Question Seeking recommendation on a laptop (budget $400-$1,000)

[wardnine]

Looking for recommendations on a laptop if possible! Non-gamer and budget is $1,000 and under. Currently have a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 that's served me very well for 10 years but has started to noticeably slip over the past several months. Laptop would be for light/medium usage - my desktop PC is my primary usage. Would be used sparingly for work purposes but primary usage is personal (mostly travel usage honestly).

Looking primarily for a fast processing laptop with long battery life. Also very, very intrigued by touch screen functionality, though that wouldn't be a necessity. Wouldn't want anything smaller than a 13 or 14" screen monitor (current Lenovo is 14", which I liked). While I liked the monitor size, the Lenovo I have is a bit weighty - don't know if they have lighter laptops around that size, though laptop weight isn't a big deal at all compared to other features.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

According to the Product Specifications Reference;
https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ThinkPad_T430.pdf
you're able to max out the ram in the laptop to 16GB DDR3-1600MHz, though 1600Mhz will be unlocked if you're working with a 3rd Gen processor. I brought up the ram since you state that the laptop isn't going to be taxed as much. If we knew what your app's used are perhaps a ram upgrade is all you need to perform and save you the money for a new laptop a few generations from now.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Looking for recommendations on a laptop if possible! Non-gamer and budget is $1,000 and under. Currently have a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 that's served me very well for 10 years but has started to noticeably slip over the past several months. Laptop would be for light/medium usage - my desktop PC is my primary usage. Would be used sparingly for work purposes but primary usage is personal (mostly travel usage honestly).

Looking primarily for a fast processing laptop with long battery life. Also very, very intrigued by touch screen functionality, though that wouldn't be a necessity. Wouldn't want anything smaller than a 13 or 14" screen monitor (current Lenovo is 14", which I liked). While I liked the monitor size, the Lenovo I have is a bit weighty - don't know if they have lighter laptops around that size, though laptop weight isn't a big deal at all compared to other features.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Laptops are much slimmer and lighter than they were 10 years ago. I use 14" as my daily driver as well, I find that a good compromise for portability.

Stretching your budget a little but you could just get a new Thinkpad T14 G3, that would be the modern day successor to what you currently have:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...hinkpad-t14-gen-3-(14-inch-intel)/len101t0014

That's only 1.36kg which is easy to carry in a backpack.

The base Intel model there has 8GB RAM soldered to the motherboard, however you can add another 8GB to the free RAM slot. It's a lot cheaper to do that than configuring higher memory at purchase.

The Yoga 7i 14" is also a worthy consideration if you are interested in touch screens. It's $1004.99 for the configuration 1TB storage and 16GB of RAM, battery life is around 10 hours web surfing:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapt...ies/yoga-7i-gen-7-(14-inch-intel)/len101y0012

A nice slightly more affordable ultrabook that still has great battery life is the Acer Swift 3:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-s...-11ax-windows-11-home/6520611.p?skuId=6520611

Most 13.3" and 14" laptops do not have upgradable RAM these days, in such cases you will want to buy 16 GB's out of the box. That's true for the Lenovo Yoga series and the Acer Swift 3. If you go with 8GB at this stage I think you will severely limit the useful lifespan of the laptop.