s part of its CES 2021 lineup, ASUS has a new Chromebook that’s a little different, though the Chromebook CX9 is a thin, light and rugged laptop meant for getting work done in harsh environments. Indeed, the CX9 meets MIL-STD 810H US military standards though ASUS hasn’t specifically said what it tested for or what kind of conditions it should be useable in.
The Chromebook CX9 is powered by up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor. That’s an unusual processor to see in a Chromebook students and more casual Chromebook customers don’t usually need more than a Core i3 but it’s the best option for power users.
It also packs that power into quite a portable chassis, which is just 0.63 inches thick (16 mm) and 2.2 pounds.
ASUS says the laptop has a 91 percent screen-to-body ratio. ASUS didn’t mention RAM or storage sizes, but the laptop does have a generous array of ports (at least as far as a laptop in 2021 goes). One side has two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 and an HDMI port, while the other has a traditional USB-A, a micro SD slot, a headphone jack and a security lock.
We don’t have a release date or price for the Chromebook CX9 just yet; at this point all we know is that it’ll be available in US in the second quarter of this year. But if it has the quality construction ASUS claims it does, it’s not hard to imagine a model with Core i7 processors costing in the $1,000 range.
