NEW YORK — Microsoft is taking aim at Google as it introduced a Surface device for students and slimmed down Windows for the classroom.
The new Surface Laptop is the first Surface device without a detachable keyboard. Microsoft says the new laptop will have up to 14.5 hours of battery life, compared with 12 hours for the MacBook Air. The Surface Laptop will come out on June 15.
The laptop runs Windows 10 S, a streamlined version of the ubiquitous operating system. It will run only software downloaded from the Windows Store, a limitation that Microsoft touts as a security benefit. Microsoft’s previous effort at a slimmed-down Windows, Windows RT, wasn’t popular because it wouldn’t run older programs unavailable in the Windows Store.
The laptop comes at a rough time for the Surface line, which Microsoft blamed for the small revenue shortfall in its latest quarterly report. And it’s a clear effort by Microsoft to step up competition with Google and its inexpensive Chromebooks in the classroom, where the latter has made major inroads .
