Announced at CES this year, Asus will be bringing us a cute all-white cloud gaming Chromebook called the Vibe CX34 Flip. It comes as part of a deal between Google, Asus, Acer and Lenovo three new Chromebooks (opens in new tab). And while it may only be powered by a 12th gen Intel Core i7 with no dedicated GPU, it has a few nice features to get you started when it comes to cloud gaming.
In fact, Asus couldn’t stop talking about GeForce Now, which is a good thing since Google Stadia is about to disappear.
Adorned in neon orange hues, the Vibe CX34 Flip looks like it’s a Google Stadia cloud gaming device, but Stadia closes in January (opens in new tab). Since all that fell to GeForce, Now is the main game streaming service expected to be used with the Vibe CX34 Flip. It also comes with a three-month subscription Luna+ from Amazon (opens in new tab). Gee, what a bonus.
Asus powers the Vibe’s gaming capabilities with a 1920×1200, 144Hz panel. While it can only manage a 9ms response time, it’s worth noting that it’s still twice as fast as the panels previous Chromebooks have been lumped with. The Vibe CX34 Flip also comes with an RGB backlit keyboard, anti-ghosting technology and Wi-Fi 6E to get the most out of online game streaming. The 360 can be used as a standard clamshell laptop or, since it’s convertible, you can turn it into a tablet or use it in tent mode. Oh, and it comes with a stylus so you can draw on the touchscreen, which… may or may not be relevant to gamers depending on what kind of games you enjoy.
The Vibe maxes out at 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and 512 GB of fast PCIe-based storage. The SSD might seem a bit small for a gaming laptop, but when almost everything you do is cloud-based, the lack of storage space becomes a little less of an issue, while your internet connection will be everything.
The Vibe CX34 Flip costs $600, and it comes with a “SteelSeries 3” gaming mouse (whether that’s Rival, Aerox, or something else, we don’t know).
Unfortunately for Asus, Google is instead working with Lenovo, HyperX, SteelSeries and Corsair on the peripherals side, and as such Asus couldn’t pair the machine with one of its own gaming mice – I’m sure Asus is totally thrilled about that.
Still, the Vibe CX34 Flip itself looks physically stunning with a nice big touchpad and a strange orange flair, though I’m not sure what competitive gamers will think of that panel’s 9ms response time. In any case, the colors of the screen look great in person. For now, we can say it’s a step in the right direction for cloud gaming. Even if Google has had to leave its own cloud gaming service behind.