The Asus Chromebook Flip (C302CA-DHM4) ($499) is priced to compete with entry-level Windows laptops, yet has the look and feel of a premium offering. Its metal body construction, backlit keyboard, beautiful screen, and long battery life make it a very attractive alternative to yet another plastic laptop. Although ostensibly an update of the Chromebook Flip( at Amazon), one of Asus's earlier convertible laptops, this iteration is all new, and an excellent evolution of the chromebook in general.

High-Quality Design

The body of the Chromebook Flip is all aluminum and glass, making it look like a silver Apple MacBook Pro on a smaller scale. Two hinges allow the lid to rotate 360 degrees, so you can use the Flip in Laptop, Stand, Tent, or Tablet mode. The last three modes hide the keyboard to give you unobstructed access to the touch screen. The laptop measures 0.53 by 11.96 by 8.26 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.43 pounds. That's quite a bit smaller and lighter than the Acer Chromebook 14($419.99 at Walmart), our latest top pick. You should have no trouble using it on your couch, on a commuter train, or on an airline tray table.

The 12.5-inch full HD touch screen is a highlight. It displays bright, accurate images, with a wide-angle view you can share with a few close friends. Touch sensitivity is quick, fast enough for most Web games. The touch screen will serve you well when Android for Chrome OS support is rolled out later this year. Chrome OS now has a tablet mode, which the Chromebook Flip switches into automatically when you turn the screen beyond 180 degrees. The stereo speakers on the left and right side panels can fill a small- to medium-size room with clear sound and music.

The full-size backlit keyboard is comfortable to use during extended typing sessions. Most less-expensive chromebooks, like the Acer Chromebook R 13 ($487.90 at Amazon) , the Asus Chromebook C202SA-YS02 ($422.50 at Amazon) , and the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 Chromebook($487.90 at Amazon) come with more basic keyboards that may be smaller or lack backlighting. The Chromebook Flip's is laid out like the one on the MacBook Pro, though the function keys in the top row are customized to Chrome OS specs, with Forward and Back commands, as well as larger-than-usual Ctrl and Alt keys. The wide, one-piece touchpad is responsive and supports multitouch commands.

Chock Full

The 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC flash storage in the Chromebook Flip are respectively two and four times as much as you'll see in most chromebooks costing $200 to $300. The extra RAM helps you keep several tabs active simultaneously, while the extra storage, though a lot less than you'll find in a Windows laptop, is sufficient for downloading some video or music files for when you can't be online. You can also use the microSD card slot to expand local storage (up to 512GB), and Google includes two years of 100GB cloud storage to help keep your files safe. There are 802.1ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity, and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security, in case you need it for business applications.

There are two USB-C ports on the laptop: one on the left side and one on the right. Both can be used for external drives or connecting to an external monitor, though you'll need to buy a DisplayPort, HDMI, or VGA adapter for that (none is included). You'll also need an adapter for drives using USB Type-A, currently the most common interface, but USB-C is likely to become the more prevalent standard in a year or two. The included AC adapter occupies one of the two USB-C ports while charging, leaving one free. Asus protects the Chromebook Flip with a one-year warranty with accidental damage protection (even if you caused it).

Speed Racer

The Chromebook Flip is equipped with an Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor with Intel HD Graphics 515 instead of the typical Celeron or ARM (mobile) processors. Those are usually less expensive, but occasionally leave you wanting for performance. As a result, the system feels faster than other chromebooks. A trio of 1080p video streams ran smoothly while I used a half-dozen other tabs to view websites, check email, and stream music, and so on. A 4K video (displayed at 1080p) played alone only occasionally paused for buffering.

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Battery life is good. The Chromebook Flip lasted 10 hours, 23 minutes, on our rundown test. It's a longer time than we saw from the Lenovo N22-20 Touch Chromebook (9:09), though some chromebooks outlast this Flip, like the Acer Chromebook 15($199.00 at Acer) (14:17), the CTL J5 Chromebook( at Amazon) (12:21), the Asus Chromebook C202SA-YS02 (12:05), and the Acer Chromebook 14 (11:50).

The Asus Chromebook Flip (C302CA-DHM4) is appealing if you want (quite) a bit more than a run-of-the-mill chromebook, and are willing to pay for it. It's still priced in line with entry-level Windows laptops. For example, the 11-inch Lenovo Yoga 710($549.99 at Lenovo) comes with Windows 10 and the same CPU and RAM, but its screen is 11 inches, there are no USB-C ports, and it's $50 more expensive. Compared with other chromebooks, the Chromebook Flip has premium styling and construction, 4GB of memory, plenty of expandable storage, an attractive full HD screen, a 2-in-1 convertible form factor, and accidental damage protection—all for a bump of $100 to 200. It can give you the entire Internet, including desktop sites and plug-ins that don't work or display too small on your Android or iOS phone or tablet. For those reasons, this Chromebook Flip replaces the Acer Chromebook 14 as our Editors' Choice for chromebooks.

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