Asus Chromebook CX1101: Reliable laptop for the price of an Android phone

Chromebooks – toned down laptops that offer an Android-like experience have picked up quite a bit since 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic sending students and working professionals in 1.5 to 2 years, Chromebooks found a new market as many students move up this category to get a more laptop-like feel, compared to tablets. However, Chromebooks are said to offer a lot of limited usability compared to our traditional laptops, but they also cost a fraction of what Windows laptops cost, making them a good option to consider when looking for a device for basic work/study purposes. . Now I have used Asus the newest Chromebook, the CX1101 since the last few days, and I’ll tell you how this Chromebook performs and whether you should buy it or not. Let’s see:

DESIGN

In terms of design, the Asus Chromebook CX1101 looks like a thin and light laptop. It has a nice aluminum finish with a sleek profile. Asus says it’s made of military-grade material, but there’s no way to test that. The keyboard on the laptop feels good. There is plenty of key travel and the keys give nice and clicky feedback. The display area has thick bezels, which in my personal opinion detracts a bit from the otherwise good design.

Port-wise, there are two USB-A ports, two USB Type-C ports, one microSD card slot for expandable storage, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The laptop is also super lightweight and weighs just a kilo – good job design-wise.

SCREEN

The Asus Chromebook CX1101 comes with an 11.6-inch HD display. To put it in one sentence, this screen will feel dull and low quality if you come straight from a Windows laptop or a MacBook. That said, the Asus Chromebook CX1101’s screen isn’t that bad. Watching videos and content is a good experience and every day is better than a smartphone or even a budget tablet. However, if you’re using this for typing or editing photos, it’s quite small and doesn’t have the best color accuracy.

PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY

Now, in terms of performance, this laptop doesn’t do much. This way you don’t use a Chromebook for gaming or other heavy tasks such as video editing. However, for basic typing and viewing content, it works fine. The laptop is powered by a Dual Core Intel Celeron N4020 CPU in combination with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory.

Now, handling tasks is no problem for the Asus Chromebook CX1. It doesn’t run Windows compatible apps like Microsoft Word or Excel, but there are alternatives like Google Docs and Google Sheets. While the 4GB RAM might sound less for a laptop, the Chromebook mostly uses it for running Chrome as most apps like YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs and more are Chrome extensions on Chrome OS. However, some apps have a smartphone-like aspect ratio like Disney+ Hotstar opened in a slim vertical profile.

Sometimes it gave me lag for a few seconds while doing normal things like watching videos or typing content and it takes a while to connect to wifi after booting up. Other than that, I didn’t experience any lags or delays during my short time with the Asus Chromebook CX1101.

One of the best things here is that there are apps (or Chrome extensions) for most things, so this is a really handy option for students. The Asus Chromebook CX1101 does what it’s supposed to do pretty well.

JUDGMENT – RIGHT CHROMEBOOK EXPERIENCE ON A BUDGET

So the Asus Chromebook CX1101 is a true Chromebook laptop. It does all your basic tasks like reading, researching, typing, watching videos and editing photos. The laptop runs on Chrome OS and most of the apps run as Chrome extensions which work perfectly. The laptop didn’t slow down or lag during my use, and the design is great – except maybe for the thick bezels. At just Rs 18,990, the Asus Chromebook CX1101 is right up there in the affordable mid-range Android smartphone area, making it a super deal for all types of users.