At just over 3.1 pounds, it's not feather-light, but the C300 still feels very manageable. The chiclet keyboard is well-spaced and comfortable overall. Design-wise, there's not much to distinguish this laptop from the growing list of Chromebooks, though it does run Intel's new Bay Trail-M chip under the hood. Based on a few minutes of use, nothing about the C300 stands out as particularly remarkable; instead, it looks to be the latest addition to a sea of well-made, cheap laptops -- possibly with a small performance edge thanks to its latest-gen processor. ASUS says the C300 will go on sale soon, so stay tuned.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.