This Chromebook is light in build and light on your pocket
By Anand Parthasarathy
Bangalore, August 18 2021: Hard to believe,  but Chrome the operating system that Google created for a predominantly always-online user, is 10 years old this year!
 Most of us, installed Chrome as a second string to a primary OS. But over years, its USP – being lite,  lean-n-mean --  saw it creeping on to more and more desktops, laptops  and of course Android phones. But a laptop with Chrome as the only OS? That looked like a case of living dangerously.
Not so. At least not for any one who is used to switching smoothly from smart phone to laptop or desktop multiple times a day and wants a consistent experience – carrying on a task on phone that one had initiated on a laptop or vice versa. The other fact of life that underpins a Chromebook as Chrome-driven devices -- tablets, laptops --are known, is uninterrupted Internet.
Smallest, lightest
Asus has recently launched a quartet of Chromebooks and the smallest and lightest of them is the Chromebook C223 which I have been using for a week.
Weighing just 1 kg and with a 11.6 inch diagonal LED screen with a  HD  resolution that approximates to 720p, the C223 has a 38 Wh battery that is good to go for a full working day of about 10 hours. This is almost a sweet spot for ultra portable laptops. Asus does not stint on providing connector ports,  2 Type C USB; 1 Type AUSB, an audio jack, microSD, and the WiFi 5 is contemporary in speed. These days  video conferences have become central to our work style and the 720p HD camera and stereo speakers  are more than adequate for Skype, Zoom,Webex or whatever.
Like all Chromebooks, the C223  uses solid state storage  for quicker data exchange and 32 GB is just about enough provided you “live” online – using cloud storage; cloud based office tools , and  using on board storage minimally. Fortunately Google has  a suite of such Internet-based solutions   ( and a button for the Google Play store handy) and as long as you have no issues being a Google Guy all the way, you will be surprised how much you can do without  a lot of  hardware-installed tools and apps. The laptop is fueled by an Intel Celeron N3350 with 2 MB of cache  and this   is just about adequate to perform most office  functions.
Ultimately Chromebooks like the C223 stand or fall depending on how good your Internet connection is.
Invest in a good data service (or pay for a good phone data plan which you can use to create your own hotspot) – and C223 will do the rest, smoothly, consistently. Welcome to the  club of always-on-Internet computing!
Considering its  very light build,  the Asus Chromebook C223 is fairly light on purse – at an affordable Rs 17,999 with currently available discounts.
Link to product site here ( includes link to Flipkart buy site)