Asus Chromebook C200 / C200MA review – dead silent

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts
Comments

By Andrei GirbeaAsus Chromebook C200, last updated on September 9, 2017

Asus Chromebook C200

Summary: If you're after a quiet, cool and long-lasting 11.6 inch Chromebook that you plan on using for basic daily activities only, the Asus C200 should be high on your list, as one of the very few fanless Chromebooks available right now.

Our score: 4 / 5
Price when reviewed: $249 - $349

THE GOOD

good looking and sturdy built, good keyboard, trackpad and display, snappy enough for light daily tasks, runs cool and quiet, good battery life

THE BAD

the hardware platform is not very powerful, glossy screen

Table of Contents

Asus Chromebook C200 video review
The specs sheet for the Asus Chromebook C200
Design and exterior
Screen
Keyboard and trackpad
Hardware and everyday use
Noise, Heat, Connectivity and others
Price and availability
Wrap-up

Chromebooks are a special breed of computers, designed to be extremely simple to use, compact and good enough for basic everyday activities.

But they’re mainly created to be as affordable as possible and the Asus Chromebook C200 makes no exception: it starts at $249 (the Chromebook C200MA version, exactly the one we have here for our review).

For that you’re getting a neat looking device, fairly light and compact, a decent 11.6 inch screen, better than you’d expect for this kind of money keyboard and trackpad, and a hardware platform that’s punchy enough to handle light everyday activities. However, the C200 is powered by a BayTrail Celeron processor and not by a Haswell Celeron platform like most of its rivals, and that makes it somewhat slower and more susceptible to lag and stuttering when pushed, but also dead-silent, cool and long-lasting on each charge.

That’s the short version of this Asus Chromebook C200 review. The longer one is below and I’d advise you to keep reading if you consider buying this Asus mini laptop.

Asus Chromebook C200 video review

The specs sheet for the Asus Chromebook C200

	Asus Chromebook C200MA
Screen	11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 px resolution, TN, non-touch, glossy
Processor	Intel BayTrail Celeron N2830 CPU – details
Chipset	Intel
Video	HD Graphics
Memory	2 GB DDR3
Storage	16 GB SSD
Connectivity	Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports	1 x USB 2.0 port + 1 x USB 3.0, SD card reader, HDMI 1.4
Baterry	48 Wh
Operating system	ChromeOS
Size	12.0″ x 7.9″ x 0.8″ , 304 x 200 x 20 mm
Weight	about 1.13 kg (2.5 pounds)
Extras	720p camera, stereo speakers, Wi-Di and QuickSync support

Design and exterior

The C200 feels better than I was expecting from a $250 laptop. Matte plastic is used for the entire case, but there’s no reason to complain about that. The matte soft texture on the hood feels very nice to touch, although it easily catches smudges, and the Asus and Chrome logos give it a refined look.

The silver, metallic like finishing of the palm-rest is not bad either. The belly is covered by a more rugged type of black plastic and you’ll notice that there are no cooling grills here, since this C200 sports a fanless design.

The Asus Chromebook C200 – a $250 little laptop

For a laptop in this price range, the C200 definitely feels sturdy built, but its underbelly tends to somewhat creak and flex when grabbing the device firmly in hand. Other from that, there’s not much to complain about; this Asus Chromebook is light and compact, with its 0.8 inch body and 2.5 lbs total weight. Not bad.

Aesthetically, the C200 looks fine I’d say, with its Black and Silver case, but it’s not really as appealing as some of the other Chromebooks out there, like the Samsung Chromebook 2 or the HP Chromebook 11. That however is highly subjective, you might actually prefer these design lines more.

While we’re talking aesthetics, the huge sticker on the palm-rest is definitely ugly and I’d advise to peel it off carefully as soon as possible. That aside, the screen is glossy and framed by a rather thick black bezel, its hinge is big, but solid, and the palm-rest is spacious enough for comfortable daily use, but the sharp front-lip can be somewhat annoying when using this laptop on a desk.

Around the sides, the C200 packs a decent selection of ports, with 2 USB slots (only one is an USB 3.0 though), HDMI 1.4, a card-reader, a charge indicator LED, a Kensington Lock and a SIM Slot for the cellular versions.

Screen

Back to that screen, well, the 11.6 inch HD TN panel on the C200 laptop is decent. It paints natural looking colors, offers good contrast and is fairly bright for most use scenarios, for a TN panel of course. Yes, the content is going to quickly fade away when looking from sides or leaning back the display, but as long as you watch it heads-on, you should be OK.

An IPS panel would have been clearly better (it is however unrealistic to demand one in this price range) and the glairy screen’s finishing can become a concern in strong light, but even so, I’d call the C200’s display adequate for a device this cheap.

Except for the viewing angles, the C200’s screen is not bad

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard on the other hand is actually very nice, with better travel and feedback that what you’d expect from a regular ultrabook, for example. There’s no back-lighting and the layout will take some time to get used to, especially if you’re on a Chromebook for the first time, as some keys are missing from this arrangement. There are no Function keys, no Home, Print-Screen, Insert or Caps-Lock, which have been replaced with standard ChromeOS commands.

Good keyboard, but the layout will take some time to get used to

However, that I can get used with. What bothers me more than anything else though is the anemic Enter key on this European layout (US layout will probably sport a longer bar Enter) and the Power button placed as the top-right key. Luckily, unlike with Zenbooks which simply go to sleep when hitting the Power Key, this Chromebook only logs off when keeping the key pressed for a whole second. Otherwise it just starts fading towards the Login screen.

The trackpad is not bad either and fairly spacious for an 11 incher. It is a bit stiff and clunky if you want to actually press it for clicks, but as long as you’ll settle for taps, you’ll be very happy with it. It also supports basic gestures like two finger scrolling or Back and Forward just fine, but I couldn’t get Two-Finger zooming to work.

Hardware and everyday use

The hardware is a bit of a toss up here and the one aspect that sets the C200 apart from many of its competitors.

Most 11 inch available Chromebooks run on Intel Haswell Celeron processors. This one runs on an BayTrail Celeron processor, which is dual-core dual-thread CPU clocked higher than a Haswell Celeron, but at the same time not as snappy in everyday use. And that could be problematic if you’ll be pushing this laptop. The Intel HD graphics embedded within the BayTrail chip is even slower than the Haswell version, and that’s going to be visible when running games. On top of that, the C200 only comes with 2 GB of RAM and there’s no word on a 4 GB version right now (the memory is soldered on the MB and cannot be upgraded, nor can the 16 GB internal storage SSD).

To keep things short, as long as you only have a few things running at the same time on this Chromebook, you’ll be fine. By a few I mean only several tabs opened. Light multitasking is possible, like watching a Youtube clip in the background while editing text or browsing, or running a movie or music while performing other basic tasks. However, having 10+ tabs or programs opened simultaneously will lead to stuttering and lag, especially if some of them are games or clips. The laptop also feels sluggish when installing new apps, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem, as you won’t be doing it everyday.

If you’re interested in benchmarks, I did run a few on this Chromebook C200 and the results are under what Celeron Haswell laptops score these days. Check them out below (the scores below are the rounded average of the number obtained after running each test 5 times).

Sunspider 1.0.2 – 680 ms;
Sunspider 0.9.1 – 700 ms;
BrowserMark 2.1 – 1873 pts;
Octane 2.0 – 6349 pts;
Peacekeeper – 1324 pts.

Now, software wise, the C200 runs ChromeOS, a simplistic interface built around Google’s Chrome browser. You can think of it as Android for laptops: it comes with a few services preinstalled, like Gmail, Maps, Youtube, Drive, etc, and a Store where you can easily find and download new apps. However, most apps run as tabs in Chrome and they are more-or-less links towards their Web-based versions.

That severally cripples a Chromebook when there’s no active Internet connection available. Some apps can work offline and will later sync with the servers when you’ll get back online, and running videos and music stored internally is possible. But not most games (there are exceptions, like Angry Birds for instance) or other specific apps. Games for instance are rather rudimentary on a Chromebook, as they won’t run in Full screen, but as windows in the browser. And they tend to stutter badly on this C200. You will also have a hard time finding how to perform other tasks like editing photos, as the included Photo app is really limited. The same can be said about the Video playing app. MOV or MKV files run smoothly (high-bitrate 1080p clips), but VMW or MTS clips are not even supported and there’s just nothing you can do about that.

Anyway, since Chrome OS is built mostly around web-based interfaces and cloud services, most Chromebooks don’t offer a lot of storage space. This C200 is no exception and only comes with 16 GB of storage that you can use to save various types of content. You can however turn to an external HDD or SD card though, if needed.

Long story short, for the most basic of activities, ChromeOS will do just fine and the C200, with its lower powered Intel BayTrail hardware, won’t slack off. If you want a mini laptop for more serious work though, a Chromebook might not deliver, as it lacks the freedom and the software solutions offered by Windows/Mac devices.

Some of this Chromebook’s features

Noise, Heat, Connectivity and others

The BayTrail platform might not be very fast, but it does have a few benefits.

Number one, is fanless, and as a result, the C200 runs dead silent all of the time.

Number two, is efficient, with an only 7.5W TDP, which means that it runs mostly cool and can go for roughly 9 hours of real-life daily use, with Wi-Fi ON and the screen’s brightness set to 60%, which is not bad at all. Asus claims you can squeeze more out of the C200’s 48 Wh battery, and that’s true, when dimming OFF the screen and shutting down the Wi-Fi connection. Running a 720p mkv clip in the same conditions depletes the battery in a little over 6 hours though.

You’ll get between 6 and 8 hours of daily use from this mini laptop

Number three, the BayTrail platform offers support for technologies like Wireless-Display or QuickSync Video, and these might prove useful for some of you.

The C200 also sports good connectivity, with an Intel Dual Band AC 7260 wireless module, Bluetooth 4.0 and integrated cellular modems on some version.

There’s also a decent 720p webcam on top and a set of stereo speakers cut on the belly’s sides, like on many other Asus laptops, capable of pushing loud and good quality sound, again, for this class.

Thanks to the BayTrail platform, the C200 runs cool and dead silent

Price and availability

The Asus Chromebook C200 is already available in shops around the world, starting at $249 for the Wi-Fi only version, also known as the Chromebook C200MA. You might even find it discounted from time to time.

Asus also offers a slightly bigger Chromebook C300 version, with a 13.3 inch screen, more color options and pretty much the same other features as the C200, starting at roughly $250 as well.

Education versions with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage are available for both the C200 and the C300 series, scheduled to sell for $300 – $330.

Cellular models are also available in both cases and those will cost extra, though I’ve yet to find them in stores so far.

Wrap-up

Long story short, the Chromebook C200 is quite a capable ChromeOS laptop. It looks fine, it is solid built, it offers a good screen, keyboard and trackpad for this class. It is however motorized by an Intel BayTrail-M hardware platform, and that makes it slower than most of its rivals, but also cooler, quieter and longer lasting. So there are tradeoffs you’ll be making with this one.

At the same time, the Chromebook C200 starting at $250 is perhaps a bit too expensive for its own good. In this price-range, every dollar counts, and with Acer or HP selling their units for between $200 and $230 these days, Asus will probably have to lower the C200’s price to become more competitive. We’ll see.

In the end, the Chromebook C200 could be a solid pick if you want an utterly quiet, long lasting and nicely built 11 inch machine for light everyday activities. However, if you want a faster Chromebook, a thinner and lighter one or just don’t want to spend $250 on such a machine, you’ve got other options out there, as you’ll find out from our Chromebook buying guide or from this list of the best Chromebooks of the moment. Or you might want to step up to an ultrabook or other affordable Windows laptops.

The C200 can be a good pick, but ChromeOS is definitely not for everyone

Either way, this wraps it up for now for our review. Thanks for sticking by and let me know if there’s anything you might want to add or if you have any questions about the Chromebook C200 in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through some of the links on our site, we may earn a commission. Terms.

Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

16 Comments

Wesley Files

June 6, 2014 at 7:23 pm

Do you remember if you closed out the other tabs while doing the benchmarks? They’re lower than some other people who have benchmarked the C200, enough for me to want to ask.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 6, 2014 at 9:44 pm
  
  Yes, everything was closed except for the tab running the benchmark.
  
  Reply
Ralph Enderby

June 7, 2014 at 4:57 pm

Good review. I liked the added benchmarks. I am surprised though that the Celeron N2830 cpu runs slower than the Celeron 2995U used in some of the other Chromebooks like the Acer C720 that I have. I thought the clock speed would pretty much determine the performance and the 2995U slower clock of 1.4 GHz would make the chip much slower that the 2.17 GHz clock on the N2830. Do you have any idea why this is? Also I have been running the WebXPRT benchmark on my different Chromebooks since this is what Intel used in their May press report on the new Chromebooks. You may want to check it out. Final comment: It is also interesting that the N2830 is rated at only 7.5 Watts where the 2995U is rated at 15 Watts. How do you think they got the power drain down by a half when they are both 22 nm technology?

– Ralph Enderby

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 11, 2014 at 8:39 am
  
  Hi Ralph. we’re looking at two different platforms. Also, different type of integrated graphics. That’s why there’s the TDP and performance difference. Also, you should never judge a CPU by frequency alone, there are a lot of other important factors, like number of cores, HT, architecture or ammount and type of cache memory.
  
  I haven’t run that test and the C200 has now went back to Asus. I will keep that in mind for the future. I must admit I haven’t covered many Chromebooks in the past, so I’m learning as I go. That’s why any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
  
  Reply
Adam

June 8, 2014 at 4:11 pm

What’s really interesting to me is how, in the space of a couple of years, the conversation has turned from laughing at Chromebooks to discussing which model of a growing variety of offerings is best. So Google and their hardware partners have really come a long way since Chromebooks were first announced.

Chromebook users that want to work with Windows applications can use solutions such as Ericom AccessNow. AccessNow is an HTML5 RDP client that enables Chromebook users to connect to Terminal Server or VDI virtual desktops, and run any Windows application (including MS Office) or even full desktops in a browser tab.

For an online demo open your Chrome browser and visit:
ericom.com/Demo-AccessNow-4-Chromebooks.asp?URL_ID=708

Please note that I work for Ericom.

Reply
Sean Lumly

June 8, 2014 at 6:14 pm

Great review! I’m really looking forward to your review of the Samsung Chromebook 2.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 11, 2014 at 8:53 am
  
  Thanks, it might take a while, the Chromebook 2 is not yet available in Europe from what I know
  
  Reply
tedus

June 23, 2014 at 1:33 pm

very nice review. espacially the details about the inside.
I hoped that ram und hd would be somehow exchangable – but soldered? why would they do that (anyway – maybe you could still “unsolder” it yourself once the warranty is over or it is broken or whatever).
Still interesting piece of hardware i have not seen a comparable one currently available.

Also i found a 4gb of this C200 – called C200 Edu (for 329$)

Reply
Mike

July 7, 2014 at 4:32 pm

What you’ve got is a Canadian version, which comes with the “bilingual” keyboard with the weird enter key and the tiny shift key on the left.

Buyer beware – stay away from the Canadian version if you value your typing experience.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 8, 2014 at 2:23 pm
  
  It’s also the European version, with this particular layout
  
  Reply
Nicki

August 15, 2014 at 8:05 pm

I recently got 2 Chromebooks for my kids homeschool. I am ready to trash my new HP Windows laptop after using theirs, these little “books” are so much faster than my expensive laptop. The speaker is amazing too. I am constantly waiting on my HP, which I assume has to do with the new Windows, my grandmothers does the same thing, but with the chromebook there is no waiting, very fast. And the battery is the longest lasting battery I’ve used personally. Love the little program bar at the bottom, includes Chrome, Gmail, Google search & YouTube. I LOVE it =)

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  August 16, 2014 at 8:03 am
  
  Glad you like them. Did you get 2 of these Asus C200s?
  
  Reply
  - Nicki
    
    August 16, 2014 at 5:03 pm
    
    Yes, I got them for my kids schooling.
Jody Fetelika

April 21, 2016 at 9:54 am

Hi, purchased Asus Chromebook C201PA for my daughter starting high school, purchased Jan 2016, In April 2016 she had a problem with left hand hinge, store will not cover fault, as said it was damaged and have told us repair will cost us $250 + g.s.t for a chromebook that is 4 months old.
Has anyone else had a problem with Chromebook hinge??
Thanks Jody

Reply
Ani

May 31, 2020 at 8:16 am

Hi, after five happy years with my c200 (am still actually very happy with it, as web browsing is still fast and zippy. The only issue is that its past its EOL date), I am now shopping around for a newer chromebook.

The reasons why I love the c200 were: 1) the keyboard size and feel, 2) the touchpad size, 3) HOW SILENT it is, 4) its battery life.

Do you know if there are recent chromebooks models that can deliver a similar experience for these four features?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 1, 2020 at 10:34 am
  
  size might be the limiting factor now, most of the better options get 13-14 inch screens now. You should go through the list in the article and try to narrow down your options: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/4507-best-chromebooks-reviews/
  
  Reply

Asus Chromebook C200 / C200MA review – dead silent

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