ASUS – 2-in-1 15.6″ Touch-Screen Chromebook – Intel Core 11th Gen i3 – 8GB Memory – 128GB SSD – Matte White – Matte White

PROS:
Build quality, keyboard, screen, touch screen, aesthetics, design, ports, sound, battery life, cost for what you get. In general with the exception of the touchpad all of the hardware. Fan would come on occasionally but was rather quiet. Device never got hot but would get warm.
CONS:
Touchpad, Chrome OS takes a learning curve and limited in scope still but a lot better than previously, overall usability as a “power user” leaves me frustrated as I feel like I’m using a cellphone in a laptop design. Webcam is poor. CPU can get overwhelmed when trying to do too much. But is still EXTREMELY good for what this device is designed for. Which is doing more singular tasks, with light multitasking.
USEABILITY/CONCLUSION:
Chromebooks have come a long way. Especially, since we carry pocket computers around all the time (cellphones). But they aren’t perfect and there continues to be a trade. The easiest way to sum it up is if you hate doing things on your smartphone because the applications themselves are frustrating you should probably avoid a Chromebook. If you are someone who is just fine with how applications work on your phone but would like a larger device with mouse and keyboard, then save the money and go with a Chromebook, as I think you’ll love it. Especially, if you are an android user. For me, I’m still a bit too much of a PC guy. As I fall under the category where I can’t stand a lot of cell phone apps as they dramatically reduce my productivity. I found that most of the apps I tried were clearly made for a smartphone and that didn’t sit well with me. As some would only be available in a smartphone orientation, of those that could be maximized to full screen would be so zoomed in that it was uncomfortable. When it came to things like Microsoft Word which I use all the time I could only have one document open at a time and cutting and pasting was a chore. As I couldn’t highlight just a sentence with the touchpad. Instead, I had to hold my finger on the word using the touchscreen, which would come up with the two tabs like it does on your smartphone, and then drag those to where I wanted, and then do shortcut keys from there. Which dramatically slowed down my writing and editing. As I’m constantly deleting, rewriting, and moving things around. This may be better for Google Docs, but I didn’t try that out.
I also fall under the “power User” and found that while the core I3 is extremely snappy in Chrome OS, it still wasn’t as fast as I wanted it to be. If I had too many things open and running at the same time I would run into slow-downs, apps would crash, or when I went back to them, they would need to reload. Which was surprising to me as I figured 8 GB of RAM would be more than enough for what I was doing. This left me two options close out and reload or wait for it to catch up. However, if I used Chrome OS and this processor the way it was intended, which is for like one or two tasks at a time, instead of several, with only a few tabs open at a time, I ran into no issues and everything was quick and responsive.
Last, I found that Chrome OS isn’t as intuitive as iPad OS where a lot of the gestures that work on that wouldn’t work here. The keyboard shortcuts while numerous didn’t always have what I was looking for. I don’t think there is a shortcut to get to your home screen for example. I also found it strange when I was on Chrome and would login to some sites, it would take me out of chrome, and into an application. Just like your cell phone. Which was frustrating as the applications often weren’t as good as the webpages.
Chrome OS has dramatically improved from years past. To the point that I think for a lot of people these are great devices. But there is still a lot of areas where it can improve. Thankfully, nothing about this laptop holds it back and the only thing that leaves me hesitant for some users (like myself) is the limitations of the OS system. If this was a windows PC I would absolutely LOVE it. So, hardware wise they knocked it out of the park and if ChromeOS is your jam you’ll probably love this device. If you are on the edge I would recommend a Chromebook for
A. Those who do basic web browsing and video watching.
B. Those who don’t manage a YouTube channel or something similar that juggles multiple programs at the same time to finish products.
C. Those who type one word document at a time without a lot of edits that require cutting, copying, and pasting.
D. Are like my Grandma or aren’t very tech savvy and want a device that is simple, updates itself, and has its own security.
Otherwise, I’d stick with windows or mac.
TOUCHPAD:
It comes with a 5.68-inch large glass touchpad that supports palm-rejection and multi-touch gestures. Moving my finger across the touchpad is smooth. But it just isn’t very accurate and really detracts from this device. As having a good mousepad really makes or breaks a device. They did a lot of things right, such as the size, it being made from a glass panel to allow your finger to move nicely across it, and gesture control. Unfortunately, they added a crazy amount of ankle snapping to it. For those unaware ankle snapping is when you can make perfectly straight lines with your mouse movement. In this case I can literally make perfect squares or rectangles every time. Without ankle snapping it is extremely difficult to do a straight line at all which adds a lot of precision. When you have angle snapping fine movements are nearly impossible as your mouse will get confused on which straight direction it is supposed to go. This made me either use the touchscreen to get around or connect a mouse. The touch screen is very good on this device which made navigating that way kind of fun. But still not as precise as a dedicated pointer. When I was using an external mouse I had no issues with angle snapping. I was using a premium gaming mouse that had angle snapping disabled. So, I’m not sure you used a regular office mouse if you’d also run into problems there.
KEYBOARD:
Arguably the second most important part of a laptop is the keyboard. The one on this guy is excellent from a typing standpoint. I type about 115 – 130 wpm and can be rather picky but this guy feels good. It has 1.4 mm key travel with nice tactile feedback once it registers a click. It requires a light amount of actuation force and is nearly silent where even in a quiet room you wouldn’t bother anyone. They are backlit with white light, but aren’t even throughout. My “F” and “T” key are brighter than the rest which is one of the few cases that this Chromebook shows its price. They report the palm rest area has an “obsidian velvet texture”. From a marketing perspective I’m sure that is supposed to sound extra premium but in reality, it just feels like matte rubber, which I like. I could type on this guy all day and not grow tired. It registered all of my keypresses. I have nothing negative to say about the performance or typing experience. But there are some weird things with this keyboard due to the size and it being a Chromebook that you should look into before buying to make sure it is right for you.
SCREEN:
It comes with a 15.6” Full HD (1920x1080p) IPS Touch screen with three-sided NanoEdge providing an 81% screen-to-body ratio, 178-degree viewing angle, and USI Stylus Support. I mostly put that sentence in there because it makes me sound smart and knowledgeable. The short of it is that this screen seriously impresses me, and I was not expecting it to be this good. As it beats most other laptop screens out there. It has a glossy look which makes everything very sharp but at the cost of poor reflection handling. Personally, I’m down with this trade but others may be upset by it as using it in a bright room can prove irksome. Thankfully, the screen gets bright to help combat this. It can also get very dim. No matter if you have it bright or dim you still get excellent picture quality and contrast. Which shocks me as most laptop screens don’t get terribly bright, and when you make them dim the entire screen starts to not look so great. I found that keeping it near 50% was plenty in normally lit rooms and I could go below that for darker rooms. Which helps improve battery life. Any types of text, pictures, or videos were very sharp and easy to read with good contrast and accurate bright colors. I don’t know what kind of screen they put on this guy but I was perfectly happy watching content on this guy which is super rare for me. As I hate most laptop displays because they are terrible.

This is a big beautiful Chromebook and I am very, very happy with it. I saw the comments here and on Chrome Unboxed but the trackpad is fine….it works just like it should. The screen feels huge and allows me to have windows open side by side, which I really like.
And to say it’s fast doesn’t feel accurate. It blazes…everything opens instantly and somehow my wifi feels much faster!
I love the backlit keyboard everything about the build feels high quality. Super sturdy. Battery life seems OK but I’ve only had it two days so don’t have a good sense yet.
It’s a five star Chromebook for me. It’s not small and not particularly light, but it gets the job done. As you can see from the picture, I have a little Chromebook (Lenovo Duet) for fun and games.

Chromebook’s have finally advanced to the point where they can fully replace any PC or Mac for most users that don’t rely on PC/MAC-specific software. This unit is FAST, has great sound, battery life, and graphics, and is lightweight. The 11th Gen i3 processor coupled with the 8GB ram and the 128GB SSD work flawlessly for light gaming, videos, spreadsheets, word documents, light photo editing, video conferencing (no lag unrelated to internet connectivity), and remote desktop applications.
15.6” Touchscreen / FHD (1920 x 1080) and a Harman/Kardon sound system provide a really good audio/visual experience! The screen can do a complete “flip” so you can use it in laptop mode, presentation mode, tent mode or tablet mode. And when in laptop mode, the hinges actually lift the keyboard to provide a more ergonomic typing angle. The unit also has a backlit keyboard, USB-C power input, a micro SD card reader, HDMI out, USB port, and a 3.5mm headset jack.

MEGA ULTRA HEAVY DUTY UPPER END CHROMEBOOK
ASUS – 2-IN-1 15.6″ TOUCH-SCREEN CHROMEBOOK – INTEL CORE 11TH GEN I3 – 8GB MEMORY – 128GB SSD – MATTE WHITE – MATTE WHITE (ASUS Chromebook Flip C536)
MODEL:C536EA-BI3T3
Best Buy Tech Insider Network
REVIEW:
WOW, I have never experienced such high quality build in any laptop, let alone a Chromebook. I have been using laptops for over 35 years (going back to suitcase style portables). This thing (ASUS Chromebook Flip C536 ) is built like a tank and screams quality throughout. If you are looking for a high end Chromebook, you owe it to yourself to take a close look at this one.
My primary use for a Chromebook is “couch surfing” while watching TV or when I just don’t feel up to the whole “windows experience” (eg power on, 20 minutes of updates, reboot, then out of battery).
Being able to use this as a true “convertible” to fold it in half and use it as a tablet is really nice.
GOOD or BAD for you to decide what is important to you and how you use it.
First as others have mentioned, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C536 is heavy at more than 4 pounds it weighs more than any laptop I’ve had in the past 6 years. The increase in build quality comes at a trade off in increase weight.
My other < 2 year old Chromebook from google only weights about 1 pound. That being said it is already failing, so maybe there is a case for higher build quality.
Second, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C536 is big. With almost a 16 inch diagonal screen, it has a pretty large footprint. This is not something you would casually toss in a beach bag for example. However, as a desktop replacement it is a worthy contender if you don’t need Windows Apps. I think it would also make a great / tough student computer for example.
The specs are great, especially for a Chromebook. With USB 3.2 C you can directly run a monitor or you can also use the full size HDMI port.
The Audio is fantastic. It sounds better than a recent wireless speaker I tested.
PRO’s
– Very High Build Quality
– Very Sturdy
– Plenty of Ports (SD, 3x USB-C, HDMI)
– Backlit Keyboard
– Great Audio
RECOMMENDATION
The ASUS Chromebook Flip C536 is about as good as it gets for a Chromebook. The price is bumping into entry level Windows laptops but there is nothing entry level about the ASUS Chromebook Flip C536.
Give is try, I think you will like it.