Microsoft Releases $189 Laptops For Schools

rgMekanic

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Microsoft is unveiling 10 new Windows 10 devices for schools starting at $189, challenging the Chromebook to keep teachers and students using Windows. The least expensive if the group is the Lenovo 100e, which is an 11.6" rugged laptop, with an unspecified Intel Celeron Apollo Lake processor, 2 or 4 GB of LP-DDR4, 32-64GB of eMMC storage, and weighing in a 2.7 lbs.

Affordable laptops isn't the only thing that Microsoft is announcing today for schools. They also go into free Professional Development for schools using Microsoft 365 Education, to train teachers how to get the most from the new technology. As well as additional learning tools, Minecraft: Education Edition, a curriculum using Mixed Reality and HoloLens, and more. It makes sense to get kids into the Windows environment as early as possible from a business standpoint to get them into the ecosystem early, although that didn't work with me and the Apple II's my school had.

With all of these new experiences available in time for the upcoming school year, there’s never been a better time for schools to try Microsoft Education. We will continue to work hard to deliver innovative technology for educators around the world to unlock limitless learning for students of all abilities.
 
Do they still have good educational discounts on products for students? That would seem to go hand in hand with this...make it cheap for them to get Office etc. on their home computers (or parent's computers ;) ).
 
We have been getting the Dell Version of these for our shop for a while. But we always spend the extra money and get more RAM and an i5. The school ones are just rugged enough that the guys don't destroy them in a week, and small enough that they don't mind lugging them around during inventory.
 
HP had a 200 and 230(I believe) windows 10 notebook a while ago. The first gen might have been on windows 8 even.
 
i may be wrong but didnt MS try to do something like this in the late 90s early 00s?
 
Schools receiving the new laptops were forced to delay opening by 1 hour due to the application of Windows 10 updates. A letter was sent out to inform parents that this might be repeated every month or so.

Some schools are calling them "snowed" days and will have makeup day(s) added to their school year.
 
Stopped reading at eMMC. At least watching the "now installing updates 30%" screen will be marginally faster than a 5400 RPM spinner...

It's getting better. This is 32GB eMMC on a new Asus TP200s. The sequential, you are right, is inline with a spinner. But the random 4K is leaps and bounds better, and to me that number is more important in an application like this (and Windows updates as you mentioned).

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The bigger issue for me is the artifical 32GB limitation set in place by Microsoft. It's not enough now that Microsoft is chugging out updates on a monthly basis. 64GB really needs to be the minimum for Windows 10.
 
They're just selling their software to adult educators, the laptops are merely a means to an end as far as the distribution of the software goes. Apple and chromebooks have made such a significant dent in school hardware and software that microsoft is essentially facing an entire generation of kids and educators that won't ever need a windows pc.
 
I remember installing Unreal Tournament on the school's computers.. mini LAN party at the computer lab!
 
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