Amazon.com: Customer reviews: ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad Core, 2GB, 16GB SSD)

This is a great little Chromebook machine

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2015

I want my Chromebook bias to be clear to everyone. We are a Chromebook and Android family. We used Linux for many years, until discovering the simplicity and reliability of ChromeOS.

My wife opened her new Asus Chromebook Flip and said “It’s little” then she said “It’s heavy”.
Then she logged into Google and began using it. Being somewhat selective, but not overly so, she is inclined to say what she thinks. She likes it.

I purchased the Flip for her to replace her Nexus 10. The reason for that is the fact that her eBay store appears differently on the N10 than it does on her HP 14”, coral-pink Chromebook. Sometimes selling on eBay is a challenge and reducing those challenges falls upon her tech support (me).

Her Nexus 10 weighs 1lb 13oz. The Flip weighs 1lb 15oz. A difference so slight that it’s almost imperceptible. The screen size is identical. That makes her first two comments moot. The fact that she said she “likes it” is, however, important.

Octane scores and Peacekeeper scores carry very little weight with me. I much prefer a simple test done on speed-battle.com. I believe that it more closely approximates a score for how we use our computers. I want to know how fast a browser can render a page, how fast it can write/read to/from memory and how it relates to processor capability. Many technical folks may choose to argue my choice of speed-battle for proving my pudding. I know what is important to me and how I evaluate things. I can say that Asus Flip compares very well with my Acer 13” nVidia K1 machine.

I am waiting for her to flip it and use tablet mode, but she is in no hurry. I am pleased that she is using it as if it were the only thing in the room. It tells me that I made a solid choice for her. Most married guys with non-techie wives will empathize with me when I say that I am pleased that she is pleased.

I have been allowed to touch it only briefly. I can say that it is built very solid. The aluminum case is nothing short of amazing for the $250 price. The keyboard has a very nice snap and really nice key travel. She likes it and says “It’s really cool”. That’s a compliment. I liked the feel of the keyboard. It is better than my Acer 11”, perhaps even better than my Acer 13”, but this review is not about my thoughts exclusively. I would like the IPS screen to be a couple clicks brighter than what seems to be maximum brightness. The screen is very clear and crisp with no problem reading the smaller text. I would compare favorably it to our Nexus 10s, but not superior.

She just flipped to tablet mode. She says “It works well”. Scrolling through her Inbox is smooth. Her Pintrest is smooth and so is Google+. We are definitely looking good here, folks. We have a winner.

She handed it to me to see some things on the screen in tablet mode. It was a strange and unnerving to feel the keys being pressed on the “back side” of the screen while holding it. So very different from our N10s. Not something to which one would not become accustomed, but strange at first, and of course, the keyboard is disabled so there are no keypresses being registered.

I’ll be happy to answer questions once I am allowed to play with it. For now, I can say without hesitation that I would recommend the Asus Chromebook Flip to anyone who is looking for a tablet, or a replacement for an older tablet. This unit has full flashplayer, full desktop site support. It seems to function very well.

Rockchip, schmockchip, what does it matter the processor when performance is equal or better than expected for the money. My only concern is that this first production run has only 2GB of RAM. All of our other machines are sporting 4GB. However, I think that my wife’s usage will be such that 2 gig will be sufficient for her.

Following is a list of our Chromebooks:
HP Pavilion 14”, Intel 897 processor, 4GB RAM, several years old and still running well.
HP Chromebook 14, 4GB RAM, coral-peach, with T-mobile SIM, my wife’s daily machine.
Acer 11” 720P, 4GB RAM, touchscreen, great little machine with a small screen. I don’t use it much.
Acer 13” CB5-311P, 4GB RAM, touchscreen, my daily machine.
ASUS Chromebook Flip, wife is loving it while sitting on the couch (formerly used N10 here)
Toshiba Chromebook 2, had it for a couple weeks, didn’t like it, sold.
Acer C910 15”, 4GB, troubles with screen and freezing. Returned.
Our two Linux laptops go unused except for flashing ROMs on our phones.

I thought about providing a more technical review, but, thinking about it… why??? Others will do their reviews and there are plenty of videos on YouTube. This is my review taken from the remarks of a non-technical, but demanding, user. If my wife likes it, and uses it, then it’s declared a winner.

Here is a more technical review taken from my Google+ post:
Asus Chromebook Flip vs. Nexus 10
A new Asus Chromebook Flip was delivered yesterday. It is replacing a 2.5 year old Nexus 10 that still performs well.

The Flip renders web pages in desktop format just as a larger screen Chromebook. The N10 can render web pages in mobile or desktop format depending on how each page design interprets the useragent string from Google Chrome for Android. Having to request desktop pages each time is annoying and can be frustrating when the site refuses to deliver upon the request. Further aggravation arises because the mobile version of a site does not contain all the information that the desktop site offers.

The Flip is an asset to an eBay seller’s arsenal for page rendering alone. My wife does most of her work on her eBay store using her HP 14” Chromebook, but from time to time, she needs to make a change or check on a listing, etc., while sitting on the couch. That will be the main role of the Flip.

Chrome OS on the Flip is identical to larger chromebooks. It wakes from sleep in the blink of an eye. Battery life appears to be great, although it’s had only one charge out of the box. After more than 2 hours use yesterday, an overnight sleep and my testing this morning at full brightness the battery estimate is 5:50 remaining.

The touch screen is very responsive with fingers or a stylus. Pinch to zoom is smooth. The screen rotates in tablet mode, not laptop. The brightness of the screen is sufficient. I wish it were a couple clicks brighter, but it comes close to the N10’s brilliance. The display has a delightful crispness. Small print is easily readable, and rivals the N10 despite having fewer pixels.

Youtube video plays without stutter or buffering at 1080p. Amazing for this little thing! It was a pleasant surprise to see Facebook scroll so smoothly with no checkerboarding which beats N10 performance.

The audio quality matches my expectations. It is sufficiently loud. Music lacks low tones, but voices are clear.

Wifi is fast and connects quickly. It easily runs our Comcast router up to the max available speed.

Overall, it’s clear that Asus did not cut corners on this machine. The build is solid, keyboard is great, size to weight ratio is excellent. The aluminum body with its non-glossy finish and rounded edges feels good in the hand. However, it is unnerving to feel keys being pressed on the back of the screen when holding it in tablet mode, but we’ll get used to that.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amanda Biederman

It would be a great device... if only it worked

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

UPDATE #2, January 2016
I've decided to update my review because this has become absolutely ridiculous. As you can see below, I loved my Chromebook - at first. And I still would, if it actually worked. As I mentioned in the update below, I started having major problems with my Chromebook last October - just shortly after I wrote my initial glowing review of the product. I contacted ASUS. Fortunately the item was still under warranty, and I shipped the product back to the manufacturer. I received the product back in November, as I described in my first update, and found that the problem was still there. Frustrated, I sent the product back to the manufacturer again. A few weeks later, I got my Chromebook back. At first, the issue seemed to be resolved. I was ecstatic! I started experiencing the problem yet AGAIN within just a few days. At first it was occasional enough (~1x per day or so) that I was reluctant to send it back again, although it's extremely frustrating to have the device shut down in the middle of a task. It wasn't long before I realized I'd have to send it in yet again. I've now spent over $50 in shipping and packaging fees, and still don't have a working device. I don't know why the device isn't being fixed when I send it in, but this has become ridiculous. No one at ASUS has been able to give me an answer on why this is happening. If the problem isn't fixable they should replace it, not send it back broken. I'm extremely disappointed. I thought I was getting a bargain at $250, but I'm starting to wish I had kept looking and invested in something else. The great price and portability of this machine are useless if it only works when plugged in.

As a side note, the rubber pads on this device have started falling off. I lost one of the pads by the keyboard, and another has chipped. Worst of all, one of the rubber circular pads on the bottom has become loose. I've been extremely careful with this product - it always stays in its padded sleeve when in my bag, I don't set it up against heavy objects, and I've never dropped it. I know this product is delicate and I wanted it to last a long time. Just know that at this price point there are going to be some compromises in the build of this machine. But at this point I really don't care about that - I just want the device to work!

UPDATE #1, November 2015:
About 3 months after purchasing this product, I began to experience random shutdowns, and the device often wouldn't restart unless connected to the charger. The camera also wouldn't work unless plugged in. I sent the product to ASUS for repair. They shipped it back to me two weeks later, saying the problem had been fixed. However, I began experiencing the problem once again within 1 hour of use.

I still love my Chromebook, which only makes this situation all the more frustrating. I'm hoping that this is a glitch in my device and not a problem with this product overall. However, my experience will make me rethink any future purchases from ASUS - Chromebook or otherwise.

September 2015:
I've gotten sick of my Samsung laptop, which is only about 3.5 years old. It's large, and while the large screen is great transporting it on a daily basis can be cumbersome. My laptop had gotten slow - really slow - and nothing I could do seemed to fix it. I'd gotten used to the fact that startup would take 10+ minutes, and connecting to the internet can take an additional 5+. Shutting down takes 5 minutes on a normal shutdown, but can take hours when it needs to update, which is often. So I would often find myself reaching for me phone to look things up or do work because using my laptop was a hassle. In addition to all of this, I was constantly worrying about viruses and would spend a lot of time running security checks on my device.

I started thinking about buying another device to replace my laptop. I wanted something lighter, smaller, sleeker and faster. But I didn't necessarily want to buy a new laptop. They can be extremely expensive - like my Samsung laptop. I started thinking about what I actually use my laptop for: email, writing, document/photo storage, watching videos and general web browsing. None of these tasks requires a hard drive. In fact, I was doing most of these tasks on my phone (apart from extended writing) on my phone anyway. So I started looking into Chromebooks.

This device is exactly what I wanted. It was cheap, so I didn't feel bad about buying a new device when my laptop still technically works. It's small - the keyboard took some getting used to but isn't a problem at all (I have small hands so someone else might find it difficult). It's really sleek and beautiful, and almost resembles a MacBook. It looks a lot more expensive than it is.

I also love the touchscreen; it took some getting used to but now I'm used to switching between typing on the keyboard and using the screen as needed. I also love using the computer as a tablet; it works great for watching movies or reading documents. I thought the keyboard folding out would bother me, but I barely notice it. The screen seems a bit narrow/long when I use it to read documents in "portrait mode," but I've never owned a tablet so that might just be how they are. The screen is great in landscape mode so I wouldn't necessarily want to change it. Also, the device occasionally glitches; the screen won't rotate, the keyboard won't respond, or the keyboard WILL respond - when the device is supposed to be in tablet mode. This can be annoying, but it's only happened twice in the 2.5 months that I've owned it, and a hard reset always solves the problem. Since shutdown and bootup are so quick, in just 2 minutes I'm back to browsing! If this continues I may look into the problem further but it hasn't been a problem yet.

I found that it was easy to move my life over to "the cloud." I now keep all of my documents and pictures on Google Drive, which is great because I can easily access them on my phone or another computer. I don't have to worry about losing everything if my hard drive fails (although I do back the important things up on a physical hard drive, just to be safe). You can put a micro SD card in the Chromebook for extra internal storage, although I'm just relying on Google Drive at the moment.

I was surprised at how many things I can do through the Chrome browser - particularly, I can read view and Kindle books, along with Mendeley documents. You don't have a real desktop, but I made shortcut icons for all my frequent website in the little black bar at the bottom of the screen (a bit like the bar at the bottom of MacBooks). I miss the universality of Microsoft Office, but I find that I have few compatibility issues when I do need to convert them. You can even save Google Docs as .docx or .pdf and then send them through email. I missed having Skype, but I've found that I preferred Hangouts once I got used to it.

I feel more organized with my Chromebook. Most of my accounts are synced, and my information is available even when I don't have my Chromebook with me. Gone are the days of me having several edited versions of a single document - one on my laptop, one on my office computer and one on my flashdrive. Gone are the days where I get onto campus only to realize that I forgot to copy a file, and it's on my computer at home. I don't think everyone needs a computer with a hard drive. If you game, or use advanced editing software, this probably isn't for you. But if you're like me, it may make your life just a little easier. I could also see Chromebooks being great for older people who may not be as tech-savvy. You don't need to worry about updates or viruses, and this device is so user-friendly.

My one regret is not waiting for the 4 GB version. The computer does occasionally freeze when I have a lot of tabs open, and I have had to use hard reset to fix it. This happens often enough (maybe once a week) for it to be annoying but not really a problem. Again, hard reset is really fast and has fixed this every time. But I suspect I might experience the problem less on the higher-end version.

Overall, this device is exactly what I wanted, and I'm so happy I decided to try it. I think I may be a Chromebook user for life!

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alex CK

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly + Tips (September 2016 Android Google Play update available)

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

I am going to start the review for the device itself the Asus C-100 Flip Chromebook, then below you will see a review for the Chrome OS, if this is your first Chromebook as it is for me I recommend you read it, I will explain what you can expect of the OS, without the flowers and birds that Google, the Chromebook manufacturers and those excellent reviewers in the Tech sites tell you.

I bought this Chromebook with the idea of having a simple right to the point laptop / or a tablet with an attached keyboard, It is not the first time that I have a similar device, I owned a HP laptop, that was convertible it was a touch screen, flip tablet/laptop HP TX-2500 model year 2008, so the idea of a flip screen, touch screen, keyboard on screen and physical keyboard is already very old. I did some upgrades and the end it was running Win 8.1 64 bit with a Samsung SSD 250GB, and 4GB memory. (I gave it to my niece who is going to college). Link to: [...]

Why do I say all of this, so you know I have bases for comparison, I also I own a Galaxy Tab (for which I have a case with a Bluetooth keyboard), a One Plus Smartphone, and a touch screen 25” over the top Dell Desktop. (I work with graphics, accounting, word processing and light CAD)

Ok so let’s start with the C-100 Chromebook. The features of flip screen, a physical keyboard, self stand, touch screen display, touch screen keyboard, and the mouse/touchpad are awesome, and those features are comparable to with the laptop that I had before. So in that sense I did not downgrade, I kept the same features.
I installed a Samsung EVO 64GB micro SD priced in Amazon at $27, in my experience 32 GB would have been enough, but the price of the 64GB was very attractive.

Pluses over the old laptop, light weight, thinner, no heat, no noisy fans, smaller size, faster charging time, smaller and lighter weight power supply, thinner power cable for the power supply, faster boot time. You can have it in your lap without getting tired of the weight, and the heat. It will not overheat if you place it in top of a pillow, it does not have fans, or in/out air slots in the case.
You can do a selection with the mouse/touchpad or touch screen at any time, both are active in the laptop mode,( meaning that the keyboard is flat and the screen is upright) on the tablet mode keyboard under the screen, the keyboard functions and mouse track are disabled, but you have a touch screen keyboard available in tablet mode.

Pluses over the Galaxy Tab 10, it has a physical keyboard integrated, its own stand, simplicity, no apps that are constantly updating, no apps tracking your location or preferences, no app permissions, no apps running in the background eating away your memory and CPU resources. Also you can install a regular mouse, which will give you the feel of a complete PC. There is a mini-mini mouse with a retractable cord by Targus, which actually fits in your pocket, about $10.
For the Galaxy Tab 10, I have a case with a Bluetooth keyboard, it is useful, but it does not replace the keyboard on a Chromebook, does not have a touchpad, and the case is one of those that have a flimsy built-in stand that needs to be in a firm surface, and do not touch it too much.

Minus over the old laptop, you cannot install an accounting software, CAD, a Photoshop or PageMaker (old software), or the newer adobe suite. The Chromebook does not have the processing power of a laptop and it doesn’t have an awesome large drive like a 1 TB.
Minuses over the Galaxy Tab, the Chromebook is a little bit heavier, you cannot install the apps that you already have in your android device ranging from the productivity and useful ones to the fart apps.

Minuses over the Galaxy Tab or a PC/Laptop, there is a beautiful desktop for you to have pictures / wall paper of your dog, cat or uncle Buck losing his trousers during the summer pool party, the desktop area is for that only, to see only a wallpaper .
All of that area and you cannot install decent sized shortcut for websites. The only place where you can install a shortcut is in the bottom bar the SHELF as Google calls it, a big name for a little strip called taskbar in a PC. The shelf bar can be repositioned in either side of the screen or in the bottom; the shelf bar cannot be resized as in a desktop taskbar.

Print and scanning on a Chromebook (pay attention to this one)
Can you connect a printer/scanner to the USB ports? NO
Can you connect a printer / scanner via Bluetooth? NO
Can you connect a printer or scanner via WIFI? NO (keep reading)
How do you connect a printer o scanner to a Chromebook?
Check this link [...]
Your printer should be Google Cloud Print Ready check this link [...]
Few printers like in Epson could be firmware updated to Google Cloud Print, that is a Geeky part already, so if you do not know about firmware updates, skip it.

Basically you have two Google choices: 1) a Google Cloud Print Ready printer. 2) Connect to a classic printer, which is a basic way of telling you that you need a PC/laptop with an attached printer both turned on, and you have to configure your Pc/laptop for Google Cloud Print. (which I consider it to be a very idiotic proposition, a PC and a printer running all day in case you need to send a print job from a Chromebook)

There is a third choice, which I actually prefer and it is simpler, since I do not have a Google Cloud Printer Ready (yet), but I do have an Epson print scanner WIFI/LAN. In my case I have the Epson app installed in my Smartphone, so all I have to do is save my Chromebook job (spreadsheet, doc) in Google Drive, open the Google Drive in my phone, use the Epson print app and send the job to print.
Scanning this is another elephant, and an important one for me, I am more interested in scanning than actually printing from a mobile device.
Can you scan directly with Google Cloud? NO
I can scan with the Epson app on my phone and save it to Google Drive, and open it in the Chromebook.
I can scan with Epson Connect from the Chromebook.

I am sure that other brands of printer will offer you with their choices, but since I did my homework with Epson, that is what I will explain you.
First here is a link for Epson printer compatibility chart [...]
The next Link is for Epson Connect the software that allow you to scan and print any way you want: [...]
Basically you go to your printer/scanner, scan the doc, send it via email to you or others (other choices are available) just read.
Or just use your phone with the printer scan app, and save it to Google Drive.

Finally let’s decide if the Asus C-100 Flip Chromebook is for you, and if the Chrome OS will satisfy your needs.
I am extremely happy with the ASUS C-100 Flip, it is the best of two worlds a tablet and a basic laptop with its own stand, and I wouldn’t change it for any other Chromebook.
It was not easy to get accustom to it, I was missing the apps easy access that I have in the tablet, but after a week of using a full keyboard and a mouse. It was hard for me to go back to the tablet.
A Chromebook without the features of the C-100 does no cut it for me, on the other hand keep in mind this is just a 10”, and your needs may require a larger screen

How do you know if a Chromebook is for you?, it is easy, if you have a tablet or a PC (desktop /laptop) try for a week to do everything you need to do in a chrome browser, if you feel comfortable with it, and it covers your needs, then the Chromebook is for you.

If you have a decent Smartphone like an Android Kit Kat or newer OS and over 4.5” screen size, with decent specs memory and storage, you will realize that between your phone and the Chromebook you have it all, there is no need for you to duplicate functions having two devices doing the same thing, and one will help you to compensate the other.

A Chromebook is for you, if you do not need dedicated software in which you work such as CAD, powerful office suites, or powerful graphics editing, and your docs, music and pictures fit in a 64 - 128 GB micro SD, and /or in the cloud.

Chrome WebStore (apps / extensions and themes) AKA tourist trap, my recommendation is to install everything that is actually published by Google and Microsoft.
After that is just a punch of useless shortcuts, that promises the world and deliver nothing, plus the annoying fact that they take you to a website with ads, something you could avoid by just going right to the website yourself.
Install the Google and Microsoft office suites and cloud storage, take your pick or choose both, they will sync with the ones in your laptop/pc, and android device.

Tip reset screen automatic orientation
So after do in all the exploration which included messing with all kind of settings, installing and removing worthless stuff from the Google Webstore, my Asus C-100 didn’t like it (my fault), the result was that my screen did not change orientation automatically and the keyboard kept working in the laptop mode position, while in tablet mode.
So I reset the device to a factory configuration, still the problem was present.
Do not freak out, here is how to fix it without calling Google or Asus.
Press the refresh key (keyboard) is the fourth left to right on the top row (the circled arrow), at the same time press the side power switch. It will reset, refresh and everything will go back to normal.

Geek Stuff
You are you in your own here, whatever change you do in these settings, it’s your own doing, do not blame it on me, you have been warned.
Additional features in Chromebook, Chrome OS are in the browser chrome://( name of the menu)
chrome://version/ it will give you the version of the chrome
chrome://chrome-urls/ List of Chrome URLs (extended settings and info)
chrome://flags Experimental features

There are 2 issues with the Chrome OS / Web browser in the Chrome book:
1) You cannot make shortcuts of your favorite web sites (Amazon, eBay, CNN or whatever you like) for easy access on the shelf bar, Google makes you think that in order to do so you need to install an app (which is basically an icon that directs you to a web site)
2) The other problem is that when you look at your bookmarks what you find is just a list of stuff that you have saved.
In Chrome://flags you may choose to enable two settings.

1) Enable the new bookmark app system
Enabling this one (remember to save it), will add a new choice, with the browser open; go to the menu, more tools you will find now, a choice for Add to shelf.
This will allow you to go to your favorite web page, go to menu, go to more tools, click on Add to shelf, a popup window will show with the name of the site (edit the description to something short, it is important, for example just Amazon), depending on the website few will offer you with their own icon, otherwise the default icon will be the first letter of the website in this case for Amazon will be the letter A, leave it marked as open as a window, click on add (open as a window, will make it look cooler like an app, and the browser search bar will be hidden). The Icon shortcut will be installed in the Shelf bar, also in the App Launcher. If you typed a short name on the description as I told you before, when you place the courser over the tiles it will highly the name fully, so if you have two icons with the letter A, you will be able to know which is he one that you want to click on.

2) Enable Enhanced Bookmarks
Enabling this one (remember to save it), will add on the bookmark bar an icon with a yellow star called bookmarks, it will open all your bookmarks in large icons instead of a list.

If you like my review and tips, let me know, your comments are welcome, Happy Chroming

Update September 2016
Google has made available the Google Play for selected Chromebooks (the Asus flip series C100 is one of the few that is available for), it is in beta and requires you to upgrade the Chrome browser to latest version, after the update you will see in settings, advance options, a box that you need to check for the Google Play to work.
I do not recommend it for the 2GB Asus Flip, the Google Play its a memory hog, I was left it almost no memory and my Asus flip was crawling.
Those that own the 4GB may have a chance at making it work, but you will be left with only 2GB out of the 4 GB.
I think that the Google Play on chromebooks it is a great idea, but I think that will be for future chromebooks, that will be capable of handle it.
If you decide to install it, and you do not like the experience, you will have to reset your chromebook to factory settings, in order to totally remove the Google Play, just un-checking the box again will not do it.

Update memory resources 20 Jul 2015
Avoid installing worthless stuff as in “add to chrome”, “Apps” , “themes”,” extensions” Is going to eat your Chromebook memory,
You should have about 1 to 1.2 GB of memory available with 5 chrome tabs open.
Pay attention to Google docs and available offline, if you do not need it, turn it off.
If you start installing worthless stuff you may end with 500 MB of memory available while the browser is running.
Work with Bookmarks, it does not affect the memory.

Update August 26, 2015
Some fellow Amazoners have pointed a couple of times, the fact that you can use an app Arc Welder, to run android apps in a Chromebook. This is a job in progress by Google, which still Beta
The Arc Welder is available in the Chromebook web store.
If you want to play with it here is the link, I recommend that you read everything, if you do not understand it, then leave it alone.

The link is:[...]

Update October 8, 2015
I received a question from a fellow Amazoner with regards to the WebCam and Skype, to make it easier I just copied and pasted the information that I gave her.

The Chromebook, has a webcam, speakers and microphone built-in.
Skype does not have an app that works yet with the chromebook, they have a beta skype for web, visit [...] , unfortunately last time that I checked today before answering your question, the skype still in beta, and it did not worked for me.

I highly suggest you use Viber, is another VOIP. I use both Skype and Viber.
The Viber identifier is a mobile phone number, instead of a user name like the Skype.
You can make free and paid calls with the Viber.
You can make WebCam calls with Viber on a Chromebook.

Once you install first the Viber on a smarthphone, it will allow you to install it also in a PC, tablet or Chromebook that do not have telephone access, but do have internet access.
One of the advantages of the Viber, is that it will pull the contacts from your phone so its is much easier to work than with the Skype.
Other advantages, you can be on a call on a PC, and you may transfer the call to a phone or a tablet without hanging up.

You can install the Viber in your smartphone take it for a ride and test it, it does not have annoying adds, it is not intrusive, I consider it safe.
Think about the Viber, as a Skype with the features of the Whatsapp. The Viber app is available in the Chrome Web Store for Chromebooks.

Try it first before you go on your trip. Even though it is very simple, everything has a learning curve.

Update December 8, 2015
KEYBOARD SIZE COMPARED
A fellow Amazoner asked me a question related to the size of keyboards, here is for all to read.
I do not fell that the physical keyboard in the Chromebook is too cramped, I certainly I miss the right hand number keyboard typical of a full layout keyboard, if I need to do some serious works with it.
If I compare the QWERTY layout of the physical keyboard of the Chromebook to a STD size keyboard (a PC), the keyboard is not that much shorter.
It all depends in how much work you need to do, if you need to type a 10 pages report everyday definitely I will prefer to use a full size keyboard. But if it’s only few short emails, the physical keyboard of the Chromebook will be enough.
The screen keyboard in tablet mode is a different thing, I can hardly type a short email in it, for me is a keyboard that works for internet search pages while on tablet mode, and that it’s the reason why I opted for the Chromebook, instead of a 10” tablet. The Screen keyboard is much smaller that the physical keyboard on the Chromebook.
Now also remember that the Chromebook is Bluetooth ready, so you may get a full size Bluetooth enabled standard keyboard, which you may pair to the Chromebook, or any other device.
There is also a rollup, flexible wired keyboard, which you can plug in the USB port of the Chromebook (I have never tried them, so I do not know how good they are)
I have pretty large hands (gloves XL), and I do not have problems using the small physical keyboard on the Chromebook, but I also don’t use the Chromebook for heavy work; for that I have a PC.

Pictures are worth a 1,000 words. Please see the pictures below comparing the screen keyboard size to the physical keyboard, a full desktop PC keyboard vs the Chromebook, I cropped the pictures of the full keyboard, eliminating the number keyboard, in order to compare apples to apples. Sorry all for the crappy Pics, but you will get the idea.

707 people found this helpful

Helpful

Samuel

Excellent size, build quality, nice screen and good keyboard but Bluetooth audio is a maybe.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

IMPORTANT FORTH UPDATE ADDED:

A few initial Asus Chromebook flip observations: The device arrived far ahead of the initial projected two week delivery date and in pristine condition. The 'manual' admonished customers to charge eight hours before using with battery power only and my exploration of the flip or pseudo tablet mode was painfully delayed. The all metal body looks great and build quality is impressive.

Because it is a Chrome OS device, it instantly updated and was up and running with all my apps within five minutes of powering on. The screen is bright, crisp and equal to my now orphaned Asus Windows RT tablet and aging iPad Mini. The keyboard is comfortable and responsive, audio is surprisingly good, both online and offline videos play without stutter. The track-pad and touchscreen are responsive. The glass appears to have a coating that makes it more difficult to slide my fingers across the screen. This is particularly noticeable when I compare the subjective feeling of interacting with my Acer 720P, Windows and iPad tablets. I notice more delay and less fluid scrolling when interacting with sites like Facebook. The stutter in page scrolling is noticeable but certainly not sluggish enough to detract from an overall excellent surfing experience. I would like to know if anyone else has noted similar issues.

When in the flip-mode, the added thickness of the keyboard and combined weight makes for a less than ideal tablet experience. I've only begun to test pairing with my Bluetooth audio devices but have already noticed some disconcerting issues with sound and pairing when using my LG 700 headset and DKnight BT speaker. In both cases pairing took longer than usual and I noticed micro interruptions in streaming audio. The computer has updated at least three times since I began using it and will continue to test Bluetooth audio with follow up posts to this review.

I suspect that my growing preference for Chrome OS devices, size, weight, excellent display, portability, hybrid / flip construction and build quality of the Acer C100 will ensure my dependence on my iPad Mini continues to decrease. Just as the continuing nightmare of Windows updates encouraged me to invest in an iPad, the simplicity and exceptionally consumer friendly Chrome OS paired with products like Acer 720P and Asus C100 Flip offer continued justification for shifting more of my work and pleasure to Chrome devices.

SECOND BLUETOOTH UPDATE:

I have tried five different Bluetooth audio devices and streaming audio is sometimes interrupted with long pauses or distortion when using the the 2.4 Gig connection to my Netgear R7000 router. I have much better luck when using the 5-G channel. I am still testing with my many different Bluetooth devices. I have been listening to streamed Spotify audio with only one long pause for at least fifteen minutes. The jury is still out. Will continue to update. I have upped my rating to four stars. Feedback on Bluetooth and Chrome devices is requested.

Bluetooth update July 11, 2015: Bluetooth still hit and miss with all of my BT audio devices. Best luck when connected to G5 WiFi but still long pauses when the G5 signal strength is three bars or less.

Tried Chromecast stream of a YouTube video and audio was out of sync. I can usually stream without issue using my Acer 720P Chromebook and Asus Chromebox. The 720P offers an all round better computing experience. Will experiment a bit more but realize the Flip shins in weight, build and even battery life but my trusty Acer 720 P is a better laptop when portability and battery run time is not at the top of your wish list.

C100 with G4 Memory Update

Asus C100 With 4 Gig memory in and charging the recommended eight hours. It did not recognize my LG 700 headset but connected with both Dknight BT speaker and LG 730 headset. So far no steaming issues when using the Spotify website to stream music. Charging the LG 700 headset and will try again. This unit appears to have the same coating on the screen that makes touch a 'drag.' Will see if it wears off as it did with using the C100 with 2 G. Will post more extensive pairing and Bluetooth audio results in next few days. Too early to tell if the added memory improves responsiveness and performance.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andrew Gleason

Chromebook flip is great, but problems with wireless and battery life

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

I will be updating this this to let users know how this chromebook stands the test of time

4/12 Update - 7 months since my last update, this Chromebook is a completely different computer than when I first got it. I can't even have more than 5 tabs open without the computer crawling. Seriously disappointed with how far this computer has degraded over time.

9/11 Update - After about 2 months since my last update, I've noticed serious performance degradation. And I haven't installed anything on it or added anything else. Also, tried the wireless on google fiber, and I was not getting the theoretical speeds that I should be getting. I have the supposed same wireless card on my laptop, and my wireless speeds are 700 up/down. On this device, they never go higher than 180 up/down, which is a tad bit annoying since the idea of this device is to run on a fiber connection to get most of your stuff.

7/5 Update - Still pretty shocked about the wireless card. I think I'm going to contact ASUS about it, but even when I'm 10 feet away from my wireless router I only get 3/4 bars. I don't know if other people have had wireless problems, but I certainly have. Between the battery life & the wireless, I think it's hard to justify 5 stars still and I'm dropping it down to 4.

7/2 Update About Price - Seems that Amazon is out of stock currently and a 3rd party is selling them for $309. DON'T BUY IT! Amazon will have more soon and it will save you $60! Also just realized I should probably update at the top of the post from now on, so I'll do that. A few other things, saw someone complaining about the touch screen being not easy to move your fingers around with. I disagree. My fingers slide like crazy across the screen ever so smoothly!

6/26 - I just received the item today, and am beyond thrilled. I was a bit worried about it only have 2GB of ram, as I tend to have a lot of tabs open, but through my tests so far it has a very graceful degradation. With 10 tabs open, I don't really notice a difference than with one tab open. I have rather large hands so the keyboard is taking some getting use to, but it's nice. I also enjoy being able to use the touch screen while typing since the track pad is rather small. I find that it will be ideal for trips. It's light and compact, fast and responsive. For $250, this is a steal.

6/26 Update - One feature I found really nice is when it's in tablet mode, the keyboard is disabled, so you don't have to worry about accidentally clicking buttons. I did a speed test since this is suppose to have the 802.11 A/C wireless (and I have fiber), and I only got 147down / 170up. It is possible that it's some AT&T tomfoolery. I'll test again when I get Google Fiber installed (which is suppose to be soon!).

6/27 Update - I just realized I was typing 7 for the month rather than 6, sorry about that. Anyways, did another speed test today putting the compute right next to the wireless router and only got 173 down/174 up. Kind of surprised with this result still, since I thought the 802.11a/c wireless card was suppose to support fiber. Not an expert in the how the wireless fiber works though. Battery life seems okay, had 4 tabs open (Amazon, Facebook, StumbleUpon, BleacherReport) for about 30 minutes and seemed to keep jumping from 6 hours remaining to 11 hours remaining. Also seems to charge quickly.

6/30 Update - Seems if you only use 1-3 tabs at a time (with 6 extensions) you get about 12 hours of battery life. For videos, seems like I'll get about 6-7 hours. Great thing I love about it though is that the bottom doesn't get too hot. Wireless card is still questionable. My phone is getting 700 down / 700 up, but the Chromebook is only getting between 150-200 down/up every time I test. Something is making me doubt that the wireless card is 802.11 A/C.

150 people found this helpful

Helpful

skizzums

Way more quality than the cost would make you believe. High quality materials, lightweight and very comfortable fit.

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a really cool unit with an unbeatable price. I purchased the smallest unit with the low memory, i don't see justifying the higher price for a couple gigs when it is compatible with any off the shelf memory cards, 64gb for pretty much nothing these days. Very high quality aluminum housing with very tight fitting tolerances, very aesthetically pleasing. The keyboard is tactile and easy to use, a huge step above the previous ASUS Transformer genre keyboard. I cannot say i am 100% sold on the Chromebook IOS as of yet, but the ASUS unit itself is pretty outstanding. I would only recommend going the Chromebook route if you are always wifi accessible or have a portable hotspot. Most apps are rendered useless outside of the web. Regardless of the IOS though, the ASUS unit is stellar. The hinge is strong enough to place the screen in any position and type with authority, the touchscreen in fast and accurate with "10 POINT!!!!" touch and it's light as a feather. Has very thin and unobtrusive rubber feet that keep the unit from getting scraped on surfaces, nice loud speakers that face the user when flipped over for watching video. Although sound lacks decent low frequency notes, it is better than expected for the size, no complaints there. This is my third ASUS product, the first being a tablet and the transformer, and have been pleased with all. This is affordable and high quality. My only complaint i guess would be the mousepad, although i absolutely love that it has a built in click button, i finding it somewhat difficult to manipulate when using one hand to scroll down on a page, minor issue though......i have two hands!! This was a gift for my wife and we are both very pleased and feel the quality is way above the price-point. If your on the fence, you should get it. Oh yeah, it boots INSTANTLY. I know it's the nature of chromebook, but still awesome. Final note, the battery lasts for all day heavy use and unit stays cool no matter what processes your putting it through, no more hot laptop on my legs.

Helpful

SeaOtterNerd

Does everything I want (including running Crouton!)

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

As a computer science grad student, I do most of my work on a large and powerful laptop (on which I run Linux Mint). This is great for most of my purposes. There are a few scenarios in which I've thought something different might be nice:

- Annotating papers as I read them - I really like to do this with a pen in hand. However, my entire workflow is digital. If I print out a paper, I am never going to refer to it again. Also I can't read my handwriting, so having the option to type longer comments is a plus. As a result, a touchscreen + stylus has always seemed attractive.
- Traveling - I travel a fair amount. Enough that I would love to have something smaller, lighter, more durable, and less expensive than my main laptop to bring with me. I'd like such a machine to let me keep up with work a little while traveling. At a minimum, this involves writing, coding, compiling and running simple programs, and submitting more intensive programs to run in the cloud. Moreover, all except the last of these should be doable while offline. A Linux netbook seemed like the best option for this case.
- Taking notes in class where I need to include diagrams and non alphanumeric characters. I always thought a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard would be best here, because professors often don't allow full-on laptops, since so many people use them for activities other than note-taking. A tablet is much less obtrusive.

Up until now, there has been no one device that could meet all of those needs without being prohibitively expensive. Now there's the chromebook flip! In tablet mode, it allows for pdf annotation (I really like that I can use the onscreen keyboard to jot down quick notes), and unobtrusive note-taking. As others have mentioned, having the keys on the back of a tablet feels a bit disconcerting, but they deactivate in tablet mode as advertised. To address the portable work goal, I used Crouton to install Linux. The installation went flawlessly, transitioning between ChromeOS and Linux is seamless, and I have had no compatibility issues with anything on the Linux side so far. So far none of the Linux distros I've tried have handled tablet mode terribly well (the keyboard doesn't deactivate, the screen doesn't rotate), but I wasn't expecting them to and I don't need them to for any of my purposes.

As others have noted, the build feels sturdy. My keyboard seems to work fine (I tried all of the keys). It performs surprisingly well given the small amount of RAM - as I type this, I've got 10 tabs open, as well as my Linux chroot (running kde), and there is no noticeable performance issue.

Minor annoyances:
- No right click (use a two finger tap)
- The small keyboard does take a bit of getting used to, although as an emacs user I appreciate the size of the left ctrl key.

I think I'm going to be taking this with me as my only laptop on a two week trip to Europe in a few days (which is the primary reason I didn't hold out for the 4GB version), and I'll update this review to let you know how it lives up to my expectations. I'm definitely looking forward to actually being able to type while I'm on the plane! (I can usually only do that if I'm in an exit row, due to the combination of my arms' length and my normal laptop's size)

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andy

Cool but randomly restarts

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

It's pretty cool when it worked. I bought one for my gf and everything was great but the unit does restart on its own randomly at times. I'm not sure if i obtained a lemon or what but I have reset the device and updated the unit and it still happens at times. The good news is it takes only a few seconds to boot back up though you will lose all progress of what you're doing before the random restart. Debating if I should return it. I've been having problems with electronics bought from amazon lately as well.

-- edit i bought the 4gig version, not sure why amazon is verifying me on the 2g, also i have done power washing and this restart is rather hard to reproduce but i have discussed the issue of returning the unit with my gf and i think we are going to buy a higher end asus product and hope it works out better than this unit.

-- edit i ended up returning it due to the restart defect and ended up buying https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011KFQASE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 instead.

one thing to know is that i tweaked it a lot and i didn't like how the arm processor was limiting me from tweaking it further. for example when i installed linux on to it i couldn't run certain programs due to the arm architecture which made linux very limited. other chromebook users that have an intel based chromebook are able to boot windows via usb and even install windows, linux w/ fully functional skype, etc.. (I sideloade skype 4.9 via archon but the video crashes and it was just a mess!) so i didn't feel as if this device was for me because i like to tweak. i also noticed that they jacked up the price of the 4gig version to $315.00 and honestly with that price you might as well buy an acer r11 r3 and modify it with an ssd and more ram because that unit is only 299.99 on acers website and its fully up-gradable so you'll have a 2-in-1 windows 8 machine with more power and more functions than this unit so to be honest the asus chromebook flip was not worth 250.00.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dana

So far so good!

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Purchased on July 1st, but delivery was delayed until July 7th. Happily, when it finally did arrive, it came without any keyboard or hardware issues.

So far, this is just about everything that I've been waiting for in a Chromebook since they debuted: it's a very small, very light and portable mobile device that does most everything I'd want to do on a machine of this size and form factor (and then some) at a very reasonable price.

I was too impatient to wait for the 4GB version, but the base level RAM seems sufficient most of the time, even with multiple accounts signed in and 10-15+ tabs open. (Mileage may vary if visiting sites with a lot going on, like auto-playing videos and/or heavily ad-laden pages and such of course, but that stuff can somehow manage to lag web browsers even on far more powerful desktop systems with gobs of memory.)

Screen is nice--bright and not washed out like many cheap screens. Up close (held near to face like a tablet) you'll see pixels, but at more normal laptop distances the resolution is fine for the screen size. Speaking of tablet mode, at this stage Chrome OS doesn't have a ton to offer there (a tablet replacement this is not), but the screen flipping ability is handy if watching videos--standing it in 'tent' or 'presentation' mode, or folding the keyboard back completely out of the way.

The touchscreen works pretty well, particularly if viewed as a supplementary input mode to the touchpad and keyboard. It's handy to be able to just reach over and scroll/zoom a page or hit a button (small targets like the x to close a tab can be hard to poke on the first try, however).

My overall feeling is that this is pretty great for the cost, giving a traditional OS like web browsing experience, which is something of a weakness of iOS and Android tablets, plus good ability to type/do productivity tasks using a real keyboard (without the clunkiness of detachable or wireless keyboard solutions).

It's not a replacement for a more powerful laptop, but it will hit a lot of the same notes. Personally I'd rather have this for light duty *plus* a desktop or larger laptop (say, a ThinkPad T series or MacBook Pro) and just travel with what I need with me instead of an 11-12" ultraportable that's a mediocre compromise of power/portability at a much higher price. As long as it continues to be reliable and perform as it has so far, I'll be pretty satisfied with it.

(I do wish it used micro-usb instead of a proprietary power connector, though--that would be *so* much more convenient!)

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Son Tran

What computing should be.

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

My old laptop bit the dust and I searched for a replacement. I bought a Lenovo Idepad netbook running windows 10 which was garbage and didn't work. Slow, buggy, returned.

I researched the Chrome book and the Asus got some good reviews from the experts so I gave it a shot. Physically its a very nice looking laptop and is small, lightweight and very portable, But the best part is that it just works, always. The chrome broswer is excellent and in laptop mode everything works great. Things pop up quickly when you click and the screen is bright and clear. You can read about the techinical details if you really want elsewhere but I was happy with the quality of the images and HD video looked great. I'm sure some people really need a billion pixels per inch but I am happy with what I got.

The computer is fast to power of and power on. Seconds to do either versus the waiting and waiting of the Lenovo I tried running Windows 10. Also when I close it and open it back it almost instantly comes one just like a tablet. So nice.

In tablet mode it is workable but not as good as a true tablet. Folding the screen over gives you a tablet but the keyboard is still exposed so holding it makes you grab the keyboard,depressing the keys which does not feel all that natural or comfortable. But its serviceable and if you can rest it on your lap or a stand that issue goes away.

The touchscreen is good. Not as responsive as the ipad we have but good all the same. Certainly does not feel like a cheap touchscreen its just not best in class.

Overall this does almost everything I need without the bloated, slow Microsoft OS grinding everything to a halt. Highly recommend this. Great Netbook and pretty good tablet all rolled into one.

Helpful

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad...

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad Core, 2GB, 16GB SSD) - Aluminum Chassis,Silver

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad... › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad Core, 2GB, 16GB SSD) - Aluminum Chassis,Silver

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip 10.1" Touchscreen Laptop (Quad...

›

Customer reviews