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ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 Shipping October, Available For Pre-Order In Japan

By 5 Comments

by Robby Payne
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We’ve seen the proper follow up to the original ASUS Chromebook Flip coming for quite some time. First discovered as ‘Bob’ months ago, we’ve known this proper Flip 2 device was coming from a mile away.

We’ve even seen product pages and a hands on at Computex and multiple online retailers listing it as ‘coming soon.’

What we haven’t seen so far is anyone actually being able to order the thing.

Availability and Pre-Orders

According to Lilliputing, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 is now up for pre-order from ASUS’ Store in Japan. This isn’t a shady internet store you’ve never heard of or a mistaken listing on Amazon.

This is ASUS’ online store listing the device for sale.

Interestingly, if you translate the page, you’ll find that the device is slated to become available in early October. Not what we were hoping to hear, but at least this is a release window from the actual manufacturer. Keep in mind, this is for the Japanese market, so release dates globally could differ. If we are expecting Google to announce ‘Eve’ on October 5th along with Android likely coming out of Beta shortly after, it may make good sense for ASUS to hold off until then to ship this one out.

Additionally, this would give ASUS a fresh product to have on shelves for the holiday season.

As has been stated around here before, take the price with a grain of salt. Though the listed price in the link above comes out to about $400, pricing doesn’t exactly follow that rigid of a conversion between markets. Any device can have massive variations in price according to the market it is being sold in.

I still hold that this one should come in around $300, give or take. We’ll apparently know soon enough!

  • huckleberry582

    Can’t wait to find out. I plan on buying a new Chromebook when the prices drop at the end of the year and I have been hoping this would be out by then.

  • Henry Pham

    Am disappointed it’s still not available yet as I’ve been waiting for this rather than getting the old gen. Still nothing else like this on the market. I think the R11 is the closest but comes in at a pound heavier.

  • BernardP

    At $300, it is roughly the price and screen size of the IPad. Although bulkier and heavier, having the ability to use it as a mini-laptop with a physical keyboard is a plus.

    For the same money, would you get an IPad or a C101?

  • Bruce

    I’ve been waiting breathlessly since May (Computex article) for this machine. A previous comment said, “Still nothing else like this on the market.” I agree. I will add that it’s uniqueness is a godsend for me. I suppose the reason it has no competitors in it’s niche is because that niche is too small to attract them. I also suppose that’s why the price on Amazon has only dropped about $25 since last year (It’s selling for $255.40 on Amazon today).

    I agree with anyone who dislikes it because it’s too small and compromised to compete squarely with a laptop. Same for those who dislike it because it’s too big and clunky to compete squarely with tablets. But for me, the original C100PA was the best blend of the two and fit perfectly into my physical infrastructure and my workflow processes.

    The only complaint I had with the C100 was that the screen seemed to be a little too dim for my taste. I’ve seen some articles that say the C101 is significantly brighter than the old one with a screen brightness of 350 nits. I have no idea how bright 350 nits are (is?). And I have no idea how many “nits” the old C100 emitted. But I’m hoping the articles that claim it’s brighter are true because I plan to buy one as soon as Asus will sell it to me.

  • Mr Stuart Lowe

    We had 90 C101s delivered to our school in Hong Kong last week (I’m told by the supplier this is the first shipment). I dropped a quick video of impressions and stuff on to youtube if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNiRpUAjRMc