ASUS Chromebook Flip C100 breaks new ground.

It’s lighter and cheaper than any other touch-enabled Chromebook and it even has a 360-degree rotating screen. The ASUS Chromebook Flip C100 is unique and almost a Chrome OS tablet. At a price of $249 there aren’t many questions that consumers really need to ask.

ASUS and Google announced three Chrome OS products yesterday and all are based around a Rockchip CPU. All are, unsurprisingly, very price-competitive. There’s a Chrome OS ‘stick’ called the Chromebit along with two Chromebooks. The C201 starts at just $169 which is a mind-blowing price for a laptop, assuming battery life and performance are OK. ASUS are quoting ‘up to 13 hours’ battery life.

The Chromebook Flip C100 is the most interesting of the new devices in our opinion. It’s a convertible laptop that weighs under 2 pounds (not much more than a Surface Pro 3 tablet) and includes a 10-point touchscreen and a rotating display. The Lenovo N20p was the closest we’ve come to having a consumer-focused / priced convertible Chromebook until now and that one didn’t have a fully rotating screen.

At this weight and size (it’s only 15 mm thick) we can’t expect it to have a huge battery inside and the price, $249, also gives us hints that corners will have to be cut somewhere. The battery capacity is usually the first to be hit when prices drop. ASUS are saying the C100 will run for ‘up to 8 hours’ which is a good sign that 6 hours will be reachable under normal online conditions. It’s not all-day battery-life like the ASUS C200 but should be enough for the intended audience.

That audience is likely to include a lot of people buying for home and holiday use and that’s a good thing. The Lenovo N20P proves that Chrome OS is touch friendly and that convertible form-factors work. As a sofa-side or coffee-shop laptop there’s not much that can compete for flexibility and security.

There’s an interesting line in one of the press releases that mentions Android. “Chrome OS gives the Chromebook Flip C100 a full Android tablet experience with the productivity of a notebook.” What does ‘full Android tablet experience’ mean exactly?  Maybe that’s something we’ll find out at Google IO.

The Flip C100 will be available in the USA in June at BestBuy for $249.

Press release:

ASUS Chromebook Flip is the world’s first 10” convertible Chromebook with a full metal chassis, so a user can go from laptop to tablet form factor in a snap. Ultra-thin and extremely light, for maximum portability. In order to create a bold and beautiful design on the Flip, Chrome OS has been optimized for touch with features such as Google Now, voice recognition, and virtual keyboard handwriting. Chromebook Flip is to demonstrate the power of touch and mobile on a best-in-class convertible device. The ASUS ChromebookFlip is powered by a Rockchip® quad-core processor with 2GB/4GB RAM for incredible performance – the device boots in seconds. It has a 10-finger multi-touch screen, with a comfortable wide key-pitch keyboard and up to 8 hours* battery life for all-day mobile use. The connectivity with dual-band WiFi 802.11ac & BT4.0 support can also provide up to 3 times the speed of 802.11n for faster data transfer. Carved from a single block of aluminum for a seamless design, the ASUS Chromebook Flip is not only beautiful, but durable, too. ASUS Chromebook Flip will be available on BBY.com starting at $249 in June 2015. [Source]