Today, July 11, ASUS officially launched a new rugged Chromebook for education, featuring a convertible design backed by two 360-degree hinges and an 11.6-inch touch screen. The Chromebook Flip C213 is now available for purchase through the company’s authorized resellers for the suggested price of $349, however, there will also be a secondary variant featuring stylus support, which is expected to hit the shelves later this year in September for the price of $399.
The ASUS Chromebook Flip C213 is powered by the Intel Celeron N3350 processor, which was previously known by the codename Apollo Lake. It has 2MB of L2 cache, houses two CPU cores with a base clock of 1.10GHz and a Burst frequency of up to 2.4GHz, and it’s paired with 4GB of RAM. The Chromebook offers 32GB of eMMC 5.1 onboard storage and is also equipped with a microSD card reader, two USB Type-C ports, two full-sized USB Type-A connectors, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. Other hardware details worth mentioning include an HD front-facing camera as well as a 5-megapixel rear camera, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity, and a 46Wh Li-Po battery rated by the manufacturer for up to 12 hours of continuous use. As mentioned previously, the Chromebook Flip C213 is primarily designed for the education segment and thus it offers a higher degree of resilience compared to the average notebook. It features a spill-proof keyboard and ASUS claims that the convertible has been rigorously tested to pass military-grade durability tests. This includes testing on the 360-degree hinges by subjecting them to 40,000 open-and-close cycles, as well as dropping the Chromebook from heights of up to 1.2 meters (3.93 feet). ASUS also adds that the Chromebook Flip C213 should be easily serviced thanks to its modular internal construction that allows for various components – including the motherboard, battery, keyboard, touchpad, display panel, and power jack board – to be replaced in only a few minutes and without requiring complex tools.
Prospective buyers should be aware that the Chromebook Flip C213 launched today for $349 features an anti-glare display, while the variant expected to be released in September for an additional $50 will take advantage of Wacom EMR (electromagnetic resonance) stylus support, which should provide better accuracy and total palm rejection compared to resistive and capacitive stylus technologies.