Asus Chromebook C202SA Review Durable for Students and Kids
Asus Chromebook C202SA Review: Durable for Students and Kids Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Best Products > Computer & Laptops
We found that the audio does get worse the higher you set the volume, which is another common thread with these smaller and less expensive Chromebooks. The solution is to plug in your favorite set of headphones, which is easy due to the fact that the C202SA includes two USB ports and an audio jack.
Asus Chromebook C202SA Review
This is a tough little Chromebook that can even shrug off minor spills with ease
By Jeremy Laukkonen Jeremy Laukkonen Writer Shoreline Community College Jeremy Laukkonen is automotive and tech writer for numerous major trade publications. When not researching and testing computers, game consoles or smartphones, he stays up-to-date on the myriad complex systems that power battery electric vehicles . lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on June 24, 2019 Tweet Share Email We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission. 3.6ASUS C202SA Chromebook
Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen What We Like Extremely durable Keyboard feels comfortable Excellent battery life Includes access to Android apps Anti-glare screen helps in bright sunlight What We Don't Like Design isn’t as slick as some pricier Chromebooks Performance suffers in some areas Grainy camera The Asus Chromebook C202SA is a great first laptop for a young child, but it can also stand up to the rigors of school life for older kids. View On Amazon View On Walmart 3.6ASUS C202SA Chromebook
Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen View On Amazon View On Walmart in this article Expand Design Setup Process Display Performance Productivity Audio Network Camera Battery Software Price Competition Final Verdict Specs We purchased the Asus Chromebook C202SA so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review. The Asus Chromebook C202SA is an ultraportable laptop with enough ruggedization to stand up to daily use in and out of the classroom. With a durable build, comfortable keyboard, and excellent battery life, it’s a great device for a child or adult alike, though performance won’t blow you away. Since it’s specifically aimed at students, it’s important to consider factors like battery life, durability, and performance to determine whether a laptop like this fits the bill. To help you understand exactly how well the C202SA is likely to perform in real-world conditions, we put one to the test around the office, and even took it home to see how it stands up to constant use throughout the day.Design Rugged design with a unique look that s ready for school or play
The Asus Chromebook C202SA looks tough, feels tough, because it is tough. To be clear, we’re not talking about military grade ruggedization, but this is a laptop that’s definitely built to stand up to the rigors of daily use, even if that daily use involves being thrown into a backpack, lugged to and from school, and even dropped from time to time. Unlike some semi-rugged Chromebooks that miss the mark in terms of styling choices, the C202SA has a unique enough look while not crossing the line into looking like a child’s toy. The case is white plastic, which a pleasing texture on the lid, surrounded by a navy blue rubber bumper that’s designed to protect the unit in case of a drop. Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen Perhaps the most welcome design choice, given that the target demographic includes kids, is that the keyboard is spill-proof. The laptop as a whole isn’t waterproof, or even water-resistant, but spilling a drink on it won’t ruin the keyboard, let alone the logic board. The hinge also has a beefy feeling to it, and it’s designed to allow the lid to open a full 180 degrees and lay flat on a table or desk. This is billed as a way to make it easier for kids to share information in group settings at school, but poor viewing angles are likely to make that difficult in practice. In terms of ports, the C202SA covers all of the basics. You get two high-speed USB 3.1 ports, with one located on each side of the laptop, a full-sized HDMI port, and a full-sized SD card reader. You also get a headphone jack. The case itself lacks vents, aside from the tiny speaker grills, and the laptop actually runs totally silent because it doesn’t even have a fan inside. This is possible due to the extreme efficiency of the chipset, which also contributes to pretty great battery life.Setup Process Hit the ground running
Chromebooks are pretty basic when you get right down to it, and that’s reflected in the setup process. The C202SA, in particular, is almost ready to go the moment you take it out of the box. When you first boot it up, you’re prompted to enter your Gmail username and password, and that’s just about it. The C202SA has a unique enough look while not crossing the line into looking like a child’s toy. Even with two-factor authentication enabled, the entire setup process still only takes about two minutes. After that, you’re ready to start using your Chromebook. You will have to download and install a system update the first time you shut the laptop down, and you’ll also have to download and install whatever apps you need, but those are pretty painless as well.Display Anti-glare display eases eye strain in bright sunlight
The C202SA has an 11.6-inch screen that uses a native resolution of 1366x768, which is pretty common for Chromebooks of this size. Those who are more used to full HD (1920x1080) laptop and desktop resolutions may feel a little cramped, but the image quality doesn’t suffer from noticeably blocky pixels because of how small the screen is. In terms of brightness, the screen is also pretty much in the middle of the road. It’s fine for most indoor use, but it’s a little dim for regular use in direct sunlight, and that just gets worse when using it outdoors. One nice thing about the C202SA screen is that it has a matte finish, which does cut down on blinding reflections when using the laptop in direct sunlight. Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen We found it a whole lot easier to use the C202SA outdoors in bright sunlight than most of the competition due to its anti-glare display, despite the fact that the screen itself isn’t terribly bright. That said, colors are a little muted, and the viewing angles aren’t great. The screen looks fine when viewed head on, but tilting it any direction washes the colors out even further, and noticeably dims portions of the display. The C202SA has a lay-flat hinge, which means you can fold the lid all the way back until the screen is laying flat. Asus bills this as a useful feature for students working in group settings, but students using the laptop in that fashion would be hard pressed to see the screen without putting their heads together directly over it.Performance Works well enough for basic tasks
The C202SA achieved a score of 4632 in the PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark test, which places it in the middle of laptops we tested that had substantially similar hardware. With a 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron N3060, Intel HD Graphics 400, and 4GB of RAM, there are some pretty hard limits on the type of performance that you can reasonably expect out of this laptop. We found it a whole lot easier to use the C202SA outdoors in bright sunlight than most of the competition due to its anti-glare display. In practice, we found that the C202SA is able to handle basic tasks like web browsing, writing emails, and word processing without a hitch. However, we did notice some lag in the browser with multiple tabs open, with the issue grows worse depending on the number of tabs and complexity of the sites. We also noticed some slowdown when loading especially large spreadsheets in Google Docs. Even though the C202SA is designed for tasks like web browsing and word processing, we also performed a couple of GFXBench benchmark tests on the unit. The C202SA was unable to run the standard Car Chase 2.0 benchmark, so we opted for the OpenGL Aztec Ruins test. The picture quality looked fine during the test, but the results of the test were predictably poor, with the C202SA mustering only 10.1 FPS (frames per second). That’s marginally better than other units we tested with similar hardware, but just barely. We also performed the OpenGL T-Rex test, and it performed better there, managing a more acceptable 34.2 FPS. That’s more or less in line with the results we’ve seen from similar hardware. The takeaway is that you should be able to run some of the more basic games that are available in the Chrome Web Store, but this laptop isn’t designed for gaming.Productivity Great keyboard makes typing a breeze
The C202SA is a Chromebook, so it’s designed with productivity in mind. There’s a lot of software it can’t run, but it excels at basic tasks like email, word processing, and web browsing. It also has access to the Chrome Web Store, which means you can use a lot of Android apps that older Chromebooks aren’t able to install. The keyboard is surprisingly good for a Chromebook in this class, which reflects the sort of quality that Asus is known for. The keyboard is just a bit over 2mm in travel, which makes the keyboard more comfortable to use than a lot of other inexpensive Chromebooks where you don’t get much of a physical press. The keys are also sized and spaced adequately even for adults with fairly large hands. That makes the keyboard comfortable to type on for long periods of time.Audio Decent sound gets worse at higher volumes
Chromebooks in this class aren’t known for awesome speakers, which is understandable. There just isn’t a whole lot of physical space to work with, and expensive audio components would likely bump the price up to match. That said, the onboard speakers here aren’t that bad. Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen It does feature stereo sound, with tiny speaker grilles located on the left and right sides of the laptop. The bass response is decent enough for such a small laptop, and both mid and low tones came through clearly when streaming music and videos.We found that the audio does get worse the higher you set the volume, which is another common thread with these smaller and less expensive Chromebooks. The solution is to plug in your favorite set of headphones, which is easy due to the fact that the C202SA includes two USB ports and an audio jack.