Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 review: High performance at a high price

A common prejudice against Chromebooks is that they are underpowered laptops that owe their existence in everyday life to their slim operating systems. The Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 refutes this prejudice. With an Intel Core i7-1255U, 16 GB of RAM and a fast Intel NVMe SSD, it delivers excellent performance.

Despite the powerful hardware, the notebook is quiet and has good stamina. A stylus rounds off the strong features. The Chromebook Flip CX5 has a high-quality feel.

Like the predecessor model , this is due to a stable mix of metal, glass and plastic. Moreover, the price of the CX5 is still well over EUR 1,000: Asus adds another EUR 200 to the already high price of last year’s CX5 , bringing it to EUR 1,400. A very high price for a Chromebook.

There are some strong Chromebooks with high-quality cases in our database. However, even the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook 16 is not as well equipped as the Asus Chromebook CX5. In appearance, the design of the Chromebook Flip CX5 has hardly changed.

Most of the chassis is still made out of plastic; only the display lid is made out of aluminum. In addition to the two-color variant, there is now also a black variant of the excellently manufactured Chromebook. The slightly different arrangement of the ports is only noticeable in detail: these now make room for a pen slot on the left side, while a Kensington lock slot has been added to the right side.

Lastly, the current version of the CX5 has three USB ports, two of which are USB-C with DisplayPort and PowerDelivery. The Chromebook’s microSD card reader is quite fast. We observed a transfer speed of up to 90 MB/s with our Angelbird AV PRO microSD V60 reference card.

The webcam has a resolution of 2. 1 megapixels. A mechanical privacy shutter is available for protection against prying eyes.

Unscrewing the Chromebook CX5 is a quick affair. Inside we find a removable Intel NVMe SSD and the WLAN module. There are no glued components in our test unit.

The battery, mainboard, daughterboard and cooling system can also be replaced in a few easy steps. Upon removing the 57 Wh battery, however, we noticed some unused adhesive pads. So there is a possibility that the battery is glued in other devices.

The 15. 8-inch notebook offers plenty of space, which Asus uses for a backlit keyboard with a number pad. The key travel of approx.

1. 4 mm is good, and the keyboard’s haptics are also pleasant. The keyboard backlight is controlled via a key combination of Alt and the brightness keys in the upper row.

The touchpad and touchscreen respond quickly and precisely to inputs. But the real star among the input options is clearly the stylus, which weights just six grams. Chrome OS offers a few possibilities of how the stylus can be used .

The stylus of the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 is stored and charged in a pen silo on the left side. Thanks to capacitor technology, charging only takes a few seconds, which allows for 45 minutes of use. However, the Asus pen in the Chromebook is not as precise as in some Windows laptops.

According to Krita, the pen only offers 256 levels of pressure. Drawing and writing is still possible with the pen. The 2-in-1 laptop is equipped with a 15.

8-inch IPS display in 16:10 format. The touchscreen, at a brightness of 265 cd/m², is covered with a highly reflective glass. With high contrast values, good viewing angle stability, but somewhat long response times, slightly pronounced screen bleeding and high color deviations, the display is not a top model, but usable.

Using the Asus Chromebook CX5 Flip in the sun or in brightly lit rooms is problematic. The highly reflective display is simply not bright enough to outshine the reflections of bright objects. But thanks to the screen’s good viewing angle stability, the laptop can be usually placed in such a way that the reflections are not distracting.

For a Chromebook, the CX5 is well equipped: 16 GB of RAM and an Intel Core i7 are more than enough to power the slim operating system. Office and internet applications pose no issue for the laptop. Gaming is also possible: we installed and tested a few games via Steam here.

The Chromebook Flip CX5 is powered by a powerful Intel Core i7-1255U. The high-end chip is equipped with two P-cores and eight E-cores. Twelve threads ensure powerful multitasking.

Even demanding graphics tasks are possible with the integrated Intel Iris Xe. In most benchmarks, the Chromebook delivers comparatively strong values. Although the new Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 offers a more powerful processor than its predecessor, both Chromebooks are almost on par in terms of system performance.

One reason for this could be the slightly slower memory. The Intel SSD 670p seems to be significantly slower than its predecessor. Thus, the Asus device falls short of expectations despite its strong processor.

The Iris Xe integrated in the i7 with 96 EUs is probably the strongest GPU that can currently be found in a Chromebook. Under Windows, the chip is also suitable for gaming to a limited extent. However, the Chromebook only makes limited use of the chip’s graphics potential within the tested Android apps.

Nevertheless, our tests with games via Steam shows that the gaming performance of the laptop can be on par with Windows laptops. In the meantime, Steam now runs on Chrome OS on some devices. However, this requires switching to the beta software version of Chrome OS.

The same technology is used under Linux or in Steam Deck. Proton is used as a compatibility layer, allowing for Windows games to be played in Linux. This is done using a modified version of Wine and a set of powerful graphics API implementations.

Games that exclusively use DirectX 12 do not yet run on Linux or Chrome. Another caveat here is that external drives cannot be used for game installations under Chrome OS. So we had to re-download all the games instead of using our backup files.

Many of our game benchmarks use CapFrameX or Fraps software to record frame rates. There is no comparable software on Chrome OS. As a result, we had to rely on our eyes and Steam’s fps display for gaming tests.

The fps listed below are thus should be viewed as approximate values. We found that many games with Vulkan, OpenGL or DirectX 11 run flawlessly under Chrome OS. Thanks to the generous RAM and the fast Intel Core i7, the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 can run a number of games smoothly in Full HD at medium graphics settings.

A peculiarity of gaming via Proton is that it can take some time before a game runs well. Shaders are precompiled in the background, which increases performance in games over time. While almost all the aforementioned games are hardly playable at first, a few minutes is enough for the fps to reach a stable and good level.

Unlike many other Chromebooks, the CX5 has a fan. However, this is hardly audible. At a maximum of 28 dB(A), the notebook can only be heard in particularly quiet rooms.

Most of the time the Chromebook can get by without the use of its fan. Despite the mostly inactive fan, surface temperatures of the 2-in-1 laptop remain within limits. The palm rests remains cool even under load.

Four speakers are built into the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5, namely two upward-facing tweeters and two downward-facing midrange/bass drivers. This results in a well-balanced sound. Only the bass is a little weak.

The Chromebook Flip CX5 is quite economical in terms of power consumption, making do with a maximum of 35 watts. In idle mode, we measured a power consumption of 4. 3 to 8.

7 watts, which puts the convertible slightly above the average Chromebook. However, the powerful i7 also requires a little more power. More than ten hours in the WiFi web surfing test and up to 18 hours in idle mode are possible with the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 on battery power.

While these are very decent runtimes, they are also not entirely representative. This is because the keyboard backlight, which cannot be controlled, switches off in both tests. In practice at least, runtimes of more than nine hours without a battery are possible.

The Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 proves that Chromebooks don’t have to be boring. With above-average performance, the notebook proves itself in almost all areas. The Intel Core i7-1255U in conjunction with 16 GB of RAM ensures that the Chromebook Flip CX5 is extremely fast.

However, the question of what the powerful computing power of a Chromebook should be used for remains. Apart from gaming (which is still in the beta stage), there is hardly any application that utilizes the full capacity of the processor. Regarding flaws, we see real potential for improvement in the screen.

The glossy display should be much brighter to ensure good readability in all situations. If an OLED display had been installed, then the price of the convertible would have been justified. The Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 impresses with strong performance and a high-quality case.

Only the screen shows slight flaws. Owing to its keyboard, touchpad, touchscreen and stylus, the Chromebook can be used to carry out a wide variety of digital projects. The ever-growing compatibility of Chrome OS also helps here.

The Google Play Store, the Chrome Web Store and now also Steam offer a wide range of apps and games, most of which run smoothly on the device. In addition, Google guarantees updates for the device until mid-2030. The price of the notebook is a clear negative: EUR 1,400 is simply too expensive.

Several convertibles with styluses from Lenovo, Dell and others with comparable features and Windows are available for around EUR 1,000. Affordable gaming laptops and low-cost multimedia laptops can also be considered as alternatives. Worldwide availability of the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 appears to be limited.

In Germany, the manufacturer is asking steep prices of around EUR 1400 for the laptop on its website. Interested buyers in other countries are advised to check regularly via Asus’ website or Amazon for availability. .