Recommend me a laptop

In My Humble Opinion
1

My current laptop is a 2012 Macbook Air. It actually serves my needs pretty well, but is starting to show signs of impending failure. Everything’s backed up, so I’ll probably just wait for it to totally die before replacing it.

I definitely prefer MacOS to Windows and Linux, but when I look at the current lineup of Mac laptops, I’m frustrated. The specs are basically not much different from the laptop I have right now. The 12" new Macbook seems like it ought to be great, but the battery life is less than what I have right now (or, less than it was new), and the processor is slower. It has a higher res screen, but that’s not something I care about. And the writing is on the wall that Apple isn’t going to make more Macbook Airs. :frowning:

So, here are my requirements:

  1. 256G SSD
  2. 12-13" screen
  3. 8GB Ram
  4. Long battery life
  5. Lightweight
  6. Low cost

I don’t play games or do any serious number crunching on this, so I don’t care that much about the CPU or GPU. I don’t care about upgradeability or easily-replaceable batteries (as long as I can with effort replace the battery myself). I tend to just buy new laptops and sell the old ones on eBay. A Blu-ray drive is a minor positive, but probably not worth the weight/cost to me.

What say ye?

2

There is a lot of cross-brand difference in the ergonomic feel (and sometime sensible layout*) of laptop keyboards - although it’s not a ‘power’ feature, I really would recommend going to a bricks and mortar store and getting your fingers on a few different models.

You’re going to spend a lot of time bashing on those keys; make sure you’re comfortable with them. This might not narrow you to one brand, but I reckon you’ll rule out a couple at least.
*(My Lenovo at work has a ‘Fn’ button bottom left, where Ctrl should be. Hugely annoying)