When Asus unveiled the Chromebook Flip C302 earlier this month, it was pretty clear that the 12.5 inch convertible notebook would be a premium upgrade over last year’s low-cost 10.1 inch Chromebook Flip.
The first version of the Asus Chromebook Flip C302 to go on sale is a $499 laptop with a full HD display, a Core M3-6Y30 Skylake processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
But Asus also announced plans to offer higher-priced models with Core M7 processors, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. It turns out there’s also a cheaper option though. Well, probably.
Best Buy has a product page for a Chromebook Flip C302CA-RHPDT11 with a Pentium 4405Y processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Given the lower-power processor and reduced storage, this model should be more affordable than the version with a Core M3 chip… but it’s not.
Best Buy has priced that Pentium model at $500.
It’s currently out of stock, but the folks at Chrome Unboxed purchased one and took it for a test drive earlier this month. By all accounts, it’s a pretty good laptop, but you probably shouldn’t spend $500 when you can get a Core M3 model for the same price.
I suspect the Pentium version may see a price drop soon though.
I haven’t seen any US pricing for Core M7 models yet, but some UK retailers are starting to show prices and the Asus UK website shows a total of 8 different configurations for the Asus Chromebook Flip C302.
via Chrome Unboxed
