Windows 11 SE on low-cost Surface laptop may be Microsoft’s latest attempt at countering Chromebooks

Microsoft may be planning to go in a neck-and-neck battle with the Chromebooks and its ammo may include a low-cost Surface laptop that will run a new, possibly stripped-down, version of Windows 11 called the Windows 11 SE. That SE suffix may stand for Special Edition, just like how it does in the case of iPhone SE. The new Surface laptop, according to a new report, will be a better alternative to the Chromebooks that are available on the market for cheap.

As reported by Windows Central, the watered-down version of Surface may be called Surface Laptop SE and it may be meant for the education segment. This laptop may come with an 11.6-inch display with a 1366×768 resolution. It may use an Intel N1420 Celeron processor with up to 8GB of RAM inside. That makes sense since Microsoft is keeping K-12 students in mind as the target audience for this laptop. That is also why the laptop will come with a single USB-A and a USB-C port.

At the heart of the Surface Laptop SE will be Windows SE, according to the report. Microsoft has used the “SE” moniker for some of the previous versions of Windows, such as Windows 98 SE. However, Windows 11 SE is unlikely to stand for what Windows 98 SE did, which is the second edition. Instead, Windows 11 SE is expected to be more like Windows 10’s S version. The new software version will power low-cost laptops designed to cater to a market where Chromebooks have recently flourished.

The details of Windows 11 SE are not entirely available, but if it is going to work like ChromeOS, then it needs to have features that are extremely convenient. Google’s Chromebooks are extremely simple to use, and they do not require special knowledge to download and install an application, unlike Windows where you still may have to download an .EXE file to use an application. Microsoft has been working towards making Windows easier to use for anyone, but that has not happened yet, at least to the level of ChromeOS.

The report does not talk about when Microsoft will launch the Surface Laptop SE with Windows 11 SE inside. There is also no information if Windows 11 SE will be exclusive to devices like the Surface Laptop SE or if PC brands, such as HP, Dell, and Asus, will have their own versions, just like they have Chromebooks. In any case, Microsoft will need to price the Surface Laptop SE very strategically. Maybe a price point lower than that of a Chromebook will help.

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