cross-posted from: https://lemmy.asudox.dev/post/2687123

I am looking for a new laptop for my sister. Her budget is 650€.
What laptop is the best overall? Macbooks are excluded, as she doesn't like them. The OS is not important, I can install the OS myself.
It shouldn't be a gaming laptop and it also should have a long battery life. No ARM or RISC-V laptops please. Build quality should be decent.

Thanks in advance.

edit: specific requirements

• Display size: 13 to 15 inches
• Display resolution: +1920x1080px
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Thickness: Slim
• Screen color accuracy is not important
• Screen should be anti glare
• RAM: +8GB SODIMM DDR5
• Storage: +512GB SSD
• Touchscreen: preferred
• Foldable screen: preferred
• Upgradeability: RAM and the SSD should be upgradeable
• Keyboard: QWERTZ, DE-AT
• GPU performance does not matter, would be only useful for video hardware acceleration
• CPU performance does matter

Used ThinkPad T14 or so

At this budget you'll have trouble finding anything decent. I'd look at the second hand market, if I were you.

OP might easily find a used thinkpad t14/t14s for less than €650, up to gen 4.

when choosing the thinkpad generation, it's often a trade-off between CPU performance (newer gen) and RAM upgradability (older gen). some gen 3+ models use soldered memory, but you get better CPU performance ;) check carefully

Like everyone says, used thinkpad. Around here, craigslist always has lots of them. Woot often has them too, but sometimes it's worth waiting around and checking the site til something good comes up.

https://www.woot.com/category/computers/laptops

Added: Hmm obviously the US sources listed here won't help so much for items priced in Euros, but you get the idea.

I'm pretty happy with the asus vivobook I bought for half that. Very fast processor, 8gb, 256. My only criticism is it's a little flexible in that if you lift by one corner the track button will fire. Minor issue, otherwise it's been great for two years.

As everyone is saying "used thinkpad" - do your homework for the specific model. They are legendary, but that legend is not universal. Lenovo traded on their name and produced some pretty poor models for a long time. They are very often: Overpriced. Or crap quality. Or so old that they're not usable.

Thinkpad for sure