A Chromebook replaced my MacBook Air

Well my MBA finally gave up the ghost. It was over 6 years old, and had one battery replacement but this time, the battery refused to charge. I figure it’s probably not worth repairing and a colleague recommended a Chromebook.

It got me thinking, why not try something new? Most of my work lives in the Cloud and I use a lot of Google services. I also am an Office 365 subscriber so something which could work with Microsoft Office would suit the bill as well.

ChromeOS being not only a cloud based solution, now also supports Android apps and Linux (in beta). This flexibility of choice made me take the jump. I researched various options and based on reviews and price point I settled on the Asus Flip C434

This is a 14″ touchscreen Intel core m3 powered Chromebook with 4Gb ram and 64 Gb SSD. There are 2 microUSB ports and a standard USB 3 port.
The screen can be rotated to a full 360 degrees which makes it a tablet, and in the tablet mode the keyboard is disabled so you don’t make accidental key presses when holding it like a tablet. The appearance is premium and the aluminium case feels solid. The keys click nicely on typing though the silver grey colour makes the keys a bit difficult to see in dim light. The trackpad is a delight to use, it’s smooth and the sensitivity is reminiscent of the MBA.

The processor is a low powered one so there is no fan and it is therefore super silent and doesn’t heat up much making only slightly warm if you are typing with it on your lap. I find the battery life decent – at least 8 hours – which is important as if it is to replace the MackBook Air, it should take me a full day as I use the laptop on my travels and chiefly to conferences.

I already do a lot of my work on Google services , mainly Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Googe drive, Keep and Photos. I was pleased to find the built in File manager could not only view the Google drive as a folder but there are also extensions for you to view OneDrive, DropBox and pCloud which I also use as Cloud storage. There is a micro SD slot so I got a 128 Gb card for extra storage – mainly for downloads, documents etc. I found the design of the micro SD card slot a bit wanting in the sense that I often accidentally pressed on the card which juts out slightly, causing it to eject. Asus should make the slot a little more recessed or else put a cover on it.

For “Office” work, it’s not an issue with Google Docs or Office 365 online but I also installed the Android Office apps which serve my basic needs. I also installed my most used Android apps including a VPN for secure connections and I was pleased to find that the Android VPN integrates with the Chromebook network settings so all connections are protected by the VPN.

Any downsides so far? For one, I could not find a MiraCast option for the Chromebook which is sad as I have a Miracast dongle for one of my TVs. However Chromecast works out of the box as you would expect and for my Android TV, it works like a charm. In fact with the lid closed, the Chromecast stream continues uninterrupted.
In order to connect to non-Chromecast capable screens, I got a USB-C hub which enables me to connect to a HDMI port so that works well. The hub has a USB connector for a mouse which I use as a control when the Chromebook is projecting via HDMI and the lid is closed.
The other thing I’ve yet to figure out is how to connect my network drive storage as the SMB service somehow cannot be added to the File manager even though I followed the recommended steps. I suspect it is a bug and hope it will be resolved in a future update.
EDIT:
I was successful in getting my NAS drive to connect and map to the ChromeOS File Manager. This was done using the File System for Windows extension which allows one to select SMB v1 in the settings (I think this is the issue with the native File which requires v2 onwards) and then map the shared folder to File manager.

For a great video review, here’s Chrome Unboxed on the device: