Just like the mediocre high quality of the show, the touchpad can be reasonably middling. I’ve used worse, however its plastic floor isn’t as clean and responsive as glass ones. The clicking mechanism is loud and requires an excessive amount of effort to press. It is also unfastened, so you possibly can depress the touchpad with out registering a click on. All of that is frequent in low-cost laptops, and over time, it’s one thing I feel I may get used to. However whenever you soar again to one thing extra premium, you’ll discover an enormous distinction. The keyboard isn’t fairly as troublesome, however the keys do really feel squishier than I like. I do not thoughts the grippy texture on the keycaps.
There’s a stable collection of ports, together with HDMI 1.4, USB-A 3.2, USB-C 3.2, a USB-C port for charging, and a headphone jack. It’s effectively rounded, however there’s an issue: They’re all on one facet. You’ll solely discover a Kensington lock slot on the proper facet of the machine. Sadly, meaning you’ll solely be capable to cost the laptop computer from the left facet.
Simply Sufficient Energy
{Photograph}: Luke Larsen
There are two variations of the Asus Chromebook CX14 accessible proper now. My evaluate unit was the costlier configuration, which comes with extra of all the things—a quicker CPU, twice as a lot RAM (8 GB), and twice as a lot storage (128 GB). The processor is the Core 3 Sequence 1, in any other case often called the Intel Core 3 N355. It’s an fascinating chip, utilizing solely eight effectivity cores and no efficiency cores, in comparison with the traditional dual-core setup of the Celeron chips.
Efficiency isn’t something to jot down house about, although it was 38 p.c quicker within the Speedometer 3.1 benchmark than the Celeron-based Asus Chromebook CX15 I examined final month. Which means internet functions really feel a bit snappier and extra responsive, particularly when you’ve gotten loads occurring on the identical time. It’s laborious to argue with the worth of that cheaper configuration (particularly when it’s on sale), however in the event you intend to make use of the CX14 for lively work or learning, you’ll recognize the enhance to efficiency and further storage.
Asus claims the CX14 lasts for eight hours on a cost. In my checks, it lasts for about that lengthy. Thoughts you, that is on native video playback with the display screen at 100 lux—not precisely a heavy load. My regular work day use dropped that down by fairly a bit, and I actually wanted a recharge throughout the day. So no, that’s nowhere close to as long-lasting because the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, neither is it akin to extra premium laptops just like the MacBook Air or Floor Laptop computer. However for a laptop computer of this value, it’s respectable.