ASUS Chromebook CM14 Flip 14" CM1402FM2A-DS84FT-S Gravity Grey 2023

The MediaTek Kompanio 520 CPU is a real letdown, landing in the bottom 3rd percentile of all laptops we've tested. You do get a surprisingly good integrated GPU for a Chromebook and a handy 2-in-1 design with a built-in stylus, all in a light 1.56kg package. Just know that the 64GB of storage is tiny and slow, and you'll be living in Google Drive whether you like it or not.

Let's be real about the MediaTek Kompanio 520. This 8-core chip is built for efficiency, not speed, and our benchmarks put it near the absolute bottom of the laptop pile. You're looking at performance that's fine for a single Google Doc or a YouTube video, but push it with a Zoom call while you've got a few tabs open and you'll see the spinning wheel. The 8GB of LPDDR4X helps a bit, but it's still a below-average amount of RAM, so don't expect to keep dozens of tabs alive without reloads.

The one bright spot is the integrated graphics. For a Chromebook in this class, the GPU is a standout, which explains why the one customer review we have specifically calls out liking the graphics. It handles the Chrome OS UI and Android apps smoothly, and the included USI stylus feels responsive on the 1080p touchscreen. Just don't confuse 'good for a cheap Chromebook' with 'good.' This isn't a machine for any kind of real gaming, which is why its gaming score is a brutal 8.6 out of 100.

Stacked against the competition, the CM14 Flip is fighting in a different weight class than something like the Apple MacBook Air M4 or the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition. Those machines are in a different universe for CPU performance and screen quality. A more realistic comparison is against other budget Chromebooks or a base model iPad. The Lenovo Slim 7 and HP OmniBook X Flip will absolutely smoke this ASUS in any productivity task, but they also cost two to three times as much. The trade-off is clear: you get a flexible 2-in-1 form factor with a stylus for very little money, but you pay for it with a sluggish CPU and cramped storage that will frustrate you daily.

Pricing on this Chromebook is all over the map, with a $140 spread between vendors. You can find it as low as $430, which is where it starts to make some sense as a secondary couch machine or a student beater. At $570, you're getting into dangerous territory where a used ThinkPad or a last-gen iPad with a keyboard starts to look a lot more capable. The value proposition hinges entirely on that sub-$450 price point and your willingness to live entirely in the cloud.

The ASUS Chromebook CM14 Flip lands in a weird spot in our database. Its integrated GPU sits in the 96th percentile, which sounds amazing until you realize that's a ranking against other Chromebooks with similarly basic graphics. The MediaTek Kompanio 520 CPU, however, is a different story, landing in the bottom 3rd percentile. So you've got a chip that can handle light drawing and UI animations smoothly but will absolutely choke if you open more than a handful of tabs. The 8GB of RAM is also on the lean side, sitting in the 22nd percentile, which means Chrome OS's memory management will be working overtime.

The build is where this thing tries to earn its keep. It's a 14-inch 2-in-1 with a garaged USI stylus, a 360-degree hinge, and a claimed 14-hour battery life, all in a 1.56kg package. The 1080p IPS touchscreen is usable but dim at 250 nits, and the 64GB of eMMC storage is painfully slow and cramped, ranking in the bottom 5th percentile. This is a cloud-first machine through and through, and you'll feel that limitation every time you try to save something locally.

Anyone who needs to run demanding Linux apps, keep more than a dozen browser tabs open, or store files locally should look elsewhere. The CPU is one of the slowest we've seen, and the 64GB of eMMC storage is a constant bottleneck. If you're a student who needs to run any specialized software or a multitasker who lives in spreadsheets, this machine will drive you nuts. Spend a bit more on a Chromebook with an Intel Core or AMD Ryzen chip and a proper SSD.

The ASUS Chromebook CM14 Flip is a one-trick pony, but it's a trick some people will genuinely love. If you need a cheap, lightweight 14-inch tablet-laptop hybrid for handwritten notes, media consumption, and light cloud work, and you can snag it for around $430, it's a decent buy. The garaged stylus and 360-degree hinge are genuinely useful. But the bottom-of-the-barrel CPU and tiny eMMC storage mean this thing has a very short shelf life for anyone trying to do real work. Most people should save up a bit more for something with a better processor.