ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5400FM) 2 in 1 Laptop Review

Its your professional Chromebook for everything work and entertainment

Chromebook is really on the rise, as we all thought its been always for the student that much needed for study and editing using web based powered apps. But it seems that Google and ASUS has started to push it slowly to the business segments as well. Today we will look at the ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5400FM, a professional class Chromebook that is meant for productivity, tailored for work and medium task workload with a combination of Android apps together. 

Design

The ASUS Chromebook CX5400 is resemblance to any Windows based laptops in terms of design, but much focused on simplicity combined with its all metal chassis design matching the modern work lifestyle, with the added element of practicality needed in a package. The chiclet keyboard is comfortable enough for your everyday typing for all your authoring and documents with a good amount of key travel to it. The keyboard does come with backlight LED which makes in convenient on working at any environment. Since this is a touchscreen laptop, you can use it in 4 modes, Tent, Laptop, Tablet and Stand mode. There is also an active stylus included for writing, drawing and some scribbling with Google Keep or Photoshop for Android.

One of the outstanding features of the CX5400 is that this laptop is built to surpass the US military-grade MIL-STD-810H durability standards that can withstand occasional drops up to 120CM with panel pressure up to 25KG. Moving the display panel from normal laptop mode to tablet mode is sturdy and stable, with no noise or creaks over the hinge when switching over different use modes. Over to the trackpad, this is a fairly spaced trackpad that features full ChromeOS trackpad gestures with most of the Android apps compatible with it via Google Play Store.

There is webcam on this laptop, located above the screen configured at 720P on video mode with a 13MP capture resolution. Overall experience with the webcam is pretty good and well more than enough for conference and virtual learning usage, which is perfect for all round everyday use and also it comes with a privacy shutter on the webcam, which is a slider type.

Ports and Charging

The ASUS Chromebook CX5400 comes with a standard supplied USB C charger that supplies charging from 10% to 100 % around 2hours and 45minutes on average. Over on the left side of the laptop you will spot 1 USB C slot for charging and data, 1 USB A port, MicroSD card slot, Combo Headphone/Microphone jack. Over on the right side, there is a 1 USB C port, Power and Volume Buttons, and a stylus slot which also charges it at the same time.

Thermals and Heat

The ASUS Chromebook CX5400 does an excellent job in the thermal department, hovering around 39 degree Celsius in a normal temperature room while working on documents with very minimal noise over the fan heatsink giving it a pleasure working with the laptop. There will be no testing on heavy load of files, but Chromebooks can edit documents and images, as long you have the right applications installed with no loud noises.

Display & Audio

Over in the display department, the ASUS Chromebook CX5400 features a 1080P NanoEdge 14 inch 10 point touch display with blue light filtering. Furthermore, looking at the display is not glaring and comfortable, perfect for those who are using it for long hours for minor work editing and multimedia use. Viewing angle wise, from a Chromebook perspective, this is one of the best we ever tested with visibility tilting angles over the sides. If you wish for a color accurate display, this Chromebook nails it with SRGB accuracy up to 100%. Audio wise, the dual stereo speakers is tuned by Harmon-Kardon, giving it full immersive mobile audio experience with good mid and bass during movie and music playback.

Specifications and Features

The ASUS Chromebook CX5400 features the Intel® Core™ i5-1130G7 Quad Core Processor on Tiger Lake Platform with Intel Xe graphics, 8GB of system RAM and 128GB of PCIE SSD storage. Besides that you will have additional storage expansion from the microSD card slot and also by signing in to Google Drive, you will have at least 15GB of free cloud storage, and can be further expanded if you have subscribe to Google One which you can add another 100GB for RM85 a year. On top of that if you are feeling adventurous, you can install Linux environment, enabling Debian Linux app installation as well, which includes Steam and host of other Linux applications.

Performance

This Chromebook is categorized as a full productivity and entertainment Laptop, it is still able to play light games as long the settings are set on low, you still be able to play games like Minecraft or Mobile Legends at a very acceptable frame rate without issues.

Over general performance, from Google Sheets to web browsing, it works pretty well and is satisfying. Over to streaming, you can stream up to 1080P 60FPS without issues encountered. If you wish to run Adobe Photoshop Express also with stylus support, YES, you can, with certain heavy images also, it can handle it well. Overall on daily basis you can last up to 8 hours average on workload.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Thoughts

With its retail street price starting from RM4199, we can recommend the ASUS Chromebook CX5 specifically those who can easily work with the Chrome environment and Linux Application, as the powerful processor and huge amount of memory will ensure Google will keep supporting the OS updates for long. Multi-Touch screen and Active Stylus is there to unleash the user’s creativity and compatibility with Android Apps is its main selling point for this Chromebook which this give more possibility of work, play and game with just one device with Chrome enterprise ready for its workplace environment.

Special thanks to ASUS for loaning us the product to review

For more information on the ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5, click here