Asus Chromebook C523NA-DH02 Review
Asus put out six new Chromebooks in the country a few weeks ago. We have the Chromebook with the model number C523NA-A20303 with us today. This is a simple piece of hardware with a tablet panel, Chrome OS software, and all of its cloud-based tools. On the box, it says that it costs $24,999. So, should you buy this Chromebook if you want a cheap new machine for school? In the next few lines, we’ll find out the answer and come to a decision.
Asus Chromebook C523NA-DH02 SPecs
| Laptop Class | Chromebook |
| Processor | Intel Pentium N4200 |
| Processor Speed | 1.1 GHz |
| Boot Drive Type | eMMC Flash Memory |
| Native Display Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
| Touch Screen | YES |
| Graphics Processor | Intel HD Graphics 505 |
| Wireless Networking | 802.11ac, Bluetooth |
| Operating System | Google Chrome OS |
PROS:
- Pocket-friendly price for a large-screen Chromebook.
- Smart, part-aluminum format.
- The 1080p panel is simply great.
- Has a cozy keyboard and touchpad
CONS:
- Not so good battery life.
- There is no such keyboard lighting.
- The audio output is not good.
Body and makeup
The Asus Chromebook C523na is made of aluminum, which gives it a very high-end feel. At first glance, it seems like the build quality of this laptop is way above its price range. It’s very solid, and the whole body bends very little. It’s quite stiff and strong. One of the best things about this laptop is how well it’s made, and Asus did a great job making this Chromebook.
Ports
The Asus Chromebook c523na has a headphone jack, an SD card slot that lets you add more storage, and two USB 3.1 Type-A ports. This Chromebook doesn’t have a full HDMI port, but it makes up for that by having two USB-C ports that can also be used to charge. Other than that, it only has Bluetooth 4.0, which is not the latest standard, but it does have WiFi 5.
Keyboard
The keyboard is well-designed and has enough space between the keys so that you don’t hit them by mistake. Since it’s a small Chromebook, it doesn’t have a real numeric keypad or a lighted keyboard. Even though the keys on a laptop don’t move much, they are still very nice to type on, and I think you will enjoy typing on them.
Speakers
The Asus Chromebook C523Na has speakers that make clear, crisp sounds. But don’t expect to hear songs with a lot of bass on this. It has no bass at all, and the highs sound very sharp. This Chromebook’s sound works well for listening to podcasts or watching YouTube videos. But if you really want to hear music, you should use headphones.
Specs
The Intel Celeron N3350 chip that comes with the Asus Chromebook C523na is a little more power-efficient, so the laptop doesn’t need a fan. This chip also lets the Asus Chromebook zip through basic tasks like browsing the web and writing a single text document, but it won’t be able to run heavy games like Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact. The same could be said about the 4 GB of RAM, which is just enough for simple jobs like browsing the web and making Word documents. Just don’t expect to be able to play games on this laptop with this much RAM and CPU.
Aside from that, the 64GB of eMMC on this Chromebook is not enough to store many apps, so the storage will fill up quickly if you download a lot of apps. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem since this laptop has an SD card slot that makes it easy to add more memory later. When it comes to battery life, the Chromebook is not very good. Asus says this laptop should last 10 hours on a single charge, but the Asus Chromebook only lasts about 6.5 hours on a single charge, which isn’t even close. One might think that a Chromebook would last a little longer, but the Asus Chromebook doesn’t disappoint. This laptop usually comes with a 768p screen, which isn’t very good. However, this one has a 1080p screen and a webcam, which we’ll talk about below.
Display
As was already said, the Asus Chromebook C523na has a 15.6-inch 1080p screen and a layer that prevents glare. We were surprised by this Chromebook because Chromebooks at this price level usually don’t have very good screens. Even though this laptop doesn’t get very bright, the colours look good and are really bright. This laptop’s anti-glare feature keeps annoying shadows from getting in the way, and it’s good enough overall to watch a few TV shows back-to-back. This laptop has a touch screen type that you can buy, but I wouldn’t suggest it because it can’t fold over 180 degrees, so it wouldn’t be worth your money.
Price
The Asus Chromebook with the biggest screen is cheap and has a big screen. It has a roomy 15.6-inch touch screen inside a sleek body with pleasingly thin edges, and it costs well under $400. When you consider that its lid is made of aluminum, it looks and feels like it should cost a lot more.
Asus makes two different kinds of Chromebook C523s. The lower-end model, which costs $269.99, has a Celeron CPU, 32GB of flash storage, and a non-touch 1,366 by 768-pixel screen. Our review unit is the one on top, the C523NA-IH24T. It costs $379.99 and has a quad-core Intel Pentium N4200 processor, 64GB of flash storage, and a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel (1080p) touchscreen. It gets a high recommendation because of how well it looks, how well it can run Chrome OS, and how cheap it is.
