It sounds like you'll want to prioritize battery life and display size. The T16 Gen 2 AMD is probably your best bet, with the Ryzen 5, not the Ryzen 7, for the lower power draw.

You can stack that with RAM and storage and still come in at the low end of your budget range.

If you want a second opinion, you're better off asking in r/Thinkpad :-)

Yes, ThinkPad X1 Carbon is ideal. ThinkPad P1 if you need a bigger screen and more CAD power, but it's heavier and probably out of your price range unless you find a good deal.

/r/thinkpad

Thinkpad X1 Nano or X1 Carbon - light, fast, flexible

M1 MacBook Air - super lightweight and you can run your whole business from it. Webcam is better than most PC laptops. If you want a PC option, LG Gram is a good choice.

Lenovo Thinkpad T series, you will never go back. Get the three year accidental damage warranty with battery coverage and you wont have to think about it again for three years.

I purchased a MacBook Pro back in 2017 and still love it. It’s fast, still works like new & I can seamlessly start something on my phone & pick it up on my laptop or iPad. With Office 365, I can use the basic Microsoft programs I need. Considering it’s 5 years old already and works beautifully, it’s been a great investment.

Cheap Dell refurbished.

Chromebook. They are cheap and easy to use and secure. Especially if you use Google apps.

ThinkPads all the way. Not other Lenovo stuff. Only ThinkPads. Avoid E series. That's the lowest of the lowest ThinkPads. The rest is very good. Even the L budget series (that's only a small up from E series) is a built to last and very serviceable, but a bit bulky.

I know this might ruffle some feathers but the best business/work laptop is no doubt the MacBook Pro

I'm overwhelmed by the HP 17; you definitely get the most bang for your buck.

You say you currently use Dell with pro support but you never stated which model(s). I’ve worked with Dell Latitude & Precision laptops for 25 years and never had any issues with build quality.

Well, I think if there is one brand and laptop that anyone can vouch for is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1. These can get expensive if you look at the latest gen models, but you can find some cheaper ones if you are okay with older gen specs.

The lenovo T,P and W series may not look the best but they are rock solid

Which latitude series are you buying? The 3000 series are junk. The 5000 series is our baseline.

Lenovo T series are the best

HP ProBooks or Elitebooks.

We have had good luck with HP Zbooks.

I would think if you are looking for a balance of cost and quality, you could look at the L series Thinkpads. The L14 gen 4 series in AMD or Intel would provide more than enough power for basic office tasks and keep it well under $1000. If you wanted to push to a higher end machine with better build quality, you could go for a T series, but if its going to spend most of its life on a desk, I don't know if you would need to spend the extra on that.

If you do tinker with laptops and feel comfortable opening up a laptop, I'd save money by going lower end on the SSD and RAM and buying that separately and put more money to the screen and processor. Don't go lowest end processor, for Intel, you want an i5 and AMD you want Ryzen 5 or higher.

You will see a lot of people push for AMD, and the higher end AMD versus the P series Intel, AMD is better as it runs cooler. On an L series Thinkpad, the Intels are U series 13th gen versus AMD's rebranded and older architecture processors. I'd pick a 13th gen U series over the cheaper AMD processors every time.

HP Zbook Power G9 Mobile Workstation laptops are probably the best business laptop of all. Why, simply because of the configuration and the add-on features for business personnels. The Intel i9 CPU and Nvidia Quadro RTX A2000 GPU can handle any computation you can throw at them. But the robust Aluminium build, 12+ hours of battery backup, latest connectivity (Intel Wi-Fi 6E (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.2 combo), Type-C and Type-A USB3 connectivity, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, huge upgradability features, and the industry-grade best-in-class security features make this device a great buy. If you want to learn more about laptops and desktop PCs, read more blogs on the Tech4Growth section on DQIndia's website or the NextGenIT on CiOL's website.

Lenovo. T, X, P series. Nothing comes close.

So...you buy Dell/Lenovo for your users and you want an LG?

You should get the same model your users are getting :)

You should use the same hardware your users are issued.

I have ben using Latitudes. Really no issues with them. Support has been pretty good the few times I had to talk to them. We have pro support plus though on all of them.

100% the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 like other commenters have said. If you shop around you can find one at a deal. An absolute powerhouse of a little laptop! Very comfortable and lightweight, and great for bringing with you.

If you are willing to buy used you can get a macbook m1 air 256 gb ssd for under 700$ of ebay, i did the same thing and it so fast. here is a link

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154610048295?hash=item23ff7a1d27:g:TqsAAOSweNJhNsl7

It is currently out of stock and being overpriced so If you are not in a rush, I would recommend this Acer Aspire 5 because of the following:

• It comes with an i5 quad core CPU.

• It offers great value for money since it comes with 8 GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

• Slim, sleek.

• The lid of the device has a matte finish on its aluminum material. On the other side, the plastic material on the rest of the chassis is retained.

• Its lid cannot be opened with a single hand. On the bright side, it is sturdy and prone to flexes. Moreover, we see an upgrade in the hinge department that leaves them a lot stronger than before.

• The narrow-bezel design offers more real estate for amazing images. Crisp, true-to-life colors come alive on a 15.6” Full HD IPS display with Acer Color Intelligence.

• Battery life advertised Up to 9.5-hours Battery Life.

• you can upgrade RAM up to 32GB. According to https://eu.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/acer/aspire-a515-44-r41b

• Comes with a range of ports, including USB 3.1 Type C Gen 1 port, 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, USB 2.0 port and HDMI port.

Here is a more detailed review of the Acer Aspire 5 under 500

ThinkPad.

From Linux to macOs nowadays:

MBPro 16in - 48GB MBAir 15in - 24GB

I’m on a 2020 Acer Predator i7 - as a video producer it has been great for editing on site/to go and still does heavy lifting when building with replit.

Although battery is starting to go and prob getting a little bloaty.

Planning to get a new laptop in a year or so

Well, I'm using two desktops, two customized desktops, and one MacBook Air M4. That's for compiling, you know, mobile app, iOS. Yes, the customized one, they have 64 GB of RAM, you know, powerful CPU, and a hard disk that writes 7, I think it was 7 GB per second. I've got two of those desktops, one for researching, and one for cursor and cloud code. Yes, I don't just stick to just one laptop, you know, because you need power for a lot of things. You know, VSC with Claude Code or Cursor with CC their resource intensive. Go up to, you know, go for a big RAM, and things like that. so those are the things that I use.