Dynabook E10-S tapped as a Windows 11 SE launch laptop — better than a Chromebook?
Can Dynabook E10-S help sell Windows 11 SE?
The Dynabook E10-S launched back in March as a laptop for students with durability, portability and affordability at its core.
The laptop originally ran Windows 10 Education OS, but will now be adopting Microsoft's newly announced Windows 11 SE, a cloud-first version of Windows 11 that makes the operating system more friendly for K-8 students.
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The hardware of the Dynabook E10-S is unchanged from March, it remains an 11.6-inch laptop with an Intel Celeron N4020 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB eMMC storage. While that isn't a performance powerhouse, it should be plenty for the cloud-focused Windows 11 SE and the type of tasks that a K-8 student is going to be undertaking.
The rest of the specs also lend themselves to the education market with a solid HD webcam, stereo speakers, dual beamforming microphones with noise suppression, and a healthy collection of ports including a headphone jack, HDMI, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, RJ-45 Ethernet and a microSD slot.
The changes are coming with Windows 11 SE. This includes the new Simple Start, optimized app-windowing, improved app layouts, and the overall web-first user experience. Windows 11 SE is designed to familiarize young users with the overall look and feel of Windows 11 without overwhelming them with the full feature set.
The student focus also means a premium on privacy and security, which Windows 11 SE provides through content filtering and SmartScreen. The school can manage additional controls through Microsoft's Intune for Education and Windows Autopilot allows for easier setup and maintain a fleet of laptops.
Obviously, the intent with Windows 11 SE is to take on the booming Chromebook market and devices like the Dynabook E10-S certainly match up competitively in the sub-$300 laptop market for education, but it's the software that will need to win over school districts.
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Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more. Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.