Enlarge / The Surface Laptop Go. (credit: Jeff Dunn)
Microsoft may have another Surface announcement to make before the end of the year, according to a rumor from Windows Central . The report claims that Microsoft is working on a low-cost, education-focused device, codenamed “Tenjin, ” designed to compete with Chromebooks in schools. The laptop could be “announced before the end of this year if plans don’t change, ” the report says. It would also run a new variant of Windows 11, dubbed “Windows 11 SE. ”
The laptop would come with a low-end quad-core Intel Celeron N4120 processor, “up to” 8 GB of memory, an 11. 6-inch 1366×768 display, and an all-plastic body. It would eschew the normal Surface Connect port within favor of a single USB-A port, a USB-C port, and a “barrel-style AC port. ” Presumably, the laptop could charge through either the AC port or the USB-C port, as current Surface devices do.
Such a laptop would slot in below the $549 12. 4-inch Surface Laptop Go in Microsoft’s lineup, and accomplishing that in today’s supply-crunched, chip-shortage-afflicted PC market would definitely require some cost-cutting. That would explain the device’s use associated with a two-year-old, underpowered Celeron processor and a low-resolution 16: 9 display, breaking with the Surface area lineup’s longstanding tradition of using screens with a taller 3: 2 aspect ratio. The laptop may not even be available via typical retail channels, mirroring a strategy Microsoft already uses with certain business-focused Surface configurations and specific models like the Surface Pro 7+ . Only offering the machine inside bulk to educational institutions could further reduce the price.
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