Microsoft Launches $40 Classroom Pen for Students

From PC Mag: This week, Microsoft is highlighting the fact it has seven new Windows 10 devices aimed at the classroom being offered by Lenovo, Acer, and Dell. Prices start below $300 and includes 2-in-1 devices, but that's not the most interesting part of Microsoft's announcement. Students are also getting a $40 digital pen that's hard to destroy.

The new pen is called the Microsoft Classroom Pen and it's aimed squarely at schools and Surface Go-using students. The Surface Go is Microsoft's cheapest Windows 10 tablet at $399, but the cost can soon escalate when you add a keyboard cover ($130) and a Surface Pen ($100). The Classroom Pen aims to solve two problems: offer a cheaper pen for students which is also much more hard wearing for a classroom environment.

Rather than the $100 a Surface Pen costs, the Classroom Pen is just $40. However, Microsoft only intends to sell them to education institutions and only in packs of 20 costing $799.80. They will be available from February in "all 36 Surface Go" markets. If a school has already embraced the Surface Go, then these pen packs are going to be very tempting.

To sweeten the deal, Microsoft is including a replacement tip for each pen as part of the pack. There's also a built-in slot at the end of the pen to make it easier for tethering to the Surface Go. Teachers will likely insist on this being used so as to avoid the pens getting lost.

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