Hi Josh! Big fan of your reviews.
I’m shopping for a new daily/work laptop with a $800-$1300USD cap. My use case:
Heavy Excel (large spreadsheets, lots of multitasking)
A bit of programming (Python/SQL, occasional VS Code projects)
Light gaming—mainly League of Legends and CS
Would love solid battery life, a comfortable display for long sessions, and decent portability/cooling.
Somewhat portable
Could you recommend 2–3 models (and ideal configs for RAM/SSD/GPU) that hit the sweet spot for this mix? Any “must-avoid” pitfalls in this price bracket would also help.
Thanks for all your work—your performance/price breakdowns are clutch.