Chromebook Vibe CX34 Flip Cloud Gaming Laptop with Stylus, 14" 144 Hz Touch Display (1920x1200), Intel® Core™ i5-1235U Processor, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, ChromeOS, Pearl White, CX3401FBA-DH586T-S

This is a very good looking Chromebook. The build, while on the heavy side, feels very premium and well manufactured.ChromeOS seems to run quite well and blew away my older chromebook in benchmarks.The keyboard feels amazing, but is the annoying light gray that ASUS likes to use that can make the keyboard almost impossible to read with backlight on and in certain lighting conditions. It's easy enough to toggle that on or off, and with this being a "gamer" keyboard, some of the other colors that you can select were not as bad as white, but with the black text on the gray keycaps it's just not as easy to read as white text on keycaps.The reason I'm returning the Chromebook is because I experienced audio issues throughout the few weeks that I've had it. The device just wouldn't output audio until restarted. ChromeOS is fully up-to-date and it also reported all firmware was current. The audio issues happened on-device and also while casting to a TV. In each instance, restarting resolved it and the audio worked as expected.If this wasn't a premium priced Chromebook, I might have lived with that annoyance, but at this price point, I'd expect the basics to work without issue.There's a chance I had a bad unit, or that it will get fixed eventually with software, but at this time, and at this price point, that wasn't something I wanted to risk on waiting for with the return window closing.

Purchased primarily as a work laptop with the option for streaming games during downtime between classes. (I teach and drive around between locations)Pros:Sturdy, stylish, and the garaged stylus is convenient. The 144hz display is perhaps overkill and likely accounts for a fair bit of the price tag that I'd personally prefer to have seen invested in all-aluminum construction or a better webcam.Chrome OS is a solid platform for general purpose productivity. The hardware is more than sufficient to keep the experience smooth and snappy. The garaged stylus is automatically charged, which is a major improvement over my previous experience of having to recharge my old bamboo stylus every time I wanted to use it because I couldn't be bothered to remember charging it.The core gimmick of the thing is cloud gaming, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it's a perfectly pleasant experience. The libraries on these services (Amazon Luna, GForce Now) are limited, but growing. I find the niche they occupy to be providing a solid casual gaming experience on the road, rather than being a serious competitor for a desktop gaming PC. I could see that assessment changing very rapidly if their libraries grow to rival steam.Build quality is solid. The plastic components are finished in a grippy texture and are sturdy enough to feel like it earns the premium price point. Would prefer an all-aluminum construction.Indifferent:Audio is great (for a laptop), but that's kind of a moot point for me. I'd consider it poor form to use anything but headphones in a public space, and I've got a desktop for home use.Cons:There's a weird bump on the "d" key that annoys me constantly despite being of precisely zero consequence. Probably a minor manufacturing defect.