Microsoft unveils Windows 11 SE and Surface Laptop SE to challenge Chromebooks in education market

One of the reasons why Google's Chromebook has increased its share in the US education market is "Google Workspace" (G Suite ) was integrated and easy to use. However, Google's tools are made for cloud services, and Chromebooks have limitations in functionality and performance in the offline environment.

According to Microsoft, more than 16 million K-12 public school students in the United States have no sustained internet access outside of school. Windows 11 SE delivers environments and features that support both online and offline, including Microsoft 365, to meet today's learning needs. For example, Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and OneDrive are available offline on Windows 11 SE devices as part of your Microsoft 365 license. OneDrive stores files locally on each device so students can access them even when they're offline. Windows 11 SE will automatically sync offline changes when you have internet access, such as at school.

Web-based learning apps and services can also be used comfortably with Microsoft Edge. It also supports third-party apps such as Zoom and Chrome so that schools can use the apps and services that best suit them.

In public schools, it is necessary to manage a large number of devices, but Windows Autopilot makes it possible to deploy devices as easily as smartphones, and Intune for Education provides a simple and secure cloud environment for applying various settings and policies to devices. Provide management solutions. IT administrators can easily deploy and manage Windows 11 SE devices from anywhere and keep devices up-to-date through cloud management.

Surface Laptop SE will be the cheapest Surface PC, with a price of "from US$ 249.99" (from 30,580 yen in Japan, scheduled to be released in the first half of 2022). The processor is Intel Celeron Processor N4020 / N4120, the storage is eMMC, and other parts that can keep the price down overall are used, but like other Surface products, the keyboard, 720p HD camera, stereo that you can type comfortably With speakers and a battery life of up to 16 hours, the specs are designed to meet the needs of learning. It is designed to be easy to repair so that repair time and cost can be reduced in the environment used by children, and the display, battery, keyboard, and motherboard can be easily repaired on-site.

The following are the main specifications of the Surface Laptop SE.