Microsoft goes face to face with Chromebooks with a brand new $249 Surface Laptop SE, its most inexpensive Surface but. While the software program large has tried to compete with the recognition of Chrome OS in US colleges for years, the Surface Laptop SE is the corporate’s first true Chromebook competitor.

Surface Laptop SE shall be offered solely to varsities and college students, beginning at $249. It’s a part of a wider effort with Windows 11 SE, a brand new scholar version designed to compete with Chrome OS that may ship on a spread of low-cost laptops within the coming months. You can learn all about Windows 11 SE proper right here.

Image: Microsoft

Surface Laptop SE is each bit the low-cost Windows system you’d count on to see for $249. While it retains the identical keyboard and trackpad discovered on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go, the all-plastic physique homes an 11.6-inch show working at only a 1366 x 768 decision. This is the primary 16:9 Surface system in additional than seven years, after Microsoft switched to three:2 for its Surface line with the Surface Pro 3 launch in 2014.

The display screen seems to be like the largest downside on this system, notably as we weren’t followers of the low-resolution display screen (1536 x 1024) discovered on the $549 Surface Laptop Go. Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet ships with a greater 10.1-inch (1920 x 1200) show for a similar $249 worth because the Surface Laptop SE.

Intel’s Celeron N4020 or N4120 energy the Surface Laptop SE, mixed with 4GB / 8GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of eMMC storage. Microsoft is together with a 1-megapixel front-facing digicam that provides 720P assist, so it ought to maintain up okay for Teams conferences. The Surface Laptop SE additionally features a single USB-A port, one USB-C port, a daily barrel-type DC connector, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That means that is additionally the primary Surface laptop computer to ship with out Microsoft’s magnetic Surface charging port.

Image: Microsoft

That’s not the one first for the Surface Laptop SE, although. Microsoft is committing to a giant repairability effort with the Surface Laptop SE, permitting colleges to interchange parts contained in the laptop computer. The base of the Surface Laptop SE has commonplace screws that may enable IT admins to interchange the show, battery, keyboard, and even the motherboard.

Microsoft has spent the previous 18 months speaking to IT admins concerning the ache factors of managing laptops in colleges, and repairability was one of many high issues. Microsoft will promote spare components by its licensed service suppliers, and it ought to imply colleges can substitute parts on website as an alternative of getting to ship units for restore and wait days or perhaps weeks for them to be mounted.

We’re anticipating to see related repairability in different Surface laptops sooner or later, as Microsoft has dedicated to make its units simpler to restore by the tip of 2022.

Microsoft is launching its Surface Laptop SE in early 2022 beginning at $249, accessible within the US, UK, Canada, and Japan. A variety of Windows 11 SE laptops may even be accessible from Acer, Asus, Dell, Dynabook, Fujitsu, HP, JK-IP, Lenovo, and Positivo.