Wondering about upgrading to a modern laptop in 2025. In the past I've only run the cheapest, second-hand laptops...
- Intel Thinkpad x220i, which ran great until the display literally snapped offer around 2015, rendering the hinges beyond repair.
- Pinebook Pro, which ran for almost two years before a screw falling out caused the mainboard to take some sort of water-ish damage and short. No longer charges or boots.
- Dell i7 Laptop, which now fails to stay booted. It will randomly lose power, whether on battery power or a charger. Thankfully, it was already fully backed up. Was quite chunky, but ran well (until it didn't).
- Late-2014 Macbook Air, which was going to be recycled. Currently working with a new battery, but has abysmal performance at just 8gb of soldered ram. More or less unusable for even basic tasks!
What should I actually buy to have a modern, well supported Linux Laptop? Should be portable, but powerful enough to do basic video editing in raw! Budget will be $1,500 maximum, since I haven't purchased such a machine ever.