For some additional details, it’d mainly be used for lighter resource tasks like writing documents, maybe dabbling with some coding, not necessarily aimed at any high end gaming, or heavy video editing. For this reason I’d really dig the keyboard having a num-pad, and while I didn’t think I’d have to look for this on laptops of all things…I’d like it to have a headphone jack.
Ideally I’d be able to pop a Linux distro on it for longevity’s sake, and longshot maybe be able to open it up to upgrade RAM/storage (not a dealbreaker if not though).
I’ve found some okay looking laptops in a light search so far, but I’m curious about others’ recommendations here (as well as any warnings on which to avoid).
Appreciate the detailed reply! Portability is one of my main interests in my search atm, as my older laptop while still pretty solid, is unfortunately rather bulky and kind of awkward to lug about. Not to mention it may as well not have a battery, and that was the case even when it was new! 😅
No clue if that’s improved much with newer laptops with dedicated GPUs, but I kinda doubt it, and regardless, for a newer laptop I’m less interested in it being like a portable desktop machine.
I just replaced a semi desktop replacement laptop. It was nice in the features (CPU, decent dGPU, high refresh screen) but got tired of the huge and expensive power brick. And as I mentioned, the MB just died on me (which could have been caused from the non-rigid chassis or sub-optimal cooling).
The business laptop I got didn’t have a nice screen, but for $85 to $110 you can pickup a portable screen that is higher res, higher refresh, and even has freesync. I nabbed a refurbished 16" portable screen that’s 1440p decently bright (>400 nits) and has freesync for under $90 at Newegg.
The extra screen real estate is nice for coding.