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CES: Asus unveils rugged Chromebooks for education
ASUS Chromebook C204 – Tough, compact, and school-ready
The ASUS Chromebook C204 changes its colour to a dark grey finish, looking less “toy-like” than its blue and white predecessor. Its chassis is also thinner than the previous generation while remaining just as tough as its predecessor. The rubberized chassis is reinforced with thick bumpers on each corner to absorb shock, and the keyboard is tamper-resistant, preventing the keys from being pried out. It can withstand falls up to 120cm when dropped flat, and up to 80cm when dropped on its sides. A raised rubber rail on the bottom of the laptop makes it even easier to hang onto, making it less likely to be dropped.
Its 11.6-inch HD display features an anti-glare coating and is attached to the base with a 180° hinge, allowing the laptop to lie completely flat. Its hinge has been tested for 50,000 open and close cycles, ensuring that it won’t loosen over time. Its wider range of motion makes it easier for kids to share the screen during group work. The keyboard is the primary source of input and features a deep 1.5mm of key travel, which allows for deeper key travel, minimising typos.
Under the hood, there is a dual-core Celeron processor from Intel, as well as 4GB of RAM. That’s plenty of power for several Chrome tabs to be open simultaneously and ensures smooth switching when multitasking across Android and Chrome apps. There’s 32GB of onboard storage for studying materials offline, though most students will spend their time in the cloud, working through G Suite for Education, Google’s suite of cloud-based education apps. These include Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Slides. A USB Type-A port is available to connect external storage or plug in a mouse, and there are two reversible USB Type-C ports for newer peripherals or connecting to monitors in at home or in class. An integrated microSD card makes it easy to transfer photos from a camera to the cloud, and the audio jack lets students plug in to listen to virtual lessons or make video calls using the HD webcam.
The 50Wh battery, in combination with the power-efficient Chrome OS, will ensure all day long battery. Connectivity with dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11ac) allows for connections on the 2.4GHz band as well as the less crowded 5GHz frequency, ensuring no dropped connections.
The durability of ASUS Chromebook C204 makes it a perfect fit for the classroom, where shared devices see more wear and tear than the average laptop. But accidents happen, and in the off chance the device is damaged, it’s been engineered for easy repair. It features a more modular design than before, making part repairs easier. The mainboard can be accessed in three steps, and a service door has been added to make the ribbon cables easier to reach.
Click here to find out why ASUS’ latest 2-in-1 laptop will complement education.
