XPS for the win.

thinkpad, no contest.

I second u/chethedog10 recommendation for a ThinkPad. Look into something Like a Lenovo ThinkPad P-Series such as a ThinkPad P1.

AVOID DELL XPS's like the plague, unless you enjoy swapping out motherboards every couple of months.

Thinkpads are great, I personally have an older model but I’m pretty confident there are new models that can meet your needs

You should use macbook for professional work

Very valid point. I still think the new ones are nice, but have overall lost their “thinkpad” identity in the grand scheme of things. Heck, many laptops have, as everyone now is trying to replicate the MacBooks build and design and I hate apple for it. Sadly it’s what majority of consumers/market demand so Lenovo has to to compete. Frustrating and sad, really

That's to be expected, and it's always been like this if you look back a decade and more.

The majority of posters on here buys used, and used devices are only available in large quantities as three-plus year-old corporate lease returns. That (the enterprise and SMB markets) is Lenovo's core Thinkpad customer base, not individuals.

incorrect.  

There is a fair bit of buzz on the new T series as it seems to mark a return to serviceability and upgrade ability. 

The reason why people buy the older Thinkpads in part is the thinkpad community has a large Hobbyist and Linux component. We are tinkerers by nature and like an object which can be tweaked, customized and made unique. We don’t necessarily buy into the captive ecosystem approach of Apple. 

Also we don’t like e waste. Built in obsolescence drives us crazy. upgrading a screen, maxing out memory and throwing in a SSD on a 15 year old laptop can give new life to old hardware and keep precious metal materials out of the landfill. 

This was (the x201) imho the last true thinkpad like design. Real led indicators, led shine down keyboard light, ports, thicckkk enough its comfortable to use all day, and great old fashion keyboard, not that crappy new mac like one with minimal key travel. Very much disliked the work t470, t480, t490s, and t14 ive recently had.

Really miss and prefer the old clunky modular design personally.

Hoping the retro community has some good tricks one day to make a really nice drop in mobo that doesnt involve hacking up the case, loss of ports, features etc.

Yeah, integrated everything is frustrating. Have you seen the Framework laptops?

I like an older T/P/W/X series but it was really windows that moved me away from ThinkPads.

Rocking a T440p since the beginning of 2015. Best laptop ever. But even after a few upgrades I might have to get a newer model in the near future. Would love to have a new model in the same spirit as the T440p.

Costs 1000$ to buy a modded thinkpad with 8th gen CPU. Put 200 more grab latest T14 maxed out.

XPS quality has declined over the years. My GF has a Thinkpad with a 3rd gen Ryzen and uses it for her PhD work (lots of simulation, R, and Python) and it's been fantastic.

In the end, it doesn't matter.

A new Thickpad does cost a lot more than they are worth because they make little money on their direct to customer. So, they artificially increase the customer price to make it seem like their business customers are getting a deal. But a used Thickpad can be had pretty cheaply since their are so many business that count it as depreciated after 3 years and let it go. And depending on the model, it's compatibility with Linux is unbeatable (I want to say Red Hat employees use these), and it can be upgraded quite easily. But it's not like the XPS isn't compatible with Linux (they have a Linux option).

But if you couldn't tell by the way I'm writing about it, I find the form factor for the Thickpad to be atrocious.

But in the end of the day, you should be connecting it to an external keyboard and display at least 90% of the time (that is, unless you hate your 50 year old self), so it's not like form factor should be a key issue.

The one with the best screen. At the end of the day you want the most area for your eyes and code. I used to be a thinkpad guy but the XPS is just too nice.

Personally, I think a laptop with a discrete GPU is more trouble than it's worth. They're power hungry, so you either wind up with a heavier and bulkier cooling system, or with a laptop that overheats all the time. The driver architecture is more fragile, so things tend to go wrong more often if you're plugging and unplugging from an external monitor or dock. And for all this, laptop GPUs don't perform particularly well compared to their desktop counterparts. Not to mention, they're considerably more expensive.

If you plan to run games on it, then none of this matters and you'll just get the GPU version. But for OMSCS, you don't need it.

Another personal preference of mine is to stick with business-class laptops, for the build quality and good warranty service. For that reason, I would choose either the Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude. I like the Latitude 5320/5420/5520 for its robustness, easy repairability/upgradeability and no-issues Linux compatibility. But the Thinkpad X1 Carbon is also really good.

Whichever one you like better.

I personally would prefer framework because I prioritize repairability, the climate and control over hardware. Though if I were to choose something else, Lenovo Thinkpads would be my next option.

I would look at a Lenovo Thinkpad which has either Intel core ultra 5 (or 7) 200 series OR AMDs ryzen AI 5 (or 7) 300 series. Minimum 16GB ram, pref 32.

Intel has better battery life (not 100% sure if it has better performance) than AMD, check just josh reviews to check out laptop CPU reviews. It would be your choice of 14 or 16 inch and if the CPU needs to be power efficient or performance (Intel has 200V (power save) or 200H (performance)). I have seen decent options of 1500 or below in this category.

I checked a couple of AMD devices on Lenovos website, they come with Mediatek wifi cards. These specfic models are supported in Linux, but be aware that Intel WiFi cards have the best support on Linux. The Intel Lenovo laptops commonly uses AX211, which is fully supported (but WiFi 6E vs WiFI 7 if that matters to you).

I'd buy a second hand thinkpad and save myself a lot of money. Personally I'd go for a T480, others may have different recommendations.

Framework

x280/380 then?

Dell Latitude

There are newer X-series laptops. The X240, for instance is not very popular, due to the touchpad, but the touchpad can be replaced with a X250 type pad.

These are, old machines, but not old enough to be modded with the classic 7-row keyboard of the X220. Therefore they are not as collectible and you may be able to find a deal on them. They will also come standard with better eDP displays.

Or, cut to the chase and look for a X250, which came with the "good" touchpad as standard. Again, it's old enough to be cheap, but it's not particularly collectible.

Both of those things are true. Durability and quality has gone down across the board in pursuit of thinner and lighter designs, and yet Thinkpads are still some of the best.

Lots of people use older models and throw Linux on them. If that’s feasible for you it’s a great option.

But if you need real durability check out the Panasonic Toughbook; those are made to withstand just about anything you could possibly throw at them.

We called them Stinkpads, but we still thought they were good, except for the red nub in the middle of the keyboard.

They are still one of the best, the lower end models specifically the E are not as rugged as the past. But the T or P series will get you what you need.

Just make sure the model you get doesn't have soldered ram and such so you can upgrade it in the future.

Quality tanked since production moved to china. Not the premium price though.

The E14/E15 Gen 2 had a mainboard fault where the PD charge controller chip wouldn't turn two power transistors fully on, so they got so hot they literally melted their own solder and disconnected.

Every ThinkPad before and after has been rock solid, and even the ones with the fault are easy and cheap enough to fix.

Looks like the same hardware to me. Sometimes they will have specialized hardware for one or the other, but generally that's only with workstations and servers.

Generally, warranties and support are better on the business side of products since businesses can't mess around with stuff while people can get jerked around all the time.

As far as the camera, I would NOT assumed that it does come included. And this would make sense why the consumer version costs more as well. However, I bet you could add it to the business one and the price end up the same as the consumer one.

And one thing to keep in mind is that both of these are consumer in terms of quality. Even though one machine is being sold as business, it is going to be no more robust than the consumer version. And in my experience I consider these type of business systems 'consumer crap' as they don't last like real business or enterprise products do.

There are T14s on Ebay with factory warranty for around $400 which are Gen 3 and Gen 2 with I5 and I7 processors and other T16 Gen 2 ($739.99) and X1 Carbon Gen 11 ($919.99).

I am doing the same as you are and I am looking for 2.

Look at the Dell Pro 14 Plus Laptop It's right at your $1200 price point.

I suggest the Pro 14 "Plus" since it has an aluminum chassis. The less expensive entry Pro 14 is plastic.

I would also suggest checking out the HP Elitebook at Microcenter. It's $849 for a previous model. But still great and very high quality.

I’ve worked with Dell Latitude laptops for years. They’re very reliable.

ETA I bought a Latitude 5420 and upgraded the RAM & SSD myself as it was cheaper to do it this way.

Dell Pro are the new name for the Latitude. They are reliable systems. Get the ProSupport Plus warranty. There is an ultra 5, 16 gb memory, 512 gb SSD. Nice system and is in your budget. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deals-for-business/dell-pro-16-laptop/spd/dell-pro-pc16250-laptop/?_gl=1*1tlkenb*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjw953DBhCyARIsANhIZobY2glO2sgLgv3L6SWDTLS1fgSNU0pFaA77-HpaHcbUOEKubMhwsPQaAtqMEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADllXQesnkmzkpPg6wNGvlK6mA5p-

I have a Dell Latitude 3520 with 16gb of DDR4 Ram and a 256gb SSD…that’s more than enough for those tasks and I got it for $100 on Facebook Marketplace.

You don’t really have to go all in unless you need the power.