Asus offers various laptops under different categories ranging from its Vivobook series to powerful gaming devices. One of the latest offerings from the Taiwanese company is an education-focused product. Asus BR1100C, with its compact form, sturdy build and capable hardware, is a portable laptop mainly aimed at students.
Let’s take a look at what the laptop has to offer.
Asus BR1100C comes with an 11.6-inch anti-glare display with a 1366x768 pixel resolution. Its display in combination with a 180-degree hinge makes it possible for you to view content, which is mostly colour-accurate, from different angles.
Key specifications:
| Display | 11.6-inch LED-backlit HD (1366 x 768-pixel resolution) |
| Processor | Intel Celeron N4500 Dual-core, running up to 2.8GHz turbo |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics |
| RAM | 4 GB DDR4 at 2933MHz |
| Storage | 128 GB PCIe 3.0 SSD (upgradable to 1TB M.2 PCIe 3.0) |
| Battery | 42Wh three-cell lithium-polymer |
| Price | ₹24,999 |
The laptop is built to military-grade standard. Its exterior edges and corners are shielded by dense rubber bumpers that can cushion the impact in case you drop the laptop by accident. It comes with a rubber bar on the back and a 3D-textured finish on the entire body that help improve grip when you are holding the device. The micro-dimpled finish of the exterior design also means fewer fingerprint smudges and protection against minor scratches.
Asus BR1100C’s keyboard, like its exterior body, can take minor hits. It can handle slight water spills and has a tamper-resistant design to stop someone from prying the keys out. The keyboard provides good tactile feedback with decent key travel. It appeared slightly cramped but offered a nice typing experience even when writing a long article. Backlighting could have improved the typing experience and would have been an attraction for the students, who are the target audience.
Its touchpad’s tactile sensor provides accurate feedback with negligible tracking issues, making it easier for you to control the mouse pointer on the screen. The trackpad also functions smoothly during both touch as well as click inputs. Unlike the exterior of the device, fingerprints (even palmprints) are more prominently visible on and around the touchpad after using the laptop for a few hours.
A 42Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery provides decent battery life. On a single charge, the battery lasted for seven hours of non-stop Full HD streaming (power mode set as best performance, with peak brightness and maximum volume). When online streaming was mixed with some web browsing during continuous use (with the same settings), the battery life extended to eight hours.
Moving from video streaming to video conference, the device features an HD webcam with a physical privacy shutter. During video calls, the picture quality is fairly clear, although slightly dull and grainy at times depending on the lighting conditions. The audio performance on the other hand is quite good, through the use of AI noise-cancelling technology (for both mic and speaker). The responsive microphone captures clear voice and filters unwanted background noise to deliver quality audio at the other end. Some mechanical noises get through, but are faint in the background. The speakers produce clear sound and are loud in a quiet room, but would have preferred them to be louder, especially for incoming audio during video conferencing.
Powered by an Intel Celeron N4500 Dual-core processor, which is paired with 4GB DDR4 memory, the laptop can handle most requirements of students. It functioned smoothly during moderate level of multitasking. The device (underbody), however, tends to get slightly warm when used continuously and while multitasking.
The compact device features an impressive number of input and output ports, reducing the need to use external dongles. A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (for high-speed data transfers and power delivery), one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port and a full-sized HDMI port are located on the left-hand side of the laptop. On the other side, it has an RJ-45 full-size port (for gigabit ethernet), one USB 2.0 Type-A port, a headphone out and mic-in combo port, with power and volume buttons. The power button on the side could have been repositioned, as it triggers an unexpected shutdown when touched accidentally while adjusting the volume or inserting a headphone jack.
A small footprint in combination with a weight of 1.26-kilogram, makes it convenient to carry the laptop. For students, it is a useful device to perform their daily tasks such as working on projects, browsing the web, attending online classes and occasional gaming (non-graphic intensive), with sufficient computing power.
Priced at ₹24,999, Asus BR1100C can be considered a solid companion for most students, in spite of its shortcomings. Its sibling, BR1100F, priced at ₹29,999, offers some extra features including a multi-touch screen display that can swivel 360-degrees and an additional 13 MP camera located on the keyboard area.
