Microsoft Surface Laptop SE, Celeron N4120
Specifications
Price comparison
Average of 2 scores (from 4 reviews)
Reviews for the Microsoft Surface Laptop SE, Celeron N4120
Source: Expert Reviews
Most of this is moot anyway because, as a regular consumer, you can’t buy the Surface Laptop SE; it’s only available to the education market. And even if you were able to lay your hands on one, it wouldn’t make a practical device as you’d need an IT admin to install software for you, via Microsoft’s remote device management tools. That’s a shame because if it had been available to consumers, it would have made an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a laptop on the cheap. Despite its foibles, it’s a likeable, usable and attractive machine – at this price it would have made the perfect laptop for anyone with modest computing needs.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 05/12/2022
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Mobile Syrup
Still, it’s important to keep in mind that, like Chromebooks and Google services, the Laptop SE is, at its core, a vessel for Microsoft services. I also worry the Laptop SE might be too little, too late. Chromebooks have a strong foothold in schools – most students I know already have school-provided Chromebook they use. I’m sure the Laptop SE will find a place, but it may not unseat Google in the education battle.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/03/2022
Source: The Verge
Ultimately, I think the main arguments for the Surface Laptop SE are its design and its repairability. It looks and feels several notches nicer than most clunky Windows laptops that schools are currently handing out. It’s capable of doing the work that an elementary school student might be doing. And I don’t want to undersell the replacable parts — that’s huge for IT departments, and it’s great to see Microsoft committing to such a big repairability effort. But in evaluating this device, customers will need to figure out how to balance the needs of its IT administrators with the needs of its teachers and students. That calculus may look different for every school. But the older a kid gets and the more internet-savvy they become, the more their load might be pushing this processor. There are Chromebooks and iPads out there with faster performance, faster boot time, and better battery life that are worth looking at as well. And at the end of the day, I’d urge schools to spend more money on larger-screened, higher-resolution devices if they can, because accessibility for all students is worth investing in.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/25/2022
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: XDA Developers
Windows 11 SE goes a long way toward addressing the needs of K-8 students. However, the way I see it, it does a better job of retaining school districts that already use Windows, rather than converting districts that have made the move to something like Chrome OS. The OS is more secure, it’s faster, and it gets better battery life than a regular version of Windows 11, but that’s still not an answer to why you should choose it over Google’s operating system. That’s a question that Microsoft has to answer. One possible answer is about what happens when a student gets to ninth grade. For me, that was when I took my first programming class (it was Quick Basic, and then Visual Basic 6 the following year). Before I spiral out of control into a vortex of nostalgia, let me say that this is the age where students might need something more than Chrome OS can offer. This could be the value proposition for raising students in the Windows ecosystem. As far as the hardware goes, it’s a lot better than I expected. Given the specs, I expected to want to break away from it as soon as I possibly could. That wasn’t the case.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/05/2022
Comment
Intel UHD Graphics 600: Integrated low-end graphics adapter with DirectX 12 support, which can be found in some ULV SoCs from the Gemini Lake series. Compared to the HD Graphics 500, the 600 offers improved display outputs. Compared to the faster UHD Graphics 605, the 600 offers less shaders at lower clock speeds.
Non demanding games should be playable with these graphics cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Celeron N4120: Low power quad-core SoC from the Gemini Lake series for inexpensive notebooks. Runs with clocks between 1.1-2.4 GHz and integrates a DirectX 12 capable graphics adapter. » Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
11.60":
This is a standard display format for tablet computers or small convertibles. You see more on the screen than on a smartphone but you can't use big resolutions well. On the other hand, mobility is not a problem.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.Microsoft:
Microsoft smartphones and tablets have been tested since 2012. There are many reviews with average ratings. The reader's interest is quite given, but the market share is not big enough for the Top 5 smartphone manufacturers (as of 2016).
70%: This rating is poor. More than three quarters of the models are rated better. That is rather not a purchase recommendation. Even if verbal ratings in this area do not sound that bad ("sufficient" or "satisfactory"), they are usually euphemisms that disguise a classification as a below-average laptop.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
