According to Windows Central, Microsoft is creating a new 11.6 inch Surface laptop designed for the education market, starting with kindergarteners all the way to 12th grade. This notebook will compete directly with other education laptops, including low-end Chromebooks
The codename for the new Surface notebook is allegedly Tenjin, and it will feature a 2019-era Celeron N4120 quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1366x768 11.6-inch display encased in a full plastic shroud. The laptop will also come with a full-sized keyboard, trackpad, a single USB Type-A and Type-C port, headphone jack, and AC power.
These specs are some of the lowest you can find in any laptop today, but the internals will be perfectly adequate for the target audience.
Windows Central also reports that with the release of the Tenjin laptop in the near future, Microsoft will also introduce a new Windows 11 flavor called "Windows 11 SE." This version of Windows 11 will be specifically optimized for low-end hardware and school environments.
We aren't sure of any other features exclusive to SE, but we suspect it might also come with S mode capabilities. This will prevent users from installing apps from anywhere else besides the Microsoft Store to improve device security from malicious attacks.
Windows Central does not have an official price for the new Surface notebook just yet. However, it expects the laptop to have a sub-$400 price bracket to compete with Chromebooks and other low-cost educational laptops.
An official announcement for the device could arrive at the end of this year.
