Asus Chromebook CX1 Best Review
Table of Contents
The Asus Chromebook keyboard feels good to use, and the port selection is average. Should you be budget-conscious and in search of a large-screen Asus Chromebook, this presents a reasonable choice. Otherwise, it's generic design and small trackpad won’t turn heads anytime soon.
Key Features Handy Few Ports Available: The Asus Chromebook CX1 offers a basic set of ports with a pair of USB-A and USB-C. Budget-Friendly: The Asus Chromebook CX1 has a low price. This makes it a great choice for students who need to save money. Decent battery life: The Asus Chromebook CX1 will also last just under 10 hours, offering decent battery life
Introduction Of Asus Chromebook CX1
People know Chromebooks for their affordability. Asus Chromebook's large-screen model, the CX1, aims to continue this tradition.
You can see this right away when you look at its technical details. It has an Intel Celeron N3350 processor, 32GB of eMMC storage, and 4GB of RAM. These are basic specifications, even for Chromebook standards.
At $159.99, it is a great way to enter the Chromebook world. The price gets even better if you pick the 14-inch model or the small 11.6-inch version. But does it offer value for money? I’ve subjected it to rigorous testing to determine this.
Layout and keyboard
The generic silver shell looks and feels good
Relatively tactile keyboard, although with a compact design
The trackpad is somewhat on a smaller scale.
The Asus Chromebook CX1 won’t turn other heads with its design or build quality. The silver color and smooth finish on the top look nice. However, I feel disappointed by how the Asus Chromebook feels in my hand. Unlike other cheaper Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook 314, it feels generic.
For a laptop boasting a 15.6-inch display, Asus Chromebook CX1 feels somewhat hefty, tipping the scales at 1.8kg. This makes it heavier, but I found it still easy to carry when taking it with you.
When it comes to connectivity, Asus offering is clearly budget-friendly. Generally, you’ll only find two USB-A and two USB-C, along with a Micro-SD card slot and a combo headphone jack. Given its dimensions, this seems somewhat meager.
We would have appreciated a minimum of one HDMI port. The same feeling happens when you open the lid of the Asus Chromebook. You see a 60% compact keyboard layout and a lot of empty space. Other laptops with similar chassis dimensions usually offer a numeric keypad, which would have been a nice addition here.
The keyboard is responsive and has a nice tactile feel. However, the keys do not have a clear travel distance. This can make the keyboard feel a bit flat at times.
The screen bezel at the top and bottom of the Asus Chromebook CX1’s 15.6-inch panel is quite thick. However, Asus helps balance this with a good-quality 720p webcam. This is great for using Teams or Zoom.
There isn’t much to say about the Asus Chromebook CX1’s trackpad. It seems a bit smaller compared to the laptop’s overall size. However, on the plus side, it is precise and the buttons are tactile enough for repeated inputs.
- Low-resolution screen with medium colors
- Fairly dim glow
- The 15.6-inch panel offers a practical size, although
- If you’re looking for a budget laptop with a Full HD display, you’re unfortunately out of luck with the Asus Chromebook CX1 base model. It offers a base resolution of 1366×768, which is just above 720p.
- For a larger good display like this 15.6-inch panel with a lower resolution is not helpful. The pixel gaps become clear when watching Disney Plus or Netflix.
- With a stated brightness of merely 220 nits, this panel isn’t the most luminous and can appear somewhat dull, even for routine tasks. If you plan to work outdoors on a sunny day, the Asus Chromebook CX1 may not be the ideal companion.
- On a positive note, the Asus Chromebook CX1’s side screen bezel is slim. This helps ensure a good screen-to-body ratio. This also implied that the viewing perspectives were quite satisfactory.
Performance
- The dual-core Celeron CPU delivers subpar performance.
- 32GB eMMC storage is pretty stingy
- ChromeOS offers a simple user experience
- Given the Asus Chromebook CX1’s status as a wallet-friendly good Chromebook, I had no real expectations of it doing anything more than the basics.
- Indeed, even for a basic machine, operating the CX1 felt like a grueling task at times, given the 1.1GHz clock speed of its dual-core Intel Celeron N3350 resulted in a significantly sluggish real-world performance.
- This substantiates the lower ratings the Asus Chromebook CX1 received in our Geekbench 5 CPU testing arena, and its scores are only comparable to the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which is essentially a tablet in disguise. Its multi-core scores were noticeably slow, but this isn’t unexpected considering that the Celeron N3350 available here only possesses two cores.
- The Asus Chromebook CX1 also hasn’t received much storage with this review unit featuring a 32GB eMMC, a third of which is taken up by system storage. You’re probably very much better off choosing a high-capacity Micro SD card and using it here if you want this Chromebook to be useful for storing many apps.
- To get the most out of this Asus Chromebook laptop, you’ll have to stick to the basics: Web browsing and writing Word documents are the Asus Chromebook CX1’s forte. Those who looking for a laptop for best buy school college or work will probably want something more powerful.
- It lasted 9 hours and 52 minutes on the battery test.
- Capable of lasting between one and two business days
- Battery life on Chromebooks is usually decent, but in the case of the Asus Chromebook CX1, it’s pretty average.
- In our video loop test, the Asus Chromebook CX1 lasted just under 10 hours, meaning it trails other budget Chromebooks by two or three hours in some cases.
- The ten-hour battery life will last between one and two business days, depending on how much hypermiling you plan to do.
- It’s certainly not bad battery life, but I was hoping for better endurance given how weak the processor is here.
- Latest offers Should you buy it?
- You want a big-screen Chromebook: The Chromebook CX1 is a decent option if you’re looking for a big-screen Chromebook at an affordable price. Its screen won’t light up the world, but it’s fine for casual computing.
- You want snappy performance and a cool design: Where the most beautiful Chromebook CX1 falls down, however, is its generic silver casing and an outdated dual-core processor that offers lame performance at best. It’s better to spend a little more for better overall performance.
- The Asus Chromebook CX1 won’t light up the world with its uncomplicated design and slow real-world performance. For a ChromeOS-based laptop, it’s pretty decent with a large screen offering some pretty average colors.
- Otherwise, if you’re looking to try a good Chromebook, please downsize your screen and opt for something a little more compact like the Acer Chromebook 314.
- Used as our main laptop during the review period
- Tested for at least a week
- Used consistent benchmarks for fair comparisons with other laptops
Nits
- The brightness level of a screen. 300 nits is considered the minimum target for high-end displays.
- Specifications at a Glance
- Processor manufacturer: Intel
- Processor model: N4500
- Processor: Intel Celeron N
- RAM memory: 8 GB
- Total storage: 64 GB
- Storage unit: eMMC
- Dedicated graphics card: No
- Dedicated graphics card model: Not available
- Integrated graphics card model: Intel® UHD Graphics
- Screen: 14.0
- Resolution: Full HD
- Resolution (px): 1920 x 1080 Pixels
- Touch: No
- Operating system: Chrome OS
- Product type: Chromebook(Asus Chromebook)
- Color: Silver
- Keyboard: Spanish
Unboxing & Review of Asus Chromebook CX1
When ASUS sent me this Zenfone 9, I also got a Chromebook because I pre-ordered it. This Asus Chromebook had been lying here for so long, but now I decided to unbox it and review it. So, let’s get started.
So, here we have the packaging of the ASUS Chromebook CX 1400CN. “In Search of Incredible” is written on the box. We can see the data about this one here as well on the back. I have already cut it open here, and we can start with the unpacking. As you can see, “In Search of Incredible” is written here on the side.
Here, we have the Asus Chromebook itself, which I can just lift out. We will take a look at it later. Let’s check out what we have here: the warranty card, manual, and of course, some other things like the power cord. There’s a big opening, but there’s really just the power cord, which is USB Type-C.
This is hardwired, as you can see, and we have the EU plug here as well. That’s the power plug. How much wattage does it do? I think only 30 watts or something like that. It’s written down here, and you can take a look. Otherwise, there’s nothing else in here. You can open it up more, but you’ll see there’s nothing else in here. That’s basically it when it comes to the packaging. So, let’s put this aside.
Let’s put the Asus Chromebook here and just open it up to see what it looks like. From the weight, it feels lightweight—like a normal 14-inch screen, I would say. Here, we have the ASUS logo. It’s a silver version, and the Chromebook logo is here as well. You can see the hinges, which seem to be made out of plastic. We have some rubber feet, probably for stability. If I flip the Asus Chromebook open, we can see what it looks like.
There we go. This is how it looks. Typical ASUS 180-degree hinge. There’s a sticker that tells us about the 180-degree hinge, so it can lay flat on the table, which is pretty nice. Here, we have the keyboard and the touchpad. The touchpad is quite large, which I like. It has some clicky options at the bottom, and we have some rubber feet again so the screen not to touch.
We have everything we need: a pretty standard German keyboard layout with no F keys. Those are function keys only, so back, forward, reload, refresh, brightness controls and a power button are integrated into the keyboard. This might be very fancy because I don’t see a remove button here.
Pressing the power button instead of the remove button, otherwise on the top, here we have a camera. I’m not sure about the specifications of this camera, but I think it is like 0.3 megapixels or something like this or a one-megapixel camera. Here, I have to start it up to see. The only other difference that I see is between Control and Alt; we don’t have a Windows or Super Key. We just don’t have any key in between there. An Intel Core inside here. Some specifications, I think I can tell you if they’re written somewhere here; I’m not sure. So, let’s close it.
We have a headphone combo jack here with this Asus Chromebook for headphones and microphones. We have a USB-C port, a USB-A port here, and a USB-C port for charging. We have a micro SD card slot here, and on the other side, we have another USB port and another USB-C port.
As you see, I changed. I can charge it from here, I can charge it from there, I can charge it from both sides. I think both have USB-C 3.2 standards, and the USB ports are USB 3.2 standards as well. Here, we have the operating system already running. As you might see here, welcome. It’s by default in German. We can change this to English if we want to have the English language here. So, I can quickly say I want English.
Here, we can click through the device itself, connect it to the network, check for updates, and then we can set it up either for me or for a kid, which is also pretty interesting. This shows a little bit that Chromebooks are meant for kids, for school, or something like that. So, I’m setting it up for me right now. I click on next. Here, I can enter my email and log in to the Chromebook using my Google account credentials.
After I logged in, it greeted me here, and I could see what had happened. Chrome is syncing stuff when there’s personalization in Google app services. I can download Google Play apps and services. I also am allowed to download them, so I have to agree to those as well. I can use Google Drive for backups; I just don’t want it. And you can use location data if you want to and review Google Play options and so on. I click on accept.
And I don’t want a voice match right now. I can get data about it, related information, and so on, but I don’t want it right now. I can connect my phone as well if I want to. So, I can choose a device, for example, my Honor 70. I can say, “Okay,” and now I’m ready to go. Get started.
This is now the desktop that I’m greeted with. This is Chrome OS, as you can see here, and you can see that it automatically switched again to German as a language because it’s synchronizing with something—probably with the language that I have set on my phone.
We have Chrome OS running here with the Chrome browser, of course, with all the extensions installed like Dark Mode extensions, Quant Privacy extension, and Tamper monkey extension. It’s pretty interesting that they’re doing this automatically. Yeah, I have the Chrome browser here, of course. Then we have the welcome page: “Welcome to your Chromebook. Prepare to switch,” so what we can do for switching, and so on.
Let’s see if I have some settings. What is this here? Ah, there’s a possibility to use voice for searching the assistant, basically. Here I have the clock. I can switch between my accounts, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and I can turn on notifications. You can see Google Play Store is downloading something in the background. I have Night View here. I have the keyboard layout that I can check out, the volume, and I think the brightness that I can check. My Asus Chromebook laptop is charged 76 percent now, and it takes about half an hour to charge fully.
Now, let’s go into settings. The first thing I want to change again is the language if I’m able to do so. Let’s go to “Advanced.” I don’t see the possibility of changing the language. Anyway, I have several different options here, like setting up my network devices. I have connected devices that I can set up. I have the Honor now active here, but I can probably change it and have another device active as well.
The people (persons) who are using this Asus Chromebook are here, so I can probably set up another user here as well. I have some device-specific options, like configuring the touchpad, the keyboard, and the display, and also checking out the usage of the internal disk space. You can see that 14 gigabytes are now used. We go back here, and now we also have some performance data. For example, what happens when I’m not using the device? It should go to standby when I’m on power or off power. I can set this up, and some other personalization options here.
Um, yeah, and we have some other options here as well, where we can set up things like Linux beta versions or Linux tools, editors, and IDEs. You can activate this here and have the possibility to use Linux support on your device, which is also very, very interesting that you have this option. I’m not sure why the language switched and how I can change it back, but I can set up the time zones here. There, I can just set the language. I can set the language out. We have English here as well.
And, uh, yeah, how do I switch it to the one that I want to use? Ah, yeah, I can switch the language to whatever I want. So, not German, I want English.
And Asus Chromebook restarts the whole system and then switches again to English anyway. So, this is possible as you can see here. Quick walkthrough through Chrome OS. A restart is pretty quickly done, and what you do or have to do is enter your password for your Google account to log in because it’s sharing the password for the Google account. Then I hit enter here, and it takes a while to access the internet, asking for logging in, and then hopefully, it will let me in.
There we go. Let me in, and now I’m here on the desktop again with the Chrome browser because this is like the gateway to the internet. And, yeah, we have the Chrome browser here installed. We have files installed, so file manager of Google, which we have Chrome OS in this case, allows us to take a look at Google Drive as well, where I can see my devices, my documents, audio, images, and video that I can see here.
And there’s a pretty basic kind of browser that allows us to do certain things, like when I go to my files and I go to downloads, for example. Double click. I don’t have the right mouse key press, but I can go in here and create a new folder, not a new file though. I can add a new service, like SMB file share, for example, which would allow me to share data in my local network with Windows devices or Linux devices, and install new services, which probably will bring us to a web page that allows us to see more services.
Let’s just see… nothing was found here, but, yeah, it would allow us maybe to insert Dropbox or anything else there. So, yeah, that’s the file manager. Then we have Google Mail here, which is the email client. It’s probably only the website. Yes, it’s just loading the website and logging me in directly to Google Mail. And then we have Google Docs here as well as YouTube, which is probably also just the website.
Yes, which is logging in. And then we have Google Play Store and we have Messages. And then this thing here, this bubble, is the launcher. So, I learned it’s not the assistant, it’s just the launcher, but it shows up with a search box just like Google would do it. So, I can just search for applications here.
I also have this arrow button here up, where I can see more applications. So, I’m not sure why, but by default, you can see it’s not showing all applications. I like this much more with the search capability and the applications, where I see more applications that are installed, just like Google Sheets, for example, Slides, Google Keep, and Zoho Writer, which is like the possibility to write stuff with a powerful editor here.
Maybe you can hear it in the background; it’s not sounding very good, I would say, for playing back something like YouTube, playing games, or, of course, playing books. We have the camera application, and the camera here is pretty interesting. You’ll probably see me in a second. Yes, it’s a 720p camera here on the top. I’m not sure what the resolution is, but we can maybe take a photo.
And it took a photo, and we see some data here about this, probably using Google Photos of some sort. It doesn’t look very good. It’s like just for—yeah, you can use it maybe for some basic purposes. There we have the Intel button. Yeah, it’s a 720p image, so yes, it’s not the biggest and brightest, but you can use it maybe for video chatting. That’s basically it. So, it’s a nice addition that we have a camera here for this price point, I think, as well. YouTube Music is here. We have Google Photos. I think this might be— is it a website? No, I think it is an app. Is it a website?
Uh, it’s a website, I think. Yes, it’s a website. So, this allows us to play music. And then we have, as well, Google TV. Snapdrop is here as well, which is interesting. The text is here. Chrome Canvas, Calculator, and Explore, as well as my—ah, these are my bookmarks: Snapdrop, Graspberry, Mastodon (because why would Google promote Mastodon?), Google Drive, Messages, and Google TV. So, we also have the Play Store here. But what happened to the app that I wanted to install? It’s not installed.