This premium sequel ditched the ports and the battery life that helped make the C434 a wonderful all-around Chromebook. I've had quite a few Chromebooks come across my standing desk in the last year, and the one I miss the most is far and away the ASUS Chromebook C434 . It was a 14-inch Chromebook that was compact enough to still carry when I went to the parks, the perfect size for split-screening my research when writing articles, and while it was powerful, it didn't force you to rely on USB-C hubs the way premium Chromebooks did. When the ASUS Chromebook C436 was announced at CES , it was clearly a premium upgrade from the C436, but I was still excited to see how it stacked up. Once I got the C436 out of its box and opened up that shiny "Aerogel White" lid, though, I realized that I'd set my expectations just a little too high. That normally wouldn't be a bad thing for a Chromebook, but when that Chromebook starts at $800, it needs to wow you. And unle