Flip between work and play with the ASUS Chromebook Flip CM3
Asus Chromebooks have been a popular choice for buyers thanks to a mix of low price and solid fit and finish. The company’s latest model is the Chromebook Flip CM3, also known as the CM3200. It’s an ARM-powered convertible laptop.
The Flip CM3 uses a 12-inch touchscreen with a trendy 3:2 aspect ratio, which sounds a lot better before you get to the 1366x912 resolution or 220 nit brightness. The screen works with a stylus, but you’ll have to supply your own.
Inside is a MediaTek 8183 processor, an octa-core mobile chip that also powers Chromebooks like the Acer Spin 2-in-1 and the Lenovo 10e. You get 4GB of RAM and either 32 or 64GB of storage (the promo page includes a 128GB option), plus a MicroSD card slot, and it comes with one USB-C and one USB-A port (though both are limited to USB 2.0 speeds). A 32 watt-hour battery isn’t capacious for a laptop, but it should power this hardware for quite a while. The brand undoubtedly made a good choice in terms of the MediaTek chipset. Although this might come as news for many that this chipset manufacturer also lends its power to Chromebook.
It’s a decent processor for light tasks and makes for an okay tablet but somewhat of a mediocre laptop if you’re doing any serious work. It is ideal for browsing websites, completing tasks and sharing content easily with friends and colleagues. Its unique, durable hinge design has undergone an extensive 20,000-cycle open-and-close test to ensure long-term durability and reliability.
A microSD slot allows the user to add additional storage capacity, joining a pair of USB 2.0 ports as I/O connections. Support for the USI-compatible Asus Pen is built-in, but the stylus is an optional accessory that would add to the $329 price for the Flip CM3. The Chromebook Flip CM3 is a 12″ which gives it a slight edge over Lenovo’s Duet as a laptop but it has a 220 nit display that will be noticeably dimmer than the 400 nit Duet. Apart from that, the ASUS CM3 should perform no differently than Lenovo’s tablet but that price is what sets the two apart.
With the Flip CM3, Asus provides a laptop with a 360-degree hinge that allows it to switch from a traditional laptop to tablet mode, tent mode, and even completely flat mode. What the 12-inch touchscreen lacks in resolution (1,366x912), it makes up for in viewing space in portrait mode thanks to narrow bezels and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The ultra-portable design and long-lasting battery life are tailored to an on-the-go lifestyle, and the silky-smooth palm rests and ErgoLift hinge design ensure comfort when typing.
The laptop includes a 720p webcam with a manual privacy shutter, and it’s compatible with Google Assistant and Android apps from the Play Store. Beyond that, there isn’t much to it. It has a fetching silver finish and it’s relatively lightweight and 2.51 pounds, but with that MediaTek chip, it’s probably only going to appeal to those on an extremely low budget. How low? You tell us — though the Flip CM3 has appeared on the Asus website, there’s no mention of a price or release date.
The ASUS Chromebook Flip CM5 is meant to be the “gamer-centric” sibling to the extremely powerful Tiger Lake Chromebook Flip CX5. The Ryzen series of processors made for Chromebooks don’t come close to the performance of Tiger Lake and they even fall a bit short of putting up benchmarks similar to comparable 10th Gen CPUs from Intel. ASUS Chromebook Flip CM3 supports ASUS Pen1, which has the latest Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) 1.0 standard, delivering a natural-feeling active stylus writing experience that allows users to unleash their creativity
ASUS Chromebook Flip CM3 strikes the balance between work and play. The 360° hinge enables multiple modes and provides the versatility to work or study using the orientation that you like best.
