ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 Review: Best for Learning

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: At First Glance

In 2016, ASUS joined the likes of HP, Acer, Dell, and Samsung in its release of an education-focused device. However, ASUS didn’t just create any typical Chromebook for students – it’s meant to be a more durable one.

As parents and teachers, we tend to have some fear whenever we hand over a device to a child. ASUS understood this fear which led them to create a durable device that can withstand typical classroom accidents.

With such a target market, doubts may arise as to just how classroom-friendly this device can be. You’ll have to read through this review to see if ASUS’s idea is a reality!

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Design, Dimensions and Weight

The design of the ASUS Chromebook C202 is the main highlight of this device. To start with, this Chromebook has an all-plastic chassis with rubberized edges.

More specifically, this plastic chassis is commonly available in white with blue rubberized curved edges. Another color variant is a full-body grey which is made available for school’s purchase only.

ASUS intentionally created the aesthetic curved design pattern on this Chromebook to produce a durable device. This Chromebook is designed for classroom ruggedness and is ready to withstand any classroom learning incident.

Interestingly, this Chromebook can withstand a drop from under 4 feet without a single scratch. This is made possible because of the 300mm rubber sidewall that was created using double injection molding.

This double injection molding protects the display in particular and the device as a whole. There are also two grip reels at the Chromebook’s base for a firmer hold.

Impressively, ASUS made this device repair-friendly. It takes about 10 minutes to easily disassemble, fix and assemble this Chromebook back with basic tools.

With such a device, you don’t have to worry about handing this over to your child or one of your students!

As an education-focused device, you expect this to be a lightweight and compact device – and that’s exactly what it is. The ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 weighs 1200g and has 294 x 200 x 22.4 mm as its dimensions.

When compared with its competitors, the Dell Chromebook 11 weighs more with 1270g and 299.90 x 205.70 x 20.50 mm in dimension. The Acer Chromebook R11 weighs even more at 1580g and has 298.00 x 211.00 x 20.90 as its dimension.

Apparently, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 is well among the lightest 11-inch education-focused Chromebooks. Also, the dimension of this lightweight Chromebook is surrounded by useful ports.

You’ll find the ports of this device by the curved edges. Starting with the left, there’s an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, and a full SD card slot.

While on the right, there’s another USB 3.0 port, the charging port, and the Kensington lock. Also around the curved edges, there are two small stereo speakers on the left and right curvy edges of this Chromebook.

These speakers are so small that you’ll think they are additional slots. Despite their size, these speakers produce good audio quality that’s far beyond expectation.

On this Chromebook’s surface, you’ll see the “ASUS” text logo in dark blue at the center of the dotted plastic lid. Also on the lid, you’ll see the Chrome cyclical and text logo at the top right side of the lid.

To open this lid, both hands are required and that’s because of the solid hinges. Furthermore, these hinges go all the way back to lay flat at 180 degrees.

Even though this is not a convertible Chromebook, its ability to lay flat is advantageous. This is because it will enhance students’ group discussions and wider viewing.

Another advantage of the 180 degrees hinges is an additional way to prevent damage. This is particularly useful because children may tend to accidentally bend the lid too backward till it breaks.

Speaking of viewing, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 is an 11.6″ HD (1366 x 768) display resolution. Furthermore, the display panel of this Chromebook is a TN (Twisted Nematic) display panel.

Notably, the TN display panel is not as good as the IPS (In-Plane Switching) display panel on more expensive devices. The main difference between both panels is the viewing angles and vivid display they provide.

The IPS panel has more promising viewing angles than the TN display. With that said, this Chromebook doesn’t produce the most vivid colors and viewing angles.

Additionally, the ASUS Chromebook C202 has an average of 200 nits of brightness which is how bright the display gets. This brightness is a bit dim but that’s nothing too disappointing for such a student-focused Chromebook.

Surrounding this display are very thick bezels which give the Chromebook a 65% screen-to-body ratio. Nevertheless, what does an elementary or midgrade student need a slim bezel for anyway!

Away from the display, let’s talk about the Chromebook’s deck. On the deck area are the keyboard and touchpad (obviously!).

Starting with the keyboard layout, it’s dark blue while the edges of that layout and the armrest area are white. Interestingly, the bright blue color keys are 15% larger in text than what we see on typical laptops.

This text increase is another intentional move by ASUS in providing easy visibility to the keys when typing. Furthermore, the size of this text is particularly useful since the keyboard isn’t backlit.

Since this keyboard isn’t backlit, (which I wasn’t expecting for the price) ASUS still aimed at providing a good typing experience. With the letters more pronounced on the keyboard, students won’t find it difficult typing in low-light situations.

In addition to the typing experience, the key travel on this keyboard is 2.0mm. This is how deep a key goes into the chassis before bouncing back on a single press.

Another interesting feature of this keyboard is its spill-resistant layer. More precisely, the keyboard can handle a spill of 5 cl of water thanks to the metal plate and miller seal that’s under the keyboard’s structure.

This water-resistant keyboard is another reason to confidently hand over this device to a midgrade pupil. If water spills on this keyboard, just turn it upside down and absorb the water with a towel.

Below the keyboard is the touchpad. For a Chromebook at its price, the touchpad doesn’t feel cheap and is also responsive.

Apparently, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 provides a comfortable typing experience for its users.

In a word, the design section of this ASUS Chromebook C202 review deserves a rating of nine out of ten. Part of the reason I’m giving it such a rating is because of its all-around durability.

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Processor (CPU) Performance

The ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 comes with the Intel Celeron N3060 processor. This is a quad-core processor with a 2 MB cache.

Furthermore, this processor has a base frequency of 1.60 GHz and 2.48 GHz as its boost frequency. Notably, this is a low-end processor, which is typical for a Chromebook.

Speaking of which, to test how well the processor can handle workloads, I did a JavaScript benchmark test on this Chromebook. The essence of the JavaScript benchmark test is to analyze how a device handles web browsing applications.

More precisely, I made use of the Octane 2.0 JavaScript benchmark test tool. After conducting the test on the ASUS Chromebook C202, it scored 8714 points.

Notably, the ASUS Chromebook C202 outperformed two of its competitors. The Dell Chromebook 11 scored less with 8303 points.

Another competitor, the Acer Chromebook R11 scored even lower than both Chromebooks with a score of 7972 points. Even with its low-end processor, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 still stands out in this test.

In addition to this test, the processor was pretty quick with its boot time of 9 seconds. By the way, boot time is how long it takes a device to get ready when powered on after shut down.

For the most part, it’s fair to rate ASUS Chromebook C202 a nine in this processor performance review section.

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Memory (RAM) Performance

The standard memory size that comes with the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 is 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM. Also, this is a single slot memory that is soldered to the motherboard.

For a memory soldered to a motherboard, it means it can’t be upgraded. However, expecting more than 4 GB of RAM is unnecessary in such a Chromebook.

The main reason for that is because a Chromebook doesn’t need more than 4 GB of memory to carry out tasks. In any case, I had to check how good this laptop is at multitasking.

To access the Chromebook’s multitasking performance, I opened 7 web tabs on the Chrome browser and it did well. One of these tabs was for notetaking and another was for viewing a slideshow while the rest were random websites.

I wanted to push the Chromebook a little harder, so I increased the tabs to 13. Unfortunately, the Chromebook couldn’t quite handle the additional load.

I was streaming YouTube on one of these tabs and the Chromebook started slowing down when I switched between tabs.

In reality, a midgrade or high school student may not need to open 13 tabs simultaneously. This means the multitasking ability of this Chromebook is just right for its target market.

Ultimately, the ASUS Chromebook C202 is not such a great multitasking device. For that reason, I will be rating ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 an eight in this memory performance review section.

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Storage Options & Performance

When it comes to storage, the ASUS Chromebook C202 comes with the usual storage size and type we see in Chromebooks. More specifically, there’s 16 GB eMMC storage on this Chromebook.

Having a Chromebook with 16 GB size isn’t so small as you may think. Such storage size is just right because Chromebooks aren’t designed for users to save files in the local storage anyway.

This means that 16 GB storage is just enough for the Chrome OS and Android applications you’ll need for your daily tasks.

Fortunately, ASUS also offers the option of getting a model of this Chromebook with 32 GB eMMC storage. It’s important to note that getting this model with 32 GB storage will cost you a little more.

On the other hand, if you need more expandable storage, this ASUS Chromebook features a full SD card reader. This card reader allows you to access files already stored in an SD card through a device – which is the Chromebook in this case.

Additionally, the ASUS Chromebook C202 has 100GB of Google cloud storage. To access the 100GB Google Drive cloud storage, you have to activate it first.

To learn how to activate the 100GB free Chromebook drive storage, visit this link How to Get 100GB of Google Drive Space on a Chromebook.

All in all, the ASUS Chromebook C202 storage options are pretty much typical. For this reason, I am happy to rate ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 an 8 for its storage options and performance review.

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Graphic Card Performance

Chromebooks are generally not the strongest graphics powerhouse or anything like our typical laptops. As expected, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 has an Intel HD Graphics 400.

The Intel HD Graphics 400 is an integrated graphics card which means that it relies on the CPU to carry out graphics tasks. As for its speed, this GPU has a base frequency of 320 MHz and 600 MHz boost frequency.

With that said, you’re definitely as interested in its performance as much as I am. Fortunately, we have just the right tool to test the performance of this graphics card.

Notably, we couldn’t get the usual 3D Mark test we use here at www.itechguides.com. However, I used the WebGL test tool to render 2D and 3D graphics which in turn analyzes the overall graphics performance of a Chromebook.

Furthermore, the WebGL measures graphics performance by measuring frame rates. In simple terms, frame rates are how frequently a frame in a video or image is displayed per second – more is better.

After this WebGL test, the ASUS Chromebook C202 resulted in 50 fish at 60 (fps) frames per second. Similar to the ASUS test result was the HP Chromebook 11 which performed at 53 fish at 57 fps.

To clarify, the WebGL uses “fish” as an alternate word for “score” or “point”. Also, the higher the frame rate per second, the better.

In brief, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 features an average graphics card with an average performance. This makes it deserving of an eight in this review section.

ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02: Battery Life & Performance

The battery powering the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 is a 2-cell Li-ion, 38WHrs battery. As regards battery life, ASUS claims that this Chromebook has a battery life of 10 hours.

Ideally, Chromebooks are known to have a great battery life so ASUS’s claim may not be far-fetched after all. However, rather than guessing, I put the battery to a real-life test.

The essence of this test is to know how long the battery lasts in real-life situations like web browsing, video streaming, and general minor tasks.

For the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 battery test, I did a rundown test. This test involves using the Chromebook for minor multitasking tasks like downloading, and web browsing.

On continuous web browsing, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA lasted 12 hours 28 minutes on 70% brightness. This Chromebook did better than the Dell and Acer Chromebooks that both performed at 10 hours 42 minutes and 10 hours 38 minutes respectively.

Apparently, the Chromebook performed more than ASUS’s claim! Without a doubt, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 will last a full day at school on a single charge.

In essence, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 has an impressive battery that won’t let you down. Such performance means that ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 bags a rating of nine in this section of the review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

On a final note, the ASUS Chromebook C202 pretty much fits everything a Chromebook has to offer. The reliable build quality and good battery life of this Chromebook are ideal for the classroom.

Without a doubt, ASUS offers a Chromebook that is the right fit for elementary and midgrade pupils. As a parent or school administrator, you can consider the ASUS Chromebook C202 as a useful device for studies.

If you’re looking to get an affordable Chromebook for your business needs or as a college student – don’t think about this device because its performance won’t serve you well.

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