2014年8月13日星期三

ASUS C200 evaluation: The company's fundamental Chromebook is a battery life champion

ASUS C200 evaluation: The company's fundamental Chromebook is a battery life champion

Miserable, naysayers: You're available to catch sight of a reasonable come to of Chromebook reviews from us finished the after that a small amount of months. That's mostly as sales of these inexpensive laptops take shot up -- which process each one and their tend is right now making individual, even companies with the purpose of had previously shied away. The most recent brand to join the dispute is ASUS, which already has tons of experience building insignificant, economical notebooks. Indeed, ASUS' 11-inch C200 Chromebook ($250) looks like a 2009-era EeePC brought back to life: The large baby grand feels cacophonously familiar, since does the extended, 11-hour battery life. Even so, it's not a seamless zombie by whichever process -- taking part in information, it has a pretty serious flaw -- but if you're taking part in the bazaar in place of a Chromebook, it couldn't hurt to consider a company with the purpose of seems to know what did you say? It's burden.

I know you're drowsy of investigation Chromebooks compared to netbooks and, look, so am I. But hear me not at home: The good sense roughly of you take even heard of ASUS taking part in the fundamental place is as it pioneered the mini-PC vogue. By right now, it probably knows a fad before two something like making super-small, super-low-priced technology, exact? Exact. Mostly. The C200 is made of plastic, since you'd expect on a sub-$300 routine, and indeed, it's pretty unremarkable-looking. But, to ASUS' believe, the build by and large feels supplementary solid than, say, Acer's C720, which flexed at what time you grabbed it by the palm put your feet up. There's with a reduction of bend at this juncture, though the screen wobbles at what time you congeal the laptop down on a index. It's plus somewhat compact: On 0.8 edge your way thick, it has like dimensions since the Acer C720, except for it weighs slightly 2.5 pounds, versus 2.76 in place of the C720. Although both are flawlessly cool to tote around, the C200 is noticeably lighter.

It's on the baby grand with the purpose of ASUS' netbook expertise really shines through. The buttons at this juncture get along to be real cushier than on nearly all other Chromebooks, though the basin Chromebook 11 and Toshiba Chromebook both rank pretty highly taking part in with the purpose of regard. Not simply with the purpose of, but plus the keys are well-spaced, and not a hint of the main buttons (Enter, swing, and so on.) take been emaciated down to fit the 12-inch-wide frame. The trackpad, meanwhile, is large compared to the individual on the Acer C720, and does a precise affair with single-finger tracking. Veto complaints in attendance.

I want I might say such finicky things something like the strut, but this is individual of the most important areas somewhere Chromebook makers decrease corners. Since on rival systems, the C200 rocks an 11.6-inch, 1,366 x 768 panel (non-touch), and since usual, the viewing angles are awful. Dip the lid mail even to some extent and the screen washes not at home to the peak of being unreadable. Unfortunately, even if you were to invest taking part in a supplementary expensive zombie, the strut quality would still be real somewhat crappy. Take the Samsung Chromebook 2, in place of request: Even with a sharper, jam-packed HD screen, it still suffers from narrow viewing angles.

The C200 plus offers the same exact harbor selection since other Chromebooks. This includes two USB family (one of them 3.0), a full-sized HDMI socket, an SD certificate person who reads, a headset jack and a lock slot.

What did you say? A difference a central processing unit makes. The C200 is individual of the a small amount of Chromebooks with the purpose of doesn't practice a dual-core Haswell flake, the Intel Celeron 2955U. In its place, it packs the dual-core Celeron N2830, part of Intel's Bay Trail folks. Specified the familiar "Celeron" brand and the information with the purpose of the C200 is taking part in the same outlay range since its competitors, you might take up the performance would be real like. Taking part in information, though, the C200 is quite a small piece slower than other models I've tested. The zombie takes 12 seconds to cold-boot, in place of request, compared with six before seven seconds in place of all other Celeron-based zombie. And where nearly all Chromebooks sign not at home taking part in four seconds (this is a needed step in place of switching to Guest Mode), the C200 takes six. With the purpose of sluggishness is borne not at home taking part in the benchmarks since well, with the C200 development taking part in over ultimate taking part in all test, now and then by a expansive margin.

Taking part in everyday practice, too, the C200 feels a small piece prison, though with the purpose of didn't bring to a halt me from using it since my most important zombie, juggling email, HipChat, Facebook, Twitter and various blogs with the purpose of I read. Taking part in the finish, in attendance wasn't individual sizeable question dragging down the performance -- I on no account motto websites before games thick to a crawl, and I thankfully on no account suffered an outright crash. Veto, it was the small things. Deleting emails taking part in Gmail now and then took longer than it be supposed to take. Ditto in place of loading webpages, before remarks on the underneath of news articles. I even noticed a slight delay when I knock the "View inexperienced Tweets" button on Twitter's website. Now and then, I would click a link to ajar something taking part in a inexperienced tab, and next at what time I motivated finished to with the purpose of tab, the zombie would pause sketchily. Nearly all important of all, I didn't take whichever of these issues at what time I switched to a supplementary powerful laptop connected to the same WiFi association.

Don't fret, though, ASUS redeems itself somewhat with amazing battery life. Taking part in a ground somewhere almost all Celeron-powered Chromebook gets the same runtime (around eight hours), the C200 is a stand-out. All told, our evaluation piece lasted through 11 hours and 19 minutes of incessant tape playback, making it the longest-lasting Chrome OS zombie we've seen yet. Right now, does the best-in-class battery life produce up in place of the worst-in-class performance? Not quite, if you ask me, but hey, it's your shopping decision to produce, not mine.

How's this in place of a ringing endorsement? The C200 isn't entirely with no merit. Its battery life is with no trouble finest taking part in division, and the large, cushy baby grand makes it individual of the better Chromebooks in place of typing. Still, its performance is really most horrible taking part in division, which is saw a batch in view of its rivals aren't exactly powerhouses themselves. Even these days, in attendance are Chromebooks on the bazaar offering smoother performance in place of a like outlay, while Acer's on offer Chromebook 13 promises improved graphics muscle and equally extended battery life in place of simply $30 supplementary. ASUS would figure out well to upgrade the C200's central processing unit, and maybe abandon the outlay to better compete contrary to other brands. Until with the purpose of happens, this is an acceptable option, but hardly the finest.

TAGS: Asus, asus c200, asusc200, c200, chrome os, chromebook


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