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 indoors for a good 1.5-2 years, Chromebooks found a new market as many students took up this category to get a more laptop-like feel, as compared to tablets. However, Chromebooks are said to provide much limited usability as compared to our traditional laptops, but then 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 been using Asus‘s latest Chromebook, the CX1101 since the past few days, and I will tell you how this Chromebook performs and if you should buy it or not. Let’s take a look:
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 that this is made of military-grade material, but there is no way of testing that. The keyboard on the laptop feels proper. There is enough key travel and the keys provide nice and clicky feedback. The display area has thick bezels, which, in my personal opinion, takes away a bit from the otherwise good design.
In terms of ports, 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 one kilo – good work in terms of design.
DISPLAY
The Asus Chromebook CX1101 comes with an 11.6-inch HD display. Now, to put it in one sentence, this display will feel dull and rather low-quality if you are coming straight from a Windows laptop or a MacBook. Having said that, the Asus Chromebook CX1101’s display is not all that bad. Watching videos and content is a good experience and is better than a smartphone or even a budget tablet any day. However, if you use this for typing or editing photos, it is quite small and doesn’t have the best colour accuracy.
PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY
Now, in terms of performance, this laptop does not do much. Like you will not use a Chromebook for gaming or other heavy tasks like video editing. However, for basic typing and watching content, it works just fine. The laptop is powered by a Dual Core Intel Celeron N4020 CPU paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory.
Now, handling tasks is not a big deal for the Asus Chromebook CX1. It does not run any Windows-compatible apps like Microsoft Word or Excel, but there are alternatives like Google Docs and Google Sheets. While the 4GB RAM may sound less for a laptop, the Chromebook mostly uses it for running Chrome as most of the apps like YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs, and more are Chrome extensions on Chrome OS. Some apps, however, take a smartphone-like aspect ratio like Disney+ Hotstar opened in a slim vertical profile.
At times, it did give me a few seconds lag while doing normal stuff like watching videos or typing content, and it takes a while to connect to the Wi-Fi after startup. Apart from that, I experienced no slowdowns or lags during my brief 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 very convenient option for students. The Asus Chromebook CX1101 does what it is meant to do quite well.
VERDICT – PROPER CHROMEBOOK EXPERIENCE ON A BUDGET
So the Asus Chromebook CX1101 is a proper 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 apps run as Chrome extensions which work perfectly. The laptop did not slow down or lag during my usage, and the design is great – apart from the thick bezels maybe. At just Rs 18,990, the Asus Chromebook CX1101 is right there in affordable mid-range Android smartphone territory, making it a super deal for all kinds of users.
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