Microsoft reportedly working on Chromebook competitor with Windows 11 SE

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Later declining to crack Chromebook's market share, Microsoft is seemingly taking the bat at the low-cost EDU market with a new lightened operating system and an affordable laptop.

The report comes from our sis-site Windows Primal. Reporter Zac Bowden claims that Microsoft is currently working on a new laptop aimed at the Thousand-12 educational activity marketplace. Bundled with it will be Windows 11SE, an operating system made for low-cost computers. Co-ordinate to Bowden, the new laptop might sell under the Surface make, mayhap being called the Surface Laptop SE. There'southward no intel on what SE could stand for, merely it could perchance be an abbreviation for Student Edition.

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The new laptop, codenamed Tenjin, will not exist cutting edge by any means. Bowden's sources claim that this new laptop volition sport an all-plastic trunk, a 1377x768 resolution, an Intel Celeron N4120 processor and upwards to 8GB of RAM. While this configuration is non major by today's standards, it does spec higher than all the Chromebooks establish on our best laptops under $500 list. Granted, that could also be considering Windows is a heavier operating organisation than Chrome Bone. Fifty-fifty then, information technology may give teachers and students more headroom to work with over Chrome devices.

This is non the first time Microsoft has attempted to accept on Google's authority in the low-cost affordable laptop market place. Windows RT was a brand of Windows 8 that ran on ARM processors. Information technology was succeeded by Windows 10 Due south, which was phased out in March 2018. And then in 2020, Microsoft announced Windows 10X, which ultimately was cancelled. Many of the design elements of Windows 10X were integrated into Windows 11, however.

Either way, this new Microsoft device will need to be priced aggressively. Many Chromebooks by HP, Acer and Dell target the sub-$400 price. And once school districts lock in to a new prepare of machines, they try and use those machines for as long every bit possible before migrating over. Microsoft'southward pitch to the teaching market will need to be functionally robust and value-focused.

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Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping straight the mean solar day'south breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-fourth dimension freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Post and ESPN. Exterior of piece of work, you tin discover him sitting blankly in front end of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.