Microsoft’s strategy to compete with Chromebook is taking shape in the form of a new, 11.6-inch, low-cost laptop made to suit educational users. The laptop is designed in the spirit of other low-cost education-oriented laptops like Lenovo 100W or the HP Stream series.
Laptops of this type are primarily bought by educational institutions to manage and distribute in bulk to the relevant users. The new laptop has the codename Tenjin. The specs are not too bad either, an 11.6-inch display, up to 8GB of ram, and run by an Intel Celeron N4120 chip.
Tenjin could have its own Windows 11 edition
The body is plastic, with no bells and whistles and an overall design intended to be as low cost as possible, with a build that lends itself to the class environment. According to sources, the device features a full-size keyboard and trackpad, a headphone jack, a barrel-shaped AC port, one USB-A port, and a USB-C port.
Tenjin signals Microsoft’s foray into a new education strategy. To complement the launch of the new laptop, Microsoft is planning to launch a new edition of Windows 11 titled ‘Windows 11 SE’ that is optimized for low-cost school PCs like Tenjin.
The sub $400 class
Tenjin may also ship under the Surface Laptop brand, possibly dubbed ‘Laptop SE’ to match the Windows 11 edition installed. It is not clear what SE stands for in this series but it could mean something like School Edition or Student Edition.
Tenjin will likely be in a class below the Surface Laptop Go, which starts at $549 and is more premium. It will also compete with other low-cost offerings from HP, Lenovo, and Dell, which have reported success shipping sub $400 Chromebooks for the education market.
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