Can a Chromebook Replace a Budget Windows Laptop in 2021?

Hey Guys today I’m gonna work on my favorite kind of branded content one where a brand wants a concept explained and has no input whatsoever with the actual content itself - today I’m working with Asus on this video, they are launching a bunch of Chromebooks soon and they wanted a video on how Chromebooks work - so that’s the association part - the views here are mine and mine alone and is in no way tampered with by any brand - with that outta the way - what are Chromebooks, can they replace a windows laptop - what are the pros and cons that come along with it - let’s find out 

When we talk buying a laptop - what should we look at? What's usually important? First of course is the performance Next I’d say is portability, u know the the size, the weight and all that - u want it to be as portable but then again you wanna make sure that’s not coming at the cost of battery life - that's a fine line to walk Now Another very important criteria is the ecosystem itself - the number of apps you get access to and also if these apps are easy to use…Back when google initially came up with chrome OS, it was pretty much a chrome browser, u wanna browse good, but you couldn't do much else - today though it's a whole different ball game… 

So what can you do with Chromebooks - first up you get access to the google play store so pretty much every android app can be run on Chromebooks - so ya you can even play games if you wanna…. Additionally - there’s google classroom if that's something you need… from a productivity standpoint - you get Microsoft office, google docs, even some adobe products are available here… Now if you are a student looking for a laptop for online classes Or u wanna say, pick one up for your parents who might not be technically savvy The Chromebook actually makes quite a good case for itself… While I spoke about the productivity aspect of things, it's not just productivity that you can use it for… say you wanna.. have a zoom or skype call, that's available cuz google Play Store - the entire interface for the Play Store is very familiar - its pretty much what you’d see on an android tablet - so just hit download and we’re done… 

Like I mentioned earlier, this also means you can get some casual gaming done on this Chromebook… here I am running god of war, chains of Olympus on PPSSPP - I'm actually running it at 2x the native PSP resolution with anti aliasing and as you can see it runs fine… so there’s enough horsepower underneath - PPSSPP is running better than it does on a lotta phones… Now If you are a more serious user then chrome extensions and google play aren't just gonna cut it for you - Chromebooks these days let you run pretty much any piece of Linux software… so that opens up a entire new world of possibilities on what you can do with Chromebooks Now windows lets you do all this as well, so why Chromebooks, why should I go for that instead? if this is your question, it's a good question cuz that was also my first question - 

Here’s the deal guys - chrome OS is much lighter than windows... windows gives you good performance when you have a certain level of hardware… if you are say looking at the sub $300 or the 20,000 rupee price point - it's quite difficult to find a windows laptop that matches a Chromebook in terms performance - the price to performance ratio is quite high with this - of course we do reach a point of diminishing returns, so windows still rules when it comes to the mid and high end laptops… But on low end hardware - now on laptop with a processor with 4 gigs of ram - psp runs smoothly - device boots up in mere seconds - not just even that, the ease of use, the smoothness with the apps themselves, switching between multiple things - for this hardware, I’d say the experience is better than what windows would offer… Chromebooks also do another thing better than windows - manage battery - given how chrome OS is targeted at lower end hardware - the battery, it fares better in comparison to windows.,.. 

This means you get almost twice the battery life than if you say ran windows on the same hardware So for a student on a budget, Chromebooks do seem to be an excellent option - they are portable, they offer excellent performance both while not compromising on battery Now even for someone not too technically savvy - the familiarity, the learning curve, now that comes into the play - here’s where chrome OS resembling android helps - right from the universal search, to the app drawer or app icons themselves or even the fact that you start up by signing in with your Gmail address just like you would on an android phone, it's all very familiar and very simple. Anyone who’s ever used an android phone, can get up and running in mere seconds… in other words - The learning curve here is very short No matter what your level of technical expertise is… 

Now like I said I am working with Asus on this blog, so here’s the part where that kicks in… Asus are currently launching 6 Chromebooks. The first 5 share the same processor the intel Celeron N3350 and 4 Gigs of RAM- C223 is the 11.6 inch SKU, is the 14 inch and the C523 the 15 inch, the last 2 have both touch and non touch SKUs available - the C214 on the other hand it sports a N4020 Celeron, 11.6 inch HD display but it flips 360 degrees, gets 64 gigs base storage. All I can say for now is that the pricing seems very competitive - ASUS says this is introductory pricing BT… so at least for now - the prices appear compelling - of course, I’ll have a lot more to say in my full review… talking about that…guys, which one of these would you wanna see me review? Let me know in the comments and I’ll definitely review one of them at least… personally I’m leaning towards covering the base C223 - but whatever your thoughts are leave em in the comments below…!