ASUS Chromebook C300MA-DB01, 13.3 inch Review

13.3 inch ASUS Chromebook C300MA-DB01
via Amazon

Sleek and modern ASUS C300MA-DB01 is a slim and lightweight 13.3 inch Chromebook with a very long 10 hour battery life, fast dual band 802.11ac wireless, bright and clear display- but not Full HD, surprisingly good sound, HD webcam, durable and solid build, fan-less quiet operation, modern day connectivity options like Bluetooth, HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, offered at quite a low price for all that it has.

ASUS Chromebook has the dual core Intel Celeron N2830 processor (1MB cache) at 2.16 GHz - 2.41 GHz speed with turbo boost but no hyper threading, 2 GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM memory that is sufficient for multitasking at this level, no standard SATA hard drive but a 16 GB solid state storage and 100GB of Cloud based free storage on Google Drive for 2 years and Chrome operating system. BayTrail-M N2830 is a super energy efficient processor with a max power consumption- TDP of 7.5 watt. Chrome OS and other software get automatically updated on Chromebook without you being aware or doing anything manually and you don’t have to use an anti-virus program like you do on Windows computers.

13.3 inch active-matrix TFT-LCD HD widescreen glossy display with 1366 x 768 max pixel resolution and Intel HD graphics offer you clear and sharp picture but the display is glossy so it suffers a little from reflections and viewing angles are not the best as it is not IPS- but do remember this is a very low-price machine. It comes with a built-in HD 1.2MP camera with digital microphone for great live chats, taking still photos and capturing high definition videos. You get to hear very clear and loud sound through its stereo speakers with big audio chambers. It doesn’t have an optical drive but Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 A/C wifi with much better signal strength and faster connection, 1x USB 3.0 port to transfer data up to ten times faster than USB 2.0, 1x USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port to link to larger screen HDTV or other displays to watch movies at home or share presentations at work and an SD card slot (SDXC) to transfer multimedia and other files.

Black matte finish ASUS Chromebook weighs 3.1 pounds with dimensions of 13 x 9.10 x 0.90 inches- slim, light and portable. You get around 10 hours on a single charge in normal use from its 3-cell lithium ion battery so you can take it anywhere you want easily and be away from power outlets all day long. It has a full-size comfy keyboard that feels solid and good quality without a 10-key numpad but a large intuitive touchpad that supports multiple gestures. Chromebook is very easy to set-up, all you do is just log into your Google account and voila you’re on. You get direct access to the standard apps like YouTube, Gmail and Google Drive and can also use Chrome Web Store to download hundreds of other applications that you may find useful. Chromebook gives you the flexibility to have multiple accounts and each person’s private data is separate from each other and safe.

Conclusion: Asus Chromebook C300MA-DB01 is sleek and compact and feels premium with its beautiful design with black matte finish and hidden hinge despite being a low-cost machine- it has a better and more durable build quality than other Chromebooks. Speakers are quite decent, while the keyboard and touchpad both feel smooth and responsive. It is very convenient not having to update any software or run anti-virus in the background- everything is done automatically for you. Reliable super low voltage Celeron processor and 2GB memory are adequate for performing daily tasks and multitasking and as most things are done online on Chrome systems, you don’t need a large hard drive storage- Flash drive ensures faster boot-up and snappy overall performance unlike the SATA HDD and you have the 100GB Google Drive storage anyway, which is free for 24 months. Chromebook is offered with a 1 year limited parts and labor warranty by Asus and seems to be great value for dollar.

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