A gaming Chromebook? Yes, that is what ASUS is touting its new Chromebook Flip CM5. The new notebook, powered by AMD’s Ryzen 5 chipset, is targeted at gamers – specifically those interested in cloud-based gaming.
Priced at $499, the ASUS Chromebook Flip CM5 has a 15.6-inch IPS 1080p touch screen with 250 nits of brightness and a 178° viewing angle. The screen can be bent backward, so you can use the device as a tablet or in tent mode and there is support for a USI stylus that has to be purchased separately. The ergolift hinge also lifts the keyboard for a more comfortable typing experience when in laptop mode.
The Ryzen 5 3500C processor is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of PCIe M.2 SSD storage. There is also a 4GB RAM version with an AMD Ryzen 3 3250C processor and 64GB of eMMC storage. While those specs are not quite gaming specs, they will suffice if you are streaming games from platforms such as Stadia and GeForce Now, two services the device supports.
ASUS has added some gaming aesthetics such as giving the WASD keys, power button, and volume rocker an orange accent; including a Harman Kardon audio system, and a Wi-Fi stabilizer technology that filters out interference. The chiclet keyboard is backlit but there is no mention of it being RGB which would have been a nice addition.
The Chromebook has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, an HD camera, and a battery life that goes up to 10 hours. For ports, you get 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports for display and power delivery, 1x HDMI 1.4 port, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card reader. The spec sheet also mentions that it has a Titan C Security Chip.
The laptop is already available in the US for $499.99 but that is for the 4GB RAM version with 64GB of storage.
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