Inexpensive tablets running Google’s Chrome operating system are scarce, but they hold exciting potential as learning tools for kids or even just as extra portals to the internet in busy households. The Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3 can handle these scenarios and more. But this $369 tablet isn’t a screaming bargain of a Chromebook, and its design, build quality, and computing power leave a bit to be desired. The Editors’ Choice-winning Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a better detachable Chrome device for most people.
The Sum of All Components
As a detachable 2-in-1, the CM3 includes two separate main components. There’s the tablet itself, a black rectangle with a 10.5-inch screen; this piece measures 0.31 by 10.1 by 6.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.12 pounds. It’s slightly thicker than but generally comparable with the Apple iPad Air, which is 0.24 by 9.7 by 7 inches. The iPad’s slightly thinner screen bezels and rounded corners make it appear a bit more sleek than the CM3’s tablet half. Still, this is far from the ugliest Chromebook ever made.
It also stacks up nicely against the Microsoft Surface Go 2, a budget-minded 10-inch Windows detachable tablet. The Surface Go 2 is 0.33 by 9.7 by 6.9 inches, and at 1.2 pounds it’s a touch heavier than the CM3. That’s because the CM3 (and most other Android and Apple tablets) lack the kickstand that’s built into the Surface Go and Surface Pro tablets.
A kickstand lets you prop up a tablet on a flat surface for more comfortable viewing, but you can accomplish this with the CM3’s included magnetic cover. It’s a stylish, fabric-covered back panel in heather gray. It snaps on to the CM3 and has both vertical and horizontal hinges, so you can set up the tablet in either orientation. (The Chromebook Duet uses a similar cover.)
The second main component included with the CM3 is its keyboard cover. iPad users might rarely need a physical keyboard, but they’re more useful for Chrome and Windows tablets. Microsoft charges you extra for Surface keyboard covers, so it’s nice that Asus includes one standard with the CM3. The keyboard uses the standard Chrome layout, with browser navigation buttons instead of the more conventional function-button row. The black cover also sports a tiny touchpad below the keyboard, which is mainly handy for moving the cursor as an occasional alternative to tapping your fingertips on the CM3’s capable touch-enabled display.
Touch support in Chrome OS is consistently improving. Tablet mode activates automatically once you detach the magnetic keyboard. You can then perform specific navigation gestures like partially swiping up from the bottom of the screen to view open app windows, or fully swiping up to access the home screen.
A Keyboard Hinge Too Stiff for Comfort
The tablet portion of the CM3 feels sturdy and well-engineered, and design flourishes like the large camera lens that protrudes slightly from the back of the tablet add to the appeal. The tablet employs a solid aluminum unibody construction, and it certainly feels like it can shrug off some modest rough-housing from the small, dirty fingers of an elementary-schooler. It’s not rated to MIL-SPEC standards, though few inexpensive Chromebooks are.
As sturdy and good-looking as the CM3’s tablet base is, the keyboard and back cover feel a bit cheap. The heather-gray padding on both components feels rough, especially on the edges where it attaches to the black backing. The keys are made of equally rough plastic, and you can see where the labels have been adhered to the keycaps. The keyboard base attaches magnetically and can either be positioned at an angle or laid flat on the tabletop, but our review unit’s magnetic hinge is so stiff that it flops around while you strike the keys in the flat position. This flaw makes efficient typing nearly impossible unless you raise the keyboard to the tilted position, in which case it’s sturdy enough.
These design missteps would be inexcusable on a $1,000 Surface Pro or iPad Pro, but they’re more forgivable on an inexpensive Chrome tablet. Still, at $299, the Chromebook Duet is even less expensive, and its keyboard and kickstand cover have a slightly more premium feel.
The CM3 includes a built-in digital stylus, which is housed in a garage at the top left corner of the tablet. A garaged pen that supports Google’s Universal Stylus Initiative is a welcome perk for digital artists, and one that’s lacking on the Chromebook Duet. The pen also includes a rechargeable built-in battery; Asus says it takes 15 seconds of charging in the garage to get 45 minutes of use. Alas, the pen garage suffers from some of the same build-quality issues as the keyboard. The pen is so tightly wedged into the slot that I bent my fingernails trying to pry it out.
In contrast with that handful of questionable design elements, the CM3’s display is excellent. The panel has a 16:10 aspect ratio and a full HD resolution, which works out to 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. Colors appear consistent and text sharp even at viewing angles approaching 180 degrees, and the glossy finish of the LED screen doesn’t suffer from excessive light reflections. The 320-nit maximum rated brightness level is adequate for home viewing, although I spent most of my time testing the CM3 with the brightness slider set to the top level. Kids using the Chromebook in a fluorescent-lit classroom may wish for a slightly brighter backlight.
Dual Cameras Make Classroom Life Easier
One of the advantages of a Chrome tablet over a conventional Chromebook is the possibility for dual cameras. One is mounted on the back of the CM3 in a “world-facing” position (with the protruding lens mentioned above), a handy option for capturing the contents of a blackboard before the teacher erases it. A second camera is located above the screen to capture your face during video calls or selfie shots. The front camera takes 2-megapixel stills, while the rear shoots 8-megapixel ones. Video quality from the front-facing lens is adequate for a laptop webcam, which is to say that it’s reasonably crisp in a brightly lit room, although you’ll notice occasional noise.
The CM3’s twin stereo speakers offer reassuringly loud output for a small tablet. During a conference call, I was easily able to hear participants while I was standing six feet away from the tablet on my desk. But the audio certainly lacks dimension if you’re watching a video. There’s virtually no bass, and the high notes are exceptionally tinny-sounding.
There are only two input/output ports on the CM3. A USB-C port on the lower right edge of the tablet handles power delivery from the AC adapter, as well as connections to peripherals or external displays. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack. While a single USB port to handle all peripheral and charging connections is not necessarily a deal breaker on a tablet that runs Chrome OS, the lack of an SD card reader is a bit more of an issue. SD card readers are an easy and inexpensive way to boost a Chromebook’s internal storage if you need it.
That said, the 64GB of eMMC storage that’s built in should be enough for most users. And Google’s One storage solution is included with many new Chromebooks, including this one. The plan offers 100GB of cloud storage across all Google services for one year.
Wireless connections are perhaps more important than physical ports for a Chromebook, since Chrome OS is essentially a souped-up version of Google’s Chrome web browser and thus needs internet connectivity for many functions. The CM3 lacks Wi-Fi 6, but it nevertheless was able to maintain a consistent connection with my home router during testing, even when the two were positioned several rooms apart. Bluetooth 4.2 is also available for wireless peripheral connections.
Testing the CM3: Enough Battery Life for All-Day Learning
Since most Chromebook processing tasks are done in the cloud, the CM3 doesn’t need a powerful Intel Core or AMD Ryzen CPU to power through everyday computing tasks. Like the Chromebook Duet, it instead uses a low-power ARM-based processor from MediaTek. Specially designed for Chromebooks, the MediaTek MT8183 has eight cores and a built-in graphics processor. In addition to the 64GB of internal storage and the processor, the CM3 comes with 4GB of memory.
While the CM3 boots up quickly (I clocked its startup time at less than 10 seconds), and the web browser loads in the blink of an eye, some parts of the computing experience are sluggish. These include resizing windows, dragging and dropping onscreen elements, and browsing with multiple tabs open. (See more about how we test laptops.)
You can see the difference between the MediaTek-powered CM3 and Chromebook Duet and more-expensive Chromebooks with Intel processors in the benchmark charts below, like the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 or the Google Pixelbook Go. Our standard Chromebook benchmarks include both browser-based tests (WebXPRT and JetStream), as well as tests contained in standalone Chrome apps (Principled Technologies’ CrXPRT and UL’s PCMark for Android).
The ARM-based CM3 and Chromebook Duet perform roughly equally at the bottom of these tests. The Intel Celeron-based Spin 311 and Samsung Chromebook 4 are in the middle category, while the Pixelbook Go is in a class of its own, thanks in part to its Intel Core i5 processor. The PCMark test we usually run failed to load on the CM3, which sometimes happens. It’s usually more of an issue with the software than the Chromebook itself. Standalone Chrome apps are still a work in progress.
Just because the CM3 doesn’t benchmark overly well doesn’t mean it isn’t suited for the types of tasks that you’d likely buy it for, such as serving as a classroom learning tool or videoconferencing platform. And battery life is excellent. The tablet lasts for more than 17 hours of video playback, as measured by our battery rundown test—several hours longer than the Chromebook Duet.
This test is something of a best-case scenario since it doesn’t measure active web browsing, but kids should easily be able to get through a full school day without plugging in.
An Decent iPad Alternative
Chrome tablets like the CM3 are enticing options for people who need the extraordinary flexibility of a thin-and-light slate but don’t want the expense of an iPad or an iPad Pro. The CM3 earns high marks for its included keyboard and back cover.
We just wish that the quality of these components were a bit higher. As a result, Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet remains our top pick in this category, for its slightly lower price and slightly higher build quality.
