Dell unveiled its new notebooks for students and schools today (Jan. 25) at the BETT education expo in London. The line offers a variety of sizes, designs and operating systems that should let even the pickiest student find the model that’s just right.
The refreshed line is comprised of the Latitude 11 and Dell Chromebook 11 laptops, Latitude 11 Convertible and Dell Chromebook 11 Convertible bend-back notebooks and Latitude 13 and Dell Chromebook 13 notebooks. These models start at $299 and go on-sale on February 7.
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All of these notebooks feature Dell’s new fully-sealed keyboards, which the company told us will survive spills of all kinds, without limitations. That beats most notebook keyboards, which can only survive 11 ounces of water, and offer no protection from spills of sugary juices that can gum up the works.
Dell’s even ready for more mischievous students, saying the keyboard keys offer 50 percent more tamper resistance than those in previous models.
These education notebooks also benefit from designs that meet MIL-SPEC 810G testing, the durability tests that U.S. military equipment must pass. There's also a metal bracket that adds resistance to the power port.
The Latitude 11 Convertible stands out from the other five options because it packs a “world-facing” camera that captures images when the system is in tablet mode. It also supports Dell’s Productivity Active pen, which the company claims offers “natural pen-to-paper writing motion.”
The pen-equipped Latitude 11 Convertible will start at $579, while the Dell Chromebook 11 Convertible starts at $349. The traditional Latitude 11 will go for $349 while the non-convertible Dell Chromebook 11 starts at $219.
Dell claims these notebooks will all last more than 10 hours on a single charge. We look forward to testing this claim with the Laptop Mag Battery Test.
The Windows versions of these 11-inch laptops can be customized with 6th and 7th Generation Celeron and Pentium processors, while the Chrome OS models are limited to 6th Gen. Celeron CPUs. While not convertible, the displays in these models can be positioned in a 180-degree, lay-flat model for collaboration between students.
For those who want more power, the 13-inch Latitude 13 (starting at $519) can be customized with up to Kaby Lake Core i7 processors. The Dell Chromebook 13 (starting at $299) is available with up to 6th Gen. Core i3 CPUs.
