Are these SE laptops for students and are not as functional as full Windows?
Yes.
Surface Laptop SE features
Surface Laptop SE is a slim and portable laptop that has up to 16 hours of battery life. It seamlessly runs Windows 11 SE and Microsoft 365 Education, and is only available to educational institutions and organizations.
Surface Laptop SE features - Microsoft Support
It does NOT appear that Windows 11 SE (a cloud-based version) can be converted to Windows 11. One MIGHT be able to do a “clean install” if the BIOS supports that. As for myself, I’ll leave that answer for others to supply.
Windows 11 SE Overview - Windows Education | Microsoft Learn
Can intel celeron n4020 run Windows 11 - UMA Technology
“The Celeron N4020 cannot officially run Windows 11 due to the absence of some critical features—most importantly, the lack of TPM 2.0 and its exclusion from Microsoft’s approved CPU list.”
“Glacier” does not bode well for speed…
This is outside of my personal experience, but it appears that you can migrate from SE to a regular Windows installation. You’ll need to access the UEFI settings and enable USB boot (assuming, based on other similar threads on the internet – may not be necessary), wipe and install Windows, and then go back into the UEFI settings and disable secure boot. Doing that once will turn off the S(E)-mode settings, and then you can re-enable SB if you wish.
That being said, I reiterate that this is not personal experience and is just some random Reddit thread, so YMMV.
Put Linux Ubuntu or Mint on this laptop. Great laptop but runs so much nicer with Linux
For real Linux non-enthusiasts, ENDLESS OS Linux may be a better choice. It is another Debian fork.
Windows 11 SE is 100% useless. You’ll have to buy real WIndows 11 for this thing if you want to use it. I was able to buy a license for $12 from Flixeasy, now this laptop works great.
This looks interesting if not for the screen and anemic processor and lack of upgrade ability and awful Windows version and price.
Otherwise, I’d be in for one or two.