Lenovo has announced a fresh lineup of education-focused laptops that will begin going on sale this May. The devices are part of a larger strategy from Lenovo focused on improving educational technologies and making them more easily accessible to classrooms of every shape and size.
The marque models of Lenovo’s new lineup are the second-gen 14e and 14w clamshell laptops. The machines are identified by the letter that corresponds with their screen size, with “e” standing for Chromebook and “w” standing for Windows 10. The former ships in Storm Gray, while the latter comes in Storm Black.
They both ship with AMD processors, with the Windows model getting the AMD 3015e chipset. Lenovo didn’t specify which exact chip comes inside the Chromebook version.
Both models are available with Full HD touch displays with 300 nits of brightness. You get up to 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on the 14e, while the 14w goes up to 256GB of storage. Both offer a USB-C port, two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. The company touts up to 10 hours of battery life on each unit.
Lenovo is also including Wi-Fi 6 with these machines which should help students hang onto wireless connections much more easily.
Then there are the 100, 300, and 500 laptops which all come in both “e” and “w” flavors. The 100e and 100w include 11.6-inch 1366×768 screens, 4GB of RAM, and integrated AMD graphics. The 100w comes with the 3015e processor, while the 100e sticks with the unnamed “AMD Processor for Chromebooks.” The former gets up to 128GB of storage while the latter has just 32GB of space. Both can last 10 hours on a single charge, offer the same port selection as the 14e and 14w plus a microSD card reader, and can be configured with LTE.
The 300e and 300w are largely similar to the 100 series but offer a 360-degree hinge for tablet mode. You also get double the amount of storage on the 300e which equals out to 64GB, and there’s an optional garaged pen for drawing on the screen.
Finally, there’s the 500 series. You get the same screen and flexible hinge on both the 100e and 100w, but the chipsets get upgraded to Intel processors. Lenovo says the former gets a Celeron N5100 while the latter has a Pentium N6000. Neither are very impressive, of course, but they should be able to handle web-based school work and other tasks.
The 500e gets 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, while the 500w has double the amount of space. Both offer up to 10 hours of usage and the same port array as the 100 and 300 series. The 500 series, too, can be configured with a garaged stylus.
All of the Chromebooks in Lenovo’s 100, 300, and 500 lines have gray finishes with speckles, while the Windows models get blue with speckles. They all also have some grade of military-grade drop protection in addition to a water-resistant keyboard. Each model also works with Lenovo’s various education-focused software suites.
Here’s a breakdown of the pricing and availability for each of Lenovo’s new laptops.
- Lenovo 14e Gen 2: $334 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 14w Gen 2: $334 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 100e Gen 3: $299 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 100w Gen 3: $299 (shipping June 2021)
- Lenovo 300e: $359 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 300w: $359 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 500e: $429 (shipping May 2021)
- Lenovo 500w: $429 (shipping June 2021)
You must log in to post a comment.