Pros & Cons
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- Attractive pricing, especially when on sale
- Decent productivity performance
- Satisfactory battery life
- Well-chosen port selection
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- Flexible plastic chassis
- Disappointing keyboard and touchpad
- Mediocre-at-best display
Asus Chromebook Plus CX14 (CX1405) Specs
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 128 |
| Boot Drive Type | UFS (Universal Flash Storage) |
| Class | Chromebook |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 0.78 by 12.8 by 8.4 inches |
| Graphics Processor | Intel UHD Graphics |
| Native Display Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
| Operating System | Chrome OS |
| Panel Technology | IPS |
| Processor | Intel Core 3 N355 |
| RAM (as Tested) | 8 |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 60 |
| Screen Size | 14 |
| Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) | 10:20 |
| Variable Refresh Support | None |
| Weight | 3.06 |
| Wireless Networking | Bluetooth 5.4 |
| Wireless Networking | Wi-Fi 6E |
Thanks to the breezy ChromeOS interface, Chromebooks typically combine low prices with decent performance. These laptops provide an easy experience for light computing demands, suitable for students and other budget-tight users. Take the Asus Chromebook Plus CX14: It costs a reasonably low $429 (as tested) for its modern parts, but it's sometimes on sale for much less. (We've seen it as low as $279.) The CX14's starting price is already lower than our $500 ceiling for budget laptops—not bad given its build and performance—but the deal rockets in value when a sale strikes. If you’re looking for a quality budget Chromebook, the Chromebook Plus CX14 should be on your list, especially if you can grab it for less than $300. If you can spend a bit more to get the best performance and feature mix possible, though, we recommend our Editors' Choice award pick, the 2025 version of Asus' own Chromebook Plus CX34, from the same family.
Configurations: Reasonably Affordable Options
The Chromebook Plus CX14 comes in several configurations. The least expensive model—$279 list price (like the sale price we've seen on our reviewed model)—has an Intel Celeron N4500 processor, 4GB of memory, 64GB of eMMC storage, and a 14-inch FHD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) IPS display. You can upgrade to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage for $299.99; my $429 review unit came with a faster Intel Core 3 N355 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD.
(Credit: Mark Coppock)The entry-level configuration is desirable given its price, but the specifications will limit its performance, even when running ChromeOS. At the same time, our review configuration also comes at an attractive-enough price, but if you can find it on sale, it’s an even better deal.
Design: A Plastic Body That's Pretty Bendy
Unsurprisingly, at this price, the CX14's chassis and lid are made entirely of plastic, which leads to some problems. The lid is quite flexible, and you can see the display distort if you press the lid much. The keyboard deck and bottom chassis also give under slight duress. Overall, the construction feels a lot like a budget laptop, which makes some sense given the price. It’s a lot more like $299 than $429, though.
The laptop is fairly thick, up to 0.78 inch, and a bit heavy, at 3.06 pounds. But the plastic construction is a plus here, keeping the machine from getting even heavier. What's more, the plastic doesn’t get cold the way an all-metal chassis would. So, it’s not a bad feel in the hand overall.
(Credit: Mark Coppock)When it comes to looks, the CX14 has a decidedly minimalist design in three colors: blue, silver, or black. The plastic bezels are the most significant aesthetic nod to the budget status, and overall, the design’s attractive enough at a glance.
In terms of features, the CX14 runs the latest version of ChromeOS and has the most up-to-date Google Gemini Advanced AI functionality—the usual chatbot for research and writing, along with image creation and manipulation. You won't find anything overtly special about the Intel CPU regarding AI performance at this level.
Keyboard, Touch, and Webcam: Budget Limitations Show
The CX14’s keyboard has a standard layout with plenty of spacing and large keycaps. That’s the good. What’s not so are the switches, which are light and snappy but way too loose. I find myself making typing mistakes on this keyboard because of the insufficient feedback.
Asus' touchpad isn’t much better. It’s relatively small, with loose and loud (way too noisy) button clicks. I wouldn't want to use it in a quiet environment, like in a library, taking notes.
The webcam, meanwhile, is only 720p, below the emerging 1080p standard. It produces an acceptable image for videoconferencing, but don't expect a crystal-clear image at this resolution, even with AI assistance.
Display and Audio: Just Enough to Get By
The 14-inch IPS display comes in the old-school 16:9 aspect ratio, running at FHD resolution at 60Hz. That’s not terribly sharp, and almost all displays today run at the more productivity-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio. The display shines at 300 nits, but it seems to go darker than that. (We can’t use our colorimeter to test Chromebooks, so that’s a subjective call.) The colors are passable but nothing special, and the contrast is low enough that blacks appear just a bit gray. Overall, the display is just barely decent enough for basic productivity work.
(Credit: Mark Coppock)The two downward-firing speakers aren’t awe-inspiring, either. They don't produce much volume, and you'll hear some distortion when the speakers are maxed out. Mids and highs are acceptable enough, but forget about bass. You’ll want to use headphones or a Bluetooth speaker for watching movies or listening to music via this Chromebook.
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Ports: Plenty to Go Around, But Curiously Arranged
The Chromebook Plus CX14 has plenty of ports, although they’re decidedly budget. This laptop has two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connection, an HDMI 1.4b port (a couple of generations behind), and the usual 3.5mm audio jack. That’s enough connectivity for most people, but the layout is questionable, with all the ports along the left side.
(Credit: Mark Coppock)While its wireless connectivity is technically a generation behind, at Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 are still the bleeding edge of that technology. This will be fine for several years until Wi-Fi 7 rolls out more widely.
Performance Testing: A Fair Showing for the Price
I compared the Chromebook Plus CX14 with several other ChromeOS laptops with similar configurations: the CTL Chromebook Plus PX141GXT ($575 as tested), the HP Chromebook Plus x360 ($599.99 as tested), the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus ($624.99 as tested), and the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 ($499 as tested).
Most of these laptops use similar Intel chips and have the same basic designs. The Chromebook Plus CX34 stands out with its faster Intel Core i5-1335U CPU, while the Galaxy Chromebook Plus brings a higher price tag and a much better AMOLED display.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
We challenge Chromebooks with three overall performance benchmarks, two online and one Android. Basemark Web 3.0 runs in a browser tab to combine low-level JavaScript calculations with CSS and WebGL content. Principled Technologies' WebXPRT 4 uses HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly workloads to simulate tasks ranging from photo enhancement and OCR scans to sales graphs and online homework. Finally, PCMark Work 3.0 for Android performs assorted productivity operations in a smartphone-style window, giving a sense of Android app performance on the device.
We couldn’t run the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, because it doesn't support the current version of ChromeOS (or, rather, the version of Android supported by the current ChromeOS). In the rest of these benchmarks, the CX14 performed about as well as the other laptops with comparable Intel CPUs. The Chromebook Plus CX34 was the standout performer, which runs an older but significantly speedier Intel Core i5-1335U CPU.
These numbers indicate that the CX14 performs well, especially since ChromeOS isn’t a deeply demanding operating system. You can get your work done, but you won’t want to use the laptop for gaming.
Component and Battery Life Tests
Next, we evaluate general component speeds via two more tests, followed by a battery rundown benchmark. Geekbench 6 reports single-core and multi-core CPU performance across multiple simulated productivity scenarios. Then, to measure the GPU, we also run two tests from the cross-platform benchmark GFXBench 5, which stress low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
Finally, we measure battery life by looping a locally stored 720p video (the publicly available short film Tears of Steel) immediately after removing the power cord. We fully charge the laptop before the test begins, and view the video in full-screen mode with display brightness set to 50% and audio volume at 100%. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned off.
As for overall silicon speeds, the CX14 made a decent but unremarkable showing, landing in about the same place as most of its rivals, only for the Galaxy Chromebook and Asus' own CX34 outstripping it in the applicable tests shown.
The CX14 has a relatively small 42-watt-hour battery, and even with an efficient CPU and a low-power IPS display, the laptop only reached about 10.5 hours of battery life on our lightweight rundown test. Practically, you'll likely get less than a full day’s workload. It’s not terrible, but it’s not all that impressive, either, relative to the pack.