May I ask, which laptop would you choose in my shoes, given these specs, budget and parameters?
I can't really recommend something specific without doing a lot of homework because I am still living happily with my 8 year old 17" Toshiba and I have never bought a notebook smaller than 15".
Not sure I would recommend Toshiba anymore. Mine has been trouble free but recent reliability reports don't rate them very well.
I avoid Lenovo at all costs. While they do make reliable products, the company, IMO, cannot be trusted as they have a long history of
repeatedly getting caught
selling products with malware installed on them. :shame2: :censored2:
ASUS notebooks have been very reliable. And while I am not particularly a fan of Dell (the company - too proprietary), I would not hesitate to get one of their notebooks, if the price was right.
Sadly, Microsoft Surface Books were very promising when first released but have not been very reliable by comparison (though Microsoft disputes those reports).
If portability was a top priority, I would insist on light weight and long battery life. Thin is nice but not that important to me. To me, thinner also means flimsier - not good if it needs to be robust enough to deal with hits and bumps when traveling. So while makers may tout how thin their notebooks are, I will take one that is .25 inch thicker that has stronger hinges and is less flimsy.
I also feel my eyesight is important so I want a top quality display.
I would not worry about speakers. If I want to listen to quality sound from my notebook, I will use headphones.
The keyboard
MUST feel good at the end of
MY fingertips and hands. This includes a comfortable angle of attack and the support provided for my wrists.
Definitely go with a SSD instead of a hard drive. They are lighter, consume less power (for longer battery run time) and generate less heat (always important in notebooks). And of course, the slowest SSD can run circles around the fastest hard drive. If you need extra storage and can't get a bigger SSD, use the cloud instead of an external drive. In no way do I want to lug an external drive (and its power supply) around too. Plus, external drives rely on the unreliable
USB interface. And external drives can grow feet and disappear, or get left behind, along with the notebook.