Microsoft is building an 11.6″ low-cost laptop and special Windows 11 edition for primary schools

According to my sources, this new laptop is codenamed Tenjin and features a fully plastic exterior, a 1366*768 11.6-inch display, an Intel Celeron N4120 and up to 8GB RAM. This is a no-frills laptop designed to be as low-cost as possible, built for student-use in a classroom environment. I'm told the device features a full-sized keyboard and trackpad, one USB-A port, one USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a barrel-style AC port.

Tenjin marks the beginning of a new K-12 education strategy for Microsoft. In addition to the new hardware, Microsoft is also preparing to launch a new edition of Windows 11 titled Windows 11 SE" built specifically for low-cost school PCs like Tenjin. I'm told this SKU focuses on special optimizations, tweaks, and features built for education establishments deploying low-end hardware.

I wonder how much of Chromebook's dominance in education is due to hardware or software, and how much is due to excellent deployment and management tools. I'm sure Microsoft has fantastic deployment and management tools for the enterprise, but since I don't have any experience with these matters, I wonder if they may be too complicated and too difficult to use in basic primary school settings.