Surface Laptop SE ships with an Intel Celeron N4020 and N4120 CPU
Never seen a dual-CPU laptop before! Can anyone confirm it ships with both N4020 and N4120? If not, then which one?
Actually a huge difference between these two CPUs, one is 2c, the other one is 4c. If you get both, itās 6c?
The 8GB RAM 128GB eMMC version will come with the N4120 (4 cores). The N4020 is for the 4GB RAM 64GB eMMC version, which is not being sold currently.
This is a completely passive cooled laptop, so performance on the N4120 may be impacted if used on multi threaded tasks for long. I have the 64GB variant with only 2 cores, and greatly benefits from an active cooled base (with a fan).
Still, Ubuntu runs great on it.
All of these fanless CPUs are only 6W TDP, are you sure the active cooling has any real effect, especially at N4020 with just 2c?
I donāt think a 6W CPU would be capable of generating enough heat to require anything beyond the passive cooling that this comes with.
But I agree that these N4020 and newer CPUs are great for Linux!
However, this one only has 2x USB ports (one A, one C), and the storage is reported as being a quite slow eMMC.
As Iāve already gotten a few of these deals with 3x or even 4x USB ports, a $156.99 for N4120/8GB/64GB eMMC, isnāt enticing enough for me! The deal is good, but product could be better if it had 2x USB-C + 2x USB-A like the Lenovo Chromebooks with N4020, instead of just 1x each like here, plus N4120 is a generation or two behind some of the other sales in the last year or so, in the same price range. OTOH, running Linux with a Windows logo sounds fun. 
Albeit rare, due to the passive design overheating may happen (with the laptop simply turning off abruptly) on above average ambient temperatures and heavy tasks running for long. On my case (with the N4020) happened once or twice in years so for normal loads it should be completely fine. I actually love the passive design for the silence and no maintenance regarding dust on the cooling fins.
Regarding the number of ports, you can always use a USB dongle, actually on the USB-C port there is support for display out, so a dongle is needed.
The eMMC is fast enough for the CPU, I would only advice disabling the swap file to reduce the writes and eventual chance of early eMMC failure.
The display is actually above average for these types of netbooks (IPS), and the resolution is not that bad considering the small size of the screen.
The build quality is also above average (more sturdy than other similar options Iāve seen), the keyboard is really nice to write on (same as on the Surface Laptop Go) and the touchpad albeit small is responsive.
I have one of these and itās barely useable running Windows 11. It was 100% useless with the OS that comes with it (Windows SE or whatever itās called).
Anyway, it makes a pretty decent Chromebook if you install ChromeOS Flex on it. But you have to go into the BIOS and disable Secure Boot first.
To quote Chrome Unboxed, this is not a Chromebook Killer, but it makes for a Killer Chromebook! 
*For clarity, Iām referencing installing Chrome OS Flex.
At least on Ubuntu you donāt need to disable secure boot. It may be possible on other OSs. Just hold F4 during POST and on the Security tab, Secure Boot entry, configure it to āEnabled with Microsoft & 3rd party CA key configurationā.
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