
your microSD slot and then on the other
side you have your volume rocker, power
button and audio jack. The screen is
2400 x 1340 - it's reasonably bright and color
accurate, I'd say it's about average for
a higher end laptop or Chromebook. There
are better screens out there but I like
this one a lot. Performance is pretty
strong - strong enough I mean for what you
would do on a Chromebook - I can easily
have 10 chrome tabs open with Spotify,
Netflix or Twitch running in the
background and it'll handle it with ease.
The 64 gigs of storage feels a little
light, especially if you're coming from
laptop, but you can easily add a microSD
card if you want. I will say though if
you're interested in purchasing this thing,
I would highly recommend getting the
upgraded one, like the one with the core m
processor - I've used the Pentium
processor and it feels noticeably slower.
It's not that much cheaper so I highly
recommend getting the upgraded version
with more storage and a faster processor.
Okay let's talk about the keyboard.
This is why I've crowned this ASUS as the
best Chromebook. It's backlit 1.4
millimeters travel, perfect layout,
there's really nothing I would change
about this keyboard. Maybe like the
springs could be a little bit stiffer
but really it's a great keyboard, it
feels a lot like the macbook air, and for
what I use a Chromebook for and what I
think is a lot of people will be using
Chromebooks for - the typing experience
has to be awesome and this really nails
it. Very few Chromebooks do. And so
there's another competitor to this that
I would consider to be like the
second-best Chromebook out there which
is the Samsung chromebook plus, but the
keyboard on that is significantly worse
than this, that's why I prefer this.
The other thing that I really liked about
this like device as to why I think it's
the best - it's the flip. So a lot of
devices, when you flip it into tablet
mode, it's just not a comfortable device.
This thing is relatively light - 2.6 pounds (1.18kg),
but it's also the ergonomics like
when you hold this thing it feels like
an actual tablet, and I think if you're
going to have a 2-in-1 device if your
tablet mode your tent mode and your
laptop mode are all really comfortable
to use you've done a good job.
The trackpad is less awesome - surface feels
good, but it lacks perfect precision -
you'll get the occasional jitter, it is a
decent trackpad though. The battery life
is great - it's a 39 watt hour battery,
you'll comfortably hit eight or more
hours on this thing, so I've been able to
hit eight hours with the screen at 250,
keyboard backlighting on, I mean it's a
Chromebookm it's not pulling too much juice so
it's going to last. It also uses USB-C
charging - if you have other USB-C devices
that's a nice bonus. The speakers are
also decent; they're positioned nicely,
you get a good stereo effect, and they're
clear enough - there's no fan noise on
this thing so audio comes out pretty
clean, but it's a small speaker on a
Chromebook so it's not going to be
amazing. There's a few things I don't
love about this Chromebook - I wish the
screen was brighter, 300 nits is fine for
indoor use but if you bring it outdoors
it's not ideal. The other thing are the
bezels - so, these bezels are, I mean
they're not huge or anything but when
you have it in
tablet mode, especially because you have
that ASUS logo on the side, it doesn't
look like a particularly elegant screen.
I wish these bezeles were smaller but
that's about it, there's really not much
I dislike about this Chromebook. Now, it's
not cheap, it's five hundred dollars
which is actually quite expensive for a
Chromebook, but in 2017 you're not going
to get this kind of build quality unless
you're paying this kind of money. So is
it worth it? I think it is, especially if we
consider the android apps that are
coming in - if you can make this fit into
your workflow, I think this is a really
good device. Hope you guys enjoy this
video, thumbs if you liked, subs if you
loved it, see you guys next time.