The idea of that big saving is the main reason you buy a Chromebook. But what is its Chrome OS software actually like?

The more you pay for it, the worse it seems: that’s the blunt truth. It’s perfect if you hop between public Wi-Fi hopper, or live off Google Docs, because the Asus Chromebook Flip feels a bit like Android with a proper Windows-style front end.

You can run multiple apps at once, in scalable windows, just as you would with a normal laptop. And it supports Android apps.

This opens a whole world up to the Asus Chromebook Flip, even if it is just the phone and tablet app world rather than the one of more “serious” stuff you get on Windows. For example, you can download Microsoft Word and get a totally serviceable version of that word processor, if Google Docs seems a little flimsy.

We downloaded the original Sonic the Hedgehog from Google Play, plugged in a PS4 gamepad over USB and relived the 90s for 10 minutes. We tried a few races in Asphalt 8. It runs just dandy apart from the odd dropped frame and looks fantastic on the 14in screen.

You can have a lot of fun with a Chromebook, and it nails light work, juggling all those Google docs people keep sharing with you.

But bear in mind what it can’t do. An Acer Swift 3, a £50-100 cheaper Windows laptop, lets you use the same music production software as Calvin Harris. It lets you use the same photo editing software as, well, whoever shot last month’s Vogue cover. A Chromebook doesn’t.

It also stumbles with quite a lot of Android apps. Some don’t scale properly to the full screen size, and others are simply not compatible. You can play Gameloft’s Asphalt 8. But Asphalt 9? That’s off limits. Ark: Survival Evolved installs, but it doesn’t run. Minecraft Story Mode has serious touchscreen issues and Munch’s Oddysee doesn’t even make it to the title screen before closing itself down.

In this context, where Google Play seems a selection box of biscuits someone has dropped en-route, raw power doesn’t actually mean that much. But the Asus CHromebook Flip’s CPU is only fair. It’s the Intel Core m3-8100Y. This is a processor designed for light jobs and low power use. The cheaper HP Chromebook X360 has an Intel i3-8130U, which is a lot more powerful.

But does it matter? You could argue Chrome OS in its current state doesn’t really do much that warrants a blistering CPU. And the m3-8100Y isn’t “cheaper” than the i3-8130U. It’s just different.