It’s that time of year. The time when most of the major OEMs start dropping an armada of education-focused Chromebooks in preparation for the upcoming school year. Lenovo has beaten other manufacturers to the punch and announced four new Chromebooks at last week’s FETC conference that took place in New Orleans. The annual conference highlights technology in education and often sees the release of the latest Chromebooks built for the classroom.
Lenovo’s new offerings feature not only the latest N-series processors from Intel but also two devices with MediaTek’s latest Kompanio 520 SoC. This is the same low-power ARM chip that we saw at MediaTek’s booth at CES a few weeks back. We don’t have a production device with this chipset yet but let me be the first to tell you that it did not fail to impress. In Robby’s video, you can see that this entry-lever ARM SoC was running Fortnite on GeForce NOW while pushing an external monitor and streaming via discord. This is something that simply wasn’t possible with low-end chips just a few years ago. More on that another time. Right now, let’s take a look at Lenovo’s latest offerings to the education market.
Lenovo 100e Chromebook Gen 4
The first of two MediaTek Kompanio 520 devices, the Lenovo 100e Chromebook Gen 4 is an entry-level clamshell with a standard 11.6″ anti-glare, HD TN panel at 250 nits. It comes equipped with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM and up to 64GB of storage. Around the outside, the 100e offers a single USB-C port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. While it would be nice to see an SD card slot on a device with this little storage, the omission isn’t a surprise as this is Chromebook clearly geared at the elementary-level classroom and hence, is designed to live in Google Classroom and little else. As with most EDU devices, the 100e is MIL-STD-810H rated with a spill-resistant, anti-pry keyboard.
That said, MediaTek’s new Kompanio 520 will make this little Chromebook a decent performer and I suspect that it will be a nice improvement for classrooms that are replacing aging Windows PCs or Chromebooks with older small-core processors. The new Lenovo 100e also comes with an LTE option which will make it great for the hybrid classroom model. The Lenovo 100e Chromebook Gen 4 will be available before the end of Q1 with pricing to be announced later.
Lenovo 300e Yoga Chromebook Gen 4
Next up, we have the latest 300e Yoga which is also powered by MediaTek’s Kompanio 520 SoC. Also an 11.6″ device, the 300e Yoga is a 2-in-1 laptop with an IPS touch display and offers an optional garaged stylus of the USI 2.0 variety. It gets the same 4GB/8GB options with up to 64GB of storage and the same port selection as the 100e Chromebook. No LTE for this model but it does have Wi-Fi 6 and an optional 5MP world-facing camera. The standard HD webcam that’s included also features a privacy shutter, an option that is becoming standard fare for many EDU and enterprise Chromebooks. As it should.
Lenovo 500e Yoga Chromebook Gen 4
Moving on to the Intel-powered devices, the latest Lenovo 500e Yoga Chromebook features the all-new Alder Lake N-series CPUs. These are the first chipsets to steer away from using the Celeron and Pentium branding. The 500e will come equipped with either an N100 or N200 CPU. If our early look at these chips is any inclination as to how powerful they are, this new generation of Intel-powered Chromebooks should take education laptops to an entirely new level. These CPUs are matched with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The new 500e Chromebook is equipped with Wi-Fi 6/6E and offers optional LTE connectivity. The 12.2″ IPS touchscreen cranks out an impressive 300 nits of brightness which is uncommon for EDU devices and a “sight for sore eyes” if I do say so myself. Pun intended. The 500e packs up to a 1080P front webcam along with an optional 5MP world-facing camera and there is an optional USI 2.0 garaged stylus available.
Lenovo 14e Chromebook Gen 3
Last but not least, we have the only 14-inch device of the group. These laptops are generally geared towards teachers or older students. The Lenovo 14e offers up to a i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor, up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. The screen options start at a 250-nit HD panel but buyers can opt for up to a FullHD IPS touch display at 300 nits of brightness. In between, there’s a 300 nit non-touch display that’s FullHD and likely the best choice for a larger clamshell such as this.
While this model doesn’t offer an LTE option, it’s still equipped with Wi-Fi 6/6E and the standard webcam has a privacy shade. Port selection is solid with a single USB-C, HDMI, 2 x USB-A, and a 3.5mm audio jack. No sign of an SD card reader which seems a bit odd for a Chromebook that will likely be used by educators but maybe it’s simply not a feature that a lot of people use. The 14e is MIL-SPEC tested but certainly doesn’t have the same rugged appearance as the other three devices that are clearly meant for students. All four of these Chromebooks are expected to be available for order by the end of Q1 and you can contact your reseller to get pricing specifics when available. Learn more about these new EDU Chromebooks here.
