Customer Ratings & Reviews

Although personally I have always been a bit reluctant to trust many of today’s big tech companies with private data, Google and the Chrome book platform with it’s reliance on much of its content and storage being cloud-based, poses a particular dilemma. At initiation, there are numerous agreements that need to be approved in order to be able to use this device. Perhaps it’s just a foolish Luddite’s dilemma that to be able to receive free or nearly free goods and services in the form of software, you really are required to pay with your marketable privacy. So, initially I was reluctant to surrender, but did so for the sake of the experience and to be able to evaluate this hardware and its operating system. ASUS products have a great reputation for being cutting edge and dependable. Having used many motherboards from ASUS and one previous foldable Windows ASUS laptop, I can say I’ve rarely been disappointed. I am fascinated by how ASUS’s foldable, touch screen computers have progressed over time. This unit, the Chromebook Vibe CX5501FEA looks gorgeous, feels luxurious and performs very well given its included components which includes 8 GB of ram, an Intel I5 1135G7 processor, a 256GB PCIEG3 SSD and a 15.6”144Hz Full HD Multi-touch responsive display with very good off-axis accuracy. Although I freely admit I have little direct experience with Chromebook products other than watching my two children’s use of school-supplied basic Chromebooks back when they were in high school, I can say they would have been woefully jealous of this ASUS product, with its technological sophistication, Cloud–based game-centric identity and large, fast, clear, screen. Although they would most likely have loved the larger screen size, they probably would have, like most of us, struggled a little bit with stowing away that large 15.6” screen and carrying those 4.3 pounds of smartness. Included with the laptop is a 15V DC 45 watt 100~240 V AC input power supply with an annoyingly short cord of about 6 feet in length, which is approximately 1.5 feet shorter than the older ASUS Windows version of this style of laptop. According to the specifications, a full charge can yield as much as 10 hours of laptop use, but only about 6 hours when running videos. Also included were a few paper documents for warranty and safety notices, as well as the shortest quick start guide that I have ever seen. Perhaps of most interest for some, is a card for the new Chromebook owner that allows the redemption of access to free game playing. This is a laptop that is relatively thin as well as being very agile. With the help of a full touch screen, this model has a fully foldable and lit keyboard that can be situated as a tent, tucked under in stand mode, completely folded over in tablet mode or right there under your face, in the normal position. In addition, one of the benefits of the normal position, courtesy of the hinges, is a slightly raised rear keyboard that helps the typing position, allows extra airflow under the laptop depending on what the laptop is sitting on and also allows the Harmon Kardon audio system to have just a little more acoustic breathing room for dispersion. Connectivity-wise, this unit sports a full-sized HDMI 2.0 connector for an external monitor or projector, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connectors, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connector, a microSD card reader and an analog 3.5 mm audio jack. Keep in mind that the power supply, when charging, will be using one of the two, USB-C connectors. The wireless connectivity includes Bluetooth 5.0 and speedy Wi-Fi 6 (802.11AX) (as well as backward compatibility to recent earlier versions like Wi-Fi 5 and 4) that allows all that zippy, cloud-based gaming to occur with minimal network interference. In use, this product’s screen is the main attraction, as it is fast, beautiful, versatile and accurate. Next is the keyboard that is stylish, includes a full numbers pad and importantly for gamers, includes anti-ghosting technology to insure that when multiple keys are pressed simultaneously, all your commands get through unscathed to win your battle or do your bidding. The WASD keycaps used for some common game controls are highlighted with a bright color for quick location. One last area of interest is the low friction area of the palm rest that ASUS has dubbed, “Obsidian Velvet” or in plain descriptive terms, a slippery black surface. The online gaming capabilities are obviously the centerpiece of this device and I am just scratching the surface at exploring what it can do whilst writing this review. My son, the college student, is the serious gamer in the family, but is away for another few weeks, so this laptop will get a real workout when he gets home. Conclusion: So, the takeaway for this product is that it is easily powerful enough for most typical computing needs such as browsing, email and video conferencing (although the video camera is limited to 720P resolution, so not the best, especially in darker conditions). However, the limitations of some applications and storage reliance on network connectivity may inhibit usefulness and flexibility when out of Wi-Fi range. Also trying to find Chromebook equivalent applications for more specialized needs is frustrating, especially after dedicating years of experience to trusted programs that are not supported by this OS. For those using this device in schools, homes or within a culture that will always be accessible to trustworthy Wi-Fi, this works. For a lot of us that travel, or may have to rely on sketchy Wi-Fi or use specific programs that are unavailable to this OS, it doesn’t.

## What to know before buying - This is not a Windows gaming laptop, so you can't install a game like Fortnite directly on this laptop. - Instead, this Chromebook is optimized to use *streaming* gaming services like NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Xbox Cloud Gaming. These services typically require a monthly fee, but you may find some free-to-play titles (for example, you can stream and play Fortnite for free with Xbox Cloud Gaming at the time of this writing, but the game offerings can change at any time). - So while this Chromebook can play games, it requires a fast and stable internet connection in order to do so, as well as an account with a cloud gaming service. ## Design The Chromebook definitely has a more aggressive gaming design compared to most Chromebooks. It has a distinctive look that’s both stylish and functional, with orange WASD keys to help you quickly find the directional keys during online play. It has a large 15.6-inch 144 Hz Full HD monitor that provides a sharp display for gaming. Being a touch screen, it does have a very reflective surface, making it difficult to use outside or if there is a bright light source or window behind you. The screen can also be folded 360 degrees to use the laptop in tablet mode and to also use it in tent mode, which can be handy when gaming with a controller. However, at this price point for a Chromebook, I thought that ASUS could have took the design a little further and added RGB lighting effects, for example. ## Performance I tested this laptop with Fortnite on the XBox Live Gaming service with a fast Wi-Fi connection on FIOS. Gameplay was surprisingly good, with only a tiny delay between pressing a button on my controller and having the game react. Most of the time, I didn't even notice the delay. Graphic quality was also very good and visible on the large 15.6-inch screen, but like any streaming video, there are occasional artifacts and pixelation in the video display while playing. However, I still found Fortnite very playable on this machine. It's important to remember that gaming quality is very dependent on the quality of your internet connection. For example, if you're watching a show on Netflix, the video is not actually on your computer; it's streaming from a remote server, so the video quality is dependent on your internet quality. The same goes for these cloud gaming services. I was a tester for one of the first Chromebooks, and I'm impressed how far they have come through the years. They are capable machines for those who want something easy for word processing (Google Docs), web browsing and social media (Google Chrome), basic gaming (Android apps), video conferencing (Google Meet), and even some coding (Linux environment and VS Code). Chromebooks are also a lot easier to maintain and install updates compared to Microsoft Windows, and the security protections in place with ChromeOS help protect against a lot of the viruses and malware out there. ## Battery Life This laptop can last up to 10 hours on a single charge and can be recharged via USB-C. The USB-C also allows you to connect it to a monitor for times when you want to game at a desk. I was happy to find that the USB-C connection worked with my Belkin dock, but this doesn't necessarily mean it will work with every USB-C dock out there. ## Summary The ASUS Gaming Chromebook is great if you're into streaming gaming services, but remember that the games can't be installed directly on this machine and the gaming quality is highly dependent on your internet connection and requires an account with a cloud gaming provider that supports the Chrome browser. However, it still functions like a normal Chromebook and can be used for web browsing, social media, Google Docs, some Android and Linux apps, and video conferencing.

I am a big fan of Chromebooks and have used one as my primary laptop for about a decade. I have used everything from low-end Chromebooks, to the higher-end models like this one and I have always enjoyed their simplicity, safety (malware protection), and functionality. I always suggest to people, that when they are in the market for a laptop and do not need to do much more than web-browsing, email, video streaming, etc, Chromebooks are always the way to go. And now with video game streaming, they can now be used for high-end gaming as well. Here are my observations with this specific ASUS model. Pros: - The specs on this Chromebook are very strong with 8GB of RAM, a beautiful 15.6" touchscreen (1080p), and plenty of storage space on the solid state drive. - The screen can be folded over completely to function as a tablet (see picture). It's rather large to be used as a tablet, but having this option is useful when you have the need. - The GeForce NOW app comes pre-installed and it was easy to create an account, connect my Steam account, and play games that synced to the service. I had some lag using the free rigs they connect you to, but I imagine that gameplay would be much smoother with a paid account ($10 per month to get the premium rigs). Using a free account gets you 1 hour of gameplay per session. Gaming this way can help you play high end games without needing an expensive PC. - I enjoyed the keyboard and trackpad layout. A numpad is squeezed in and gaming keys are colored red to find easily. Cons: - The price of this laptop is higher than most Chromebooks. While the specs are great, if you don't need the high end performance (or plan to do any game streaming), I would go with a cheaper model. - A stylus was not included. I have another 2 in 1 Chromebook from another manufacturer that has an onboard stylus that you can pull out when in tablet mode that comes in handy. I'd like to see that be a standard for all touchscreen Chromebooks. Overall this is a terrific Chromebook and I would recommend it to anyone that likes to do a little gaming on the side or is just looking for a Chromebook that can do a little bit of everything!

The Asus Cloud Gaming Chromebook is a sleek and stylish looking device in my opinion. The mineral gray aluminum-alloy metal lid looks very professional. The 15.6” FHD display is a responsive touchscreen with 144Hz response time and resolution of 1920x1080. The screen is responsive while in tablet mode as well as in laptop or tent mode and I found it to be bright and clear. The Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM has been able to handle everything that I have thrown at it so far. The harman / Kardon speakers are positioned on the bottom sides and fire downward. I am very impressed with the sound they make, they can get very loud and when in Tent mode, they are actually firing towards you and they still sound fantastic. I was not expecting sound quite like this from a Chromebook. The backlit gaming (RED WASD) keyboard is one of my favorite aspects of this device. Typing feels natural and smooth as you press the keys with your fingers. I had no issues with typing at all and in dimly lit situations, being backlit really helps and the backlight is adjustable and the travel on the keys is great. The built-in HD webcam and dual microphones worked well as I video chatted with my family and friends. They were impressed with the quality and sound. This is a slightly heavy Chromebook and it’s not as portable (0.73” and 4.17lbs) as some of the other models out there, but with that being said, it has a very large 16:10 screen and is a power house when it comes to Chromebooks. Oh yea, this one you can game on fairly well as a bonus. Streaming games now is becoming more feasible now and if you have a fast, stable internet, you can easily stream and play the latest AAA titles on this. An NVIDIA GeForce NOW’s streaming service trial for 3 months comes with this so you can try out what this can do. Unfortunately, the features listed say you get the top membership tier, but on my device it would not let me activate that tier (59.99 month) and I could only get the next to top tier (29.97) Also, I attempted to activate the other offers such as Amazon Luna+ and Google One and they would not activate, only redirect me to a page that said “sorry, this offer is only for Chromebooks”. I suspect it may be a quick fix if you call support, but I didn’t try that in my short time with this. So, back to playing games, I tested out Destiny 2 and it ran perfectly at 120FPS with a few spots it would drop down to 90FPS, and the input lag was not noticeable at all. Racing games such as Asphalt 9 runs smooth as butter and is a pleasure to play on such a large screen. Another great feature of this is the ability to hook up an external HDMI monitor and use it as a second screen. It will display the games on that screen via HDMI as well. Battery life has been really good as well and with some normal usage I was seeing about 8 hours on average, but with playing games, that was cut down a little bit. This can easily last someone most of the day if you decide to work remotely and it does have the power to handle nearly anything out there.

When is a Chromebook a gaming laptop? Well – it may or may not be, but it depends on how you look at it. The Asus Cloud Gaming Chromebook bills itself as one, so I’ve been trying it out to see what makes it able to claim gaming status. Turns out – not a lot. Chromebooks have been around a while now, and many of them are lower-spec machines. Chrome doesn’t need the power that some other operating systems do, and people use Chromebooks for more of the basics (web browsing, email, apps, etc) compared to full fledged laptops, so if that’s how you use them, you can get by with lower hardware. Gaming has never been on the list of things you do on a Chromebook beyond very basic stuff. This particular Asus model (1135G7) has higher specs than many laptops. It has one of the later i5 processors (11th generation), 8 gigs of RAM, and a 256 gig SSD drive – those alone are bumped up quite a bit from the typical Celeron/4 gig RAM/low storage specs you see on many Chromebooks. It also features a 15.6” folding screen that allows you to use it in standard viewing mode, tent mode, stand mode, or even folded back in tablet mode. Handy, but unfortunately, it’s only 1080p (though it is 144 Hz so faster than base models), where many gamers would want at least a 2K or a 4K screen. Graphics is integrated into the system and is Intel’s UHD 630, which isn’t bad necessarily as integrated graphics have improved a ton over the last few years, but gamers need a separate graphics card with its own RAM for the best gaming experiences. Charging is via USB-C and an included mid-sized charging brick. Now in the case of this Acer, it’s not trying to be a gaming laptop where you load games onto it and play them natively off of the device. Instead, it’s meant more for CLOUD gaming, meaning, streaming games, not downloading and storing games. With WiFi 6 capability, so long as your router is compatible with that and your internet speeds are fast enough, you can do a fair amount of modern gaming via streaming using the Acer Chromebook. I used Nvidia’s Geforce Now, and Amazon’s Luna online gaming services to test things out and played a variety of streaming games with the Acer. I ran into a few hiccups when playing games like missed frames, stalling, etc, and a couple of “wifi error” messages popped up on the screen (even though my wifi speeds and connections were fine). And when downloading a simpler game directly to the Chrome (which said it was compatible) it stalled more than a couple of times, forcing a reboot. In other words, when it worked it worked, but when it didn’t (too often in my opinion), it wasn’t pleasant. They keyboard at least is lit and has a decent feel to it, with the standard game keys outlined in red if you don’t want to use a Bluetooth controller (which you can). When using full throttle I would say the battery life isn’t quite what’s quoted, but close to 7 to 8 hours (?) which isn’t bad with the proper adjustments. Here’s the thing, though; you can stream games on many devices that are out there today (tablets, laptops, even higher-spec phones). So do you need to spend a little more on a Chromebook just because it’s labeled as a “cloud gaming” model? Debatable. Now, as far as Chromebooks go, this is a very good one. The processor, extra RAM and good SSD drive make this very speedy. The 1080p screen is still nice and bright and clear; The ability to flip it around into various viewing modes is likewise very handy, too. The Harman Kardon speakers won’t fill the house with sound but are fairly good. The web cam isn’t the best I’ve seen (seems to be 720p) but I’ve seen worse, and will get basic video chatting done. The 2X USB 3.2, 1X USB type A, memory card reader, audio jack, and HDMI port give you enough ports to use and work with as well. If you are a serious gamer, I don’t know that I’d recommend this, but of course you probably know exactly what type of system you need anyway. My advice is that I’d buy this if I wanted a GOOD Chromebook, and then see the cloud gaming features as a good add-on that I can also do with this machine, somewhat, when it works. So… recommended as a Chromebook and basic streaming game device, but not so much as a more serious “gaming machine”.

I like the screen size. Screen quality is good. My only problem is it will not let me update. Outside of that it seems to run well. I am able to use the apps and I can set up configurations to meet my needs.

I got this laptop when it was around $600 dollars and honestly it was not a bad purchase I would recommend getting it if your new to playing games and want to play LOL, Fortnite etc. it runs smoothly and right now that it’s cheap I think it’s a good buy. Also if you can get the protection plan GET IT try it for a year it’s honestly worth it. And it has good quality like it’s really good I use it to do school work and I play roblox and resident evil on it and watch movies.

Good chromebook, but I prefer a taller screen ratio. A taller ratio helps more with documents and emails. This ratio would be better if you work in Google Sheets (spreadsheets) a lot.

Great computer, easy to use and fast enough to get things done. Fun to use The only thing I wish it did was be able to remove the screen like a surface pro.

Good chromebook for the speed ... CPU fan way too loud and runs too frequently USB-A and USB-C ports are too close to each other .. can accidentally connect the USB-C cable into the USB-A port causing a short circuit. The laptop does shutdown to protect is self and you have to do a hard reset on to get the laptop to work again

Great laptop, works great, fast, excellent display, great battery life.

Sound could be louder for a "gaming" Chromebook, but great build quality and responsiveness

It was to much for my son to handle he has autism and he likes his computer simple

Been working great. A little big but great so far!

Great buy and use... open box came with the wrong cord, reasoning for the 4 stars

Very good processing speed it is amazing! I forgot I can completely 360 the back of the screen and turn it into a tablet with ease. Had a slight problem finding the power button but it was on the side with the charging ports. Would definitely recommend.

Customer service listened to what my needs were in finding the right device. I feel he found a good match for me. I had a scheduled class to learn how to use my device. It turned out to be less than helpful.

This is a nice tablet. I got it not fully knowing that this item was an oversized tablet. When I got used to it, it worked nicely for work(LMT). I have yet to play any games on it unfortantly. When I do I'll try to remember to update this.

Ready good for normal users, good product and good quality,,,

Haven’t used it bought it for xmas for my son. Looks great and is light weight