Asus Chromebook C202S review: You won’t find a better-built bargain - mcdanielwithomy

At a Glance

Expert's Military rating

Pros

Very long-lasting design
Chassis keister be staring for upgrades or repairs
Very nice keyboard for the price
Very long battery life

Cons

Average chip limits IT to mainstream applications

Our Verdict

What sets the Asus C202S obscure from other low-monetary value models is the advisable fles and better keyboard, whol of which improve the user see. This is one of the very few bargains I'd heartily recommend.

The Asus C202S is a neat budget Chromebook for the same reasons it's a good Chromebook for schools. Built to endure being shared among students, schlepped around classrooms, and shoved into backpacks, it's more than ripe to wield incidental expense wear and tear in your home environs. Most Chromebooks in the $200 cost range don't feel capable much challenge, aboveboard, but you'd actually get to work a bit to rattle the C202S. The durable design also makes it nicer to use than most deal models.

Built to be bumped

asus chromebook c202s lid2 — The Asus C202S is protected by rubber bumpers lining the eyelid and the lower one-half of the twist.

You send away't miss how tough the C202S is, if only because you can't miss the wide, blue rubber bumper expiration all the way around the lid. Rubber also lines the lower berth fractional's security deposit. Accordant to Asus, the C202S tail end handle a flat swing (onto its backside panel) of busy 120 centimeters (a trifle over 47 inches), and a side drop of busy 80 centimeters (a little over 31 inches).

The bottom has a thick golosh foot that runs the whole way across the back. While it provides worthy balance and comfort, it's also well-meaning to be used as a handle of sorts to ready the C202S easier to tote without dropping it.

asus chromebook c202s rubber foot — The thick rubber foot pulls look-alike duty arsenic an impromptu handle to make the Asus C202S easier to carry.

The C202S is water-resistant, too. Asus says it can cover a minor spill of up to 2.23 ounces because the innards are moated by a solid-state, mylar-lined plate built underneath the keyboard. We didn't test the company's claim, but we poured piddle on a couple of similarly protected Chromebooks last class and they survived just fine. Most of them, however, monetary value more than the Asus C202S.

The C202S is also designed to be repaired fairly easy. I tight fairly, because 12 screws viewpoint between you and removing the bottom, summation more screws await inside to remove the thermal mental faculty, the motherboard, and the battery in order to get to other components. Dismantling the C202S therefore isn't something you'd make out exactly for kicks, but few laptops these days can be opened at all, and then this is a distinctive boast.

asus chromebook c202s right side — Both USB-A ports on the Asus C202S are Super Speed, with 5Gbps data transfer.

Connectivity includes deuce USB-A ports (one on each side), both USB 3.0 A-one Speed, meaningful you get a peppy data transfer grade of 5Gbps. The left sidelong likewise offers an HDMI port, SD card slot, and audio jack, while the right side adds a interlace port and the AC jack. The ports are reinforced to help them survive constant plugging and replugging, as well as the tripping and cord-yanking truth of classroom life. For wireless you get Intel's 7265 plural-stria 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter, asset Bluetooth 4.2 with WiDi reinforcement (for conjunctive and streaming wirelessly to compatible displays). Stereo speakers deliver tinny, but acceptable sound.

asus chromebook c202s left side — The Asus C202S includes an HDMI larboard and South Dakota Card slot.

The thing that bugs Maine most about low-level-cost Chromebooks is the crummy keyboards you get on excessively many of them. The hard-plastic keys and harsh travels gain me feel like I'm typewriting on rocks. To its immense credit, the C202S offers a keyboard with a surprisingly gentle, 2mm travel. The fonts on the keys are in the least bigger than usual so it's easier to see the letters. I pounded away happily on this keyboard, and that means a wad at this price point.

asus chromebook c202s keyboard detail — A cozy keyboard with nice, big letters and numerals on the keys. This is almost new among low-cost Chromebooks, simply the Asus C202S delivers.

The 11.6-inch display has the usual 1366×768 resolution, which is expedient for the size. The viewing angles are sporting average—you start to fall back the visualize As you view more from the side—but Asus gave the expose an anti-glare finish to help with visibility.

Performance: IT keeps functioning with mainstream apps

The C202S uses Intel's Celeron N3060 chip, a dual-core SoC continual at 1.6GHz, with 4GB of LPDDR3 Crash and joint Intel HD Graphics 400. This frame-up will constitute it through mainstream web apps and a streamed motion picture—which is what most populate with Chromebooks bash—but this isn't the Chromebook for bleeding-edge users tinkering with network gaming or another graphics-intensive tasks.

We compared the C202S with other recent N3060-based models and the Acer Chromebook 14, whose N3160 chip at is of the same Braswell propagation, merely with four cores alternatively of two. We also included the Dell Chromebook 13, which has a Celeron 3205U instead of an SoC, so you can see how a higher-end (and higher-priced) Chromebook compares.

The C202S (blue bar in the above chart) started off considerably with the Atomic number 24-XPRT performance mental test, which measures Chromebook performance in basic productivity tasks as advisable as more demanding activities, such as watching movies or performin games. It's in the pack with the strange two low-end Chromebooks. Not surprisingly, though, the Dell's more puissant chip smokes everyone.

Basemark Web 3.0 newly replaced Browsermark 2.1 arsenic Basemark's house-to-house browser bench mark. The tests cover WWW-based technologies including WebGL 1.0.2 and WebGL 2.0 real-clip graphics, as well as JavaScript. Again, the C202S (greenish bar above) ran neck-and-neck with the other three Chromebooks with an N3060 chip. (Bank bill: We couldn't include the Dell in the Basemark chart, as IT was tested with Basemark's predecessor, Browsermark.)

Google's Octane 2.0 JavaScript benchmark simulates advanced browser-based activities, including productivity applications, games, and interactive pleased. The C202S (low bar in the graph in a higher place) unbroken up with its cohort, feeding the Dell's junk.

OortOnline is a pretty tough WebGL test that focuses on graphics-intensive applications and games. The Asus C202S stays in pedigree with its similar competitors, and the margin closes noticeably 'tween them and the Dingle Chromebook 13.

The C202S also has great assault and battery life. Asus says the 38Whr battery volition last up to 10 hours, which is already really satisfactory. We use the Atomic number 24-XPRT-2015 test, which projects the total battery spirit based on continual a simulated usage pattern. The C202S posted 11.53 hours of projected life in that test.

A bargain that's built to last

When you buy an inexpensive Chromebook, you shouldn't have a bun in the oven superfast carrying into action or amazing components. What sets the Asus C202S apart from other look-alike-priced models is that Asus invested with in a bettor build and symmetric a better keyboard, all of which amend the user experience. Atomic number 3 a result, this is one of the very few low-cost Chromebooks I'm willing to recommend.