Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Arriving with a little more durability than your conventional laptop and some AI to boot, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 isn’t your ordinary Chromebook.
Mac and Windows may well be the most known of computer operating systems, but it’s not the only thing out there. In fact, if you’re happy working inside the world of Chrome, you’ve had the option of a Chromebook.
Able to work online and offline, Chromebooks bring Google-powered apps to a laptop for use anywhere, with web browsing, YouTube, media services, and free office apps.
This year, however, Google is improving what the Chromebook can do. In the Chromebook Plus, Chrome OS gains a super-power or two, covering the year’s favourite buzzword and trend that is artificial intelligence.
Google hinted what we could expect earlier in the year, but now we’re getting our first taste, as the 14 inch Chromebook Plus CX34 from Asus delivers a bigger screen, a surprising level of durability, and some AI features that could help in your regular day-to-day.
Design
If you’ve seen a laptop before, you’ve seen the Asus Chromebook Plus. A standard laptop design just in white, there’s nothing necessarily exciting about this design beyond the fact that it’s functional.
You might argue that hey, at least it’s not black, with the eggshell pattern on white being just that little bit different. It’s certainly easy enough on the eyes without being too inventive.
The materials are a little on the cheap side — hooray for plastic! — but the durability makes the use of materials worth it.
Instead of being fragile with an alloy, the Chromebook Plus CX34 is equipped with a military standard rating of MIL-STD 810H, also known as “mil spec”. That means it can survive both high and low temperatures, the latter to the point of freezing, plus sand, dust, and even the occasional drop proofing for the parts inside. That’s not to say the Chromebook CX34 is necessarily going to survive everything thrown at it, but it will handle more than most laptops we see.
The military rating is particularly handy for students, meaning the laptop can survive knocks and bumps, though Asus stops short of mentioning water resistance. While it probably has some — the military rating almost always implies it — we wouldn’t go out of our way to try and break this laptop. It’s made to be used productively.
Features
Doing so needs some specs, and there’s a decent spec set here, surprisingly so given the lightweight operating system.
You’ll find Google’s Chrome OS on the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, as well as decent spec sheet, running either a 12th-gen Intel Core i3 or i5, with either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage, alongside 8GB RAM. Our review model was the Core i5 (i5-1235U) model, with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage.
There’s a decent amount of ports here, with two old-school rectangular USB-A ports, two USB Type C ports, a lone HDMI 1.4 port, and a 3.5mm headset jack, as well.
That covers wired ports, but you’ll also find wireless covered using 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, all in a laptop measuring 1.87cm thick and weighing 1.44kg.
Display
The screen on the CX34 is definitely interesting, though. While it lacks touch, the display is of the matt variety, and arrives on a hinge that can lie completely flat.
While it’s not one of those 360 degree hinges, it is one that can see the screen totally flat, handy for sharing things with others. For instance, if a teacher asks to see what a student is doing, they simply need to pull the screen down all the way and check themselves.
Because of this, the 14 inch Full HD display used on the laptop is relatively bright and offers nice viewing angles, providing a spacious screen you can look at without any real issues.
In-use
The lack of a touchscreen, though, means using the Chromebook is down to trackpad and keyboard, the former of which needs a bit of work, while the latter is actually completely fine.
There’s a reasonable amount of travel and a good feel; it’s certainly a better keyboard than we expected, that’s for sure.
The trackpad on the other hand is a little difficult to press. Using it as one large touchpad is fine, but heaven forgot the moment you need to press the button in and good luck. Aspects don’t press down easily, and you may find the mouse isn’t as responsive as you might like.
AI features
One of the main differences that makes the CX34 a “Chromebook Plus” is the whole extra side of things Google gives it. Specifically, it’s this year’s big thing on every other device: AI.
Yes, artificial intelligence is a part of the package, with Google Gemini built in for a local version of something kind of like ChatGPT but isn’t. Alongside Gemini are AI features a little like what you get on a Pixel, such as image editing, voice recording with transcription, and also note summaries, too.
You can even have the Chromebook help you write and rewrite content, because that’s largely what AI is known for in laptops these days.
Performance
Get to using the Chromebook Plus CX34, and you may find the system springs to action perfectly quickly, while other times it struggles to do its job.
The 12th-gen Intel Core i5 isn’t what we expected from a Chromebook, but it’s a piece of hardware that suggests the performance should be good. Not necessarily by 2024 standards, but certainly by some from a couple of years ago.
The Asus CX34 benchmarks give a pretty good idea of where this year’s laptop is placed, and while it’s not bad, it isn’t up to scratch this year. This is more a 2022 machine.
Fortunately, Google’s Chrome OS handles it pretty well, and even offers support for Android apps and games, too. That’s certainly one way to get more out of the laptop.
Other apps are things built into Chrome OS and can be run offline, such as Docs, Recorder with its AI transcription, and plenty of others, too. Chromebook Plus may well run an extended version of the Chrome browser, but the apps are both online and offline.
Battery
Whatever you choose to use the laptop for, you should be able to get around six hours of battery life, which is fine, but could be a lot better. Six hours isn’t much these days, but could be fine for school life.
The Chromebook Plus CX definitely has students in mind, but they’ll want to keep a USB-C charger with them, either the compact model the laptop comes with or something else. You’re not going to get much more than 5 to 6 hours with this laptop, which could be a lot better overall.
Value
Pricing is where things get interesting. The Chromebook Plus is a little more than your standard Chromebook, equipped with a reasonable processor, decent amount of storage, and that smidgen of AI you might find useful.
As such, it’s a little more than the $400-600 cost of a regular Chromebook, and more to the tune of roughly twice.
The cost is less than the $1500-1600 of a decent 13 inch portable, but still more than the price of a regular Chromebook, and closer to the price of mid-range PCs, at that.
You’re not getting quite the level of capability as say a Windows 11 laptop, even though the Chromebook Plus is capable. It’s just that little bit better than a Chromebook, even if it’s also kind of the same.
By comparison, you can find Windows laptops with 13th-gen Intel processors and similar storage options for slightly less, while AMD equivalents manage to shed a couple of hundred, as well.
As such, we’re not sure the $1029 Australian starting price of the Asus CX34 is necessarily justified. If your kids only need a Chromebook, but want some of the added flexibility of AI, it might be worth a look, but the price still feels too high here, especially given the roughly $400USD price in the States.
It’s just a little too much. It should be less.
What needs work?
So the price is one problem, as is the battery life. But so, too, is the trackpad, which is too stiff to be useful. Had it been balanced by a touchscreen, we could live with it. But it’s just that little bit more difficult to use.
Using the laptop on the obvious spot of your lap, you may find the CX34 gets toasty at times. We sure did.
It doesn’t seem like it should — Chrome OS isn’t known for being a super-intensive bit of software, and yet you may find the hardware spin up and get a little on the warm side while in use.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
The inclusion of AI features makes the Chromebook Plus just that little bit more useful, and the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is a good example of it. Mil-spec and AI, it’s not your ordinary Chromebook.
However, that price.
This laptop should be closer to $700 or $800 as a maximum, and if you can find it for that, you’ll be smiling. If not, possibly wait until the model drops in price, or consider another Chromebook as Google trickles its features to other models, too.
