Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402CB review

Chromebooks are cheap and cheerful laptops for buyers on tight budgets, right? For the most part, they have been. But Google wants to push the whole Chromebook concept upmarket and take on traditional Windows laptops more directly. The idea is to create portable PCs that compete with some of the more affordable entrants in our roll call of the best photo-editing laptops. Enter the new Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402CB.

Asus is one of several big brands partnering with Google on the Chromebook Plus project. The most immediate difference is that this Chromebook is running an Intel x86 chip just like a standard Windows laptop and therefore not the Arm CPU you'd normally expect to see.

It's an Intel Core i3 processor, so still relatively low-end. But there's 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. Add in a 14-inch 1080p screen and on paper this looks a lot like a full-feature, if entry-level, Windows laptop.

The software side is where things obviously differ, with Chrome OS rather than Windows installed and various Google apps like Docs, Sheets, and Slides built right into the operating system. So, you don't need an internet connection to do basic work.

Beyond that, there are additional Google-specific niceties, including webcam enhancements, the ability to run Android apps, Google Drive features being fully integrated into the system, and some claims around AI, the latter arguably being more about marketing than substance.

The catch, of course, is that you're not going to be able to run all your legacy Windows apps. How much that matters depends on your existing workflows. If you have Windows licenses or subscriptions you want to carry over, many of them may be non-starters. There are alternatives, including most importantly image editing and video encoding solutions. But the more demanding your workflows, the less likely a Chromebook of any kind is going to be a good fit.

Asus Chromebook Plus: Specifications

Asus Chromebook Plus: Design & Handling

If the idea is a more premium spin on the classic Chromebook concept, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402CB slightly stumbles at the first hurdle. It's reasonably well put together. But the all-plastic chassis hardly feels up market.

You do get a pair of USB-C ports, which is very welcome, plus two USB-A sockets, HDMI and 3.5mm audio. Then there's an integrated 1080p webcam, which is a cut above the usual low-fidelity webcam potato found on many cheap laptops and has a physical shutter for guaranteed privacy. Note, however, it doesn't support facial recognition, nor is there a fingerprint reader. So security is old school. You'll be using a password.

Making matters worse, this is a conspicuously dated portable with thick, unsightly bezels. It's brand new but it looks at least five years old out of the box. Yuck. What's more, there's a little flex and bounce to the keyboard bed, which doesn't exactly help with the quality vibes, and those screen bezels aren't just unsightly, they make for a larger-than-average 14-inch laptop. That said, at 1.44 kg (3.17 lbs) this is a reasonably light 14-inch lappie.

Another arguable downside is the lack of touchscreen functionality. Taken in the round, this is a worthy enough and workmanlike machine, but premium? That's a hard sell, especially with the dowdy styling.

Asus Chromebook Plus: Performance

Up front and center is the Intel Core i3-1215U CPU. It's a proper x86 with two Performance cores and four Efficient cores. Really high-end Intel portables go all the way up to eight Performance and 16 Efficiency cores, so you have to keep your expectations in check.

But those two Performance cores will clock up to 4.4GHz, and combined with the four Efficiency cores, the chip can run eight software threads in parallel (the Performance cores support HyperThreading). So, there's decent performance on offer and enough to comfortably beat any existing Arm-powered Chromebook, though that may change later this year when Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite arrives.

Anyway, for basic image editing tasks, there's sufficient CPU performance. Possibly more of a limitation is the 8GB of system memory. If you like to run with a zillion tabs open in your web browser, for instance, you're going to run out of memory. Likewise, 8GB will be a bit marginal if you're editing really large images.

Another problematic spec item is the 256GB of storage. As reviewed here, it's a UFS flash drive and not a proper M.2 SSD. So, it's far slower than most Windows laptops. You can opt for a 512GB M.2 drive and also a 16GB memory upgrade. We'd recommend pulling the trigger on both. The only problem is that it pushes the price into territory where you might as well just buy a Windows laptop.

You'd still be left with the software limitations, too. Photoshop Express is available in the Google Play store. But it's not as powerful as Photoshop CC and Lightroom is only available as an Android app.

As for the 'AI' pitch Google is making for these Chromebook Plus devices, it's frankly a bit of a stretch. There's no specific AI hardware in this device, so any AI functionality is run up in the cloud and therefore available to any Chromebook.

Still, the 14-inch display has reasonable working elbow room courtesy of its 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) native resolution. It's not exactly the brightest at 250 nits, but the colors are vibrant enough. The 1080p webcam is a highlight, too. It has far superior video quality than most laptops, even far more expensive models, and boasts operating-system level image processing including background blur and noise cancellation.

You can apply that to any video calling or conferencing application, you don't need app-specific support. Less impressive are the feeble built-in speakers. They're loud enough, but the sound quality is hideously thin and tinny. Yuck.

Finally, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402CB offers better battery life than you might expect given the combination of a modestly-sized 50Whr battery and an Intel CPU. Over 10 hours of video playback is possible. With slightly heavier workloads, that figure will fall, but in most circumstances, it should just about get you through a working day away from the mains.

Asus Chromebook Plus: Verdict

The Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402CB certainly has the CPU horsepower to take on lower-cost Windows laptops thanks to an Intel Core i3 CPU, with quite a lot of similarly priced laptops configured here with an Intel chip, 8GB of RAM, and a 14-inch 1080p screen. But for any serious workflows, the combination of 8GB of RAM, the slow UFS storage, and the limitations of Chrome OS will begin to tell.

The dated styling doesn't help much either, nor does the fact that for lighter tasks Chrome OS will run just as well on a cheaper and more efficient Arm chip. All told, then, the concept of a premium Chromebook might make sense, but as executed here it's hard to see why you wouldn't just go for a similarly priced Windows laptop.

Alternatives

If you want something affordable that actually feels premium, you could do a lot worse than the 10th Gen Apple iPad. OK, it's not a laptop and a keyboard will cost you extra. But it's still super-fast and has a really nice screen and great battery life. It does tend to get a bit pricey when you up the storage to 256GB, however.

Another properly cheap alternative is the Amazon Fire Max 11. It's more of a content-consumption tablet than a device for getting work done. But you'll be able to access all the same Google apps and services for less money, the screen is great, the battery life is epic and it's still cheaper than the Asus Chromebook Plus even with the optional keyboard and case.