Hi everyone! For this review, I will mostly be going over my personal thoughts and experiences. This is one of the very basic Chromebooks, that is built for pretty minimal usage. The model being reviewed is C340-11 81TA which was released in 2019.
Laptop Mode: I used Laptop Mode for everything relating to emails, note taking/writing, shopping and social media. Touchpad is used quite often which I like for quick scrolling, zooming and tap-to-click, more on this under Ease of Use. Not too many issues with running multiple tabs or windows at once. On occasions, swiping up to access recent tabs is a bit slow. Also, when you log off, all tabs will close automatically.
Tablet Mode: I mostly used tablet mode for small gaming. The problem is that some of the games are not built for this mode which has lead to freezing and lots of lagging. One game in particular was built only for smartphone and resulted in unresponsive touches. This mode would also be good for light streaming but may result in a bit more buffering than normal by the time you download the larger streaming apps. This mode can also take getting used to if used with browser related uses.
Ease of Use: There are some things that could take getting used to but for the most part, everything is convenient and easy to find. What took me some getting used to were the many touchpad uses such as:
- Right-Click(Press or tap the touchpad with two fingers. You can also press Alt, then click with one finger. This function will bring up the copy and paste menu)
- Switch Between Tabs(If you have multiple browser tabs open, swipe left or right with three fingers.
- Drag and Drop(Using one finger, click and hold the item you want to move. Drag the item to its new spot, then release your finger)
- Other uses can be found in the Chromebook help section.
Battery: I have not gotten a full 10 hours of use without charging. Granted though I have been using a little heavy and closing the Chromebook vs powering it off completely. Charging up does not take too long, but during down time, I plug it in so it does not usually reach below 30%.
Picture and Sound Quality: Both are solid for what this Chromebook was built for. I have no complaints based on the price.
Final Thoughts: I give this Chromebook an average rating, nothing too special, it does what it is built to do and no more. Based on recent usage, if I could give it one small extra, a back-lit keyboard would be nice. When it started coming out, I would usually recommend it to family and customers, where I worked at the time, who were looking for a cheap Chromebook for basic usage.
System Specs:
- Operating System: Chrome OS
- Processor: Intel Celeron N4000 Dual-Core Processor
- Display: 11.6″ HD IPS LED Backlit Display
- Memory: 4GB OnBoard LPDDR4 2400 MHz RAM
- Internal Storage: 32GB eMMC Solid State Drive
- Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600
- Optical Drive: None
- Audio: 2 × 2W Speakers
- Battery Life: Up to 10 Hours
- Wireless: 2 × 2 802.11AC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 Combo
- Webcam: Front-Facing 720P HD Webcam with Integrated Microphone
- Product Weight: 2.62 lbs
- Color: Platinum Grey
*Photos taken with Moto G Stylus
