Don't get a fucking lenovo. I bought a really nice one and it cost a grip but you can't put it to sleep or standby without having to fully fucking restart it. Like it's a known issue on many of their models and I found this shit out after I bought it. It runs great aside from having to be completely shut down every time I use it.
I think it depends, their gaming series ain't bad but I'm not a fan of the Ideapads. But their Thinkpads stand the test of time IMO.
Recently pulled the trigger on an old Thinkpad T460s because I love the typing experience and the trackpoint (red nipple). I wanted something I could use at the dining table or sofa without a mouse and once you get used to the trackpoint life is so much better.
Refurbished laptops are worth checking out, Lenovo or Macs seem to be the most popular. With Macbooks do your research and avoid those with know issues (butterfly keyboards), their QC has gotten better in recent times but there was a batch in 2013-2017 (I think) that had shitty keyboards.
Important question is use case.
Pornhub? No comment.
Coding? No
General browsing? Yes
Slap shitposting? Of course
Gaming? Maybe some old ones
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Couple of other considerations - where would you be using your laptop? Sofa / bed with on your lap? Then go for something lower spec that runs cooler so you don't roast your thighs.
Are you hooking it up to an external monitor? If no, then more screen real estate is always welcome (especially as we get older), so look for 14 - 15.6", though anything bigger starts feeling monstrous. If yes, then you can get by with a smaller one that is portable and hook it up to a display when you want to take your Pornhub experience to the next level.
90% of modern processors will handle web browsing, MS office and general fuckery without any problems. Make sure your laptop has a solid state drive (SSD) and at least 16gb of RAM so it will feel snappy. Having a mechanical hard disk in 2021 feels like sin and will feel slow by comparison. And Google Chrome is a huge RAM hog, 8GB at a minimum so spend the extra $30 for more RAM.
Old games is a very broad term, don't expect to play the latest AAA games on a cheap laptop at the highest settings. If you play lots of emulators (SNES, Playstation) then a cheap laptop without a graphic card can handle all that with ease. Modern Ryzen laptops from AMD come with a powerful (for the price) internal GPU (APU) that handles modern games on LOW settings, and you'll be amazing what qualifies as low by today's standards.
I won't recommend specific brands since every brand has it's good and shitty laptops, but if you get a chance go down to a store and test out the keyboard and overall look and feel (build quality, flexing). I'm particular about how my keyboard feels and don't do any video editing / coding, hence I went with a Thinkpad.
Some broad recommendation:
Dell XPS 13/15 - pricey but they cram a lot of screen and specs into a small package, great keyboard experience for the size, older models can run hot
Lenovo Thinkpad T460s / T470s - big fan of their keyboards and the trackpoint, a few years old and they were bought in bulk by corporates who have since retired these models, so lots of parts and 10000s of available stock. The T470s is an even better option IMO since it has USB-C charging which is a nice feature
AMD Ryzen Laptops - great value for money in terms of processing power and graphic abilities (gaming), modern processors so they run cooler and more battery efficient than older models