Hello Comrades,
I am overwhelmed! have to get a new laptop for work stuff. And everything is horribly riddled with AI and unwanted features and planned obsolescence, etc. I am feeling so old and lost; and stuck with paralysis! Can someone help me with just a simple recommendation on a laptop or laptop series or something? Need: video calling, decent battery life. Wants: could play RDR2 (I realize now this ask is too much- the purchase will be a write off so, I was being greedy and trying to treat myself)or some equivalent. This felt so simple 10 years ago! Stupid Crapitalism grumbling old man noises
Edit: Wow, thanks so much, this is so helpful! Guess, I’m realizing I’m gonna need to start on windows and hopefully switch over to Linux next year(going make time to start a 30 day intro mid Jan). And, looking at Thinkpad T series. All the new ones have MD ryzen ai pro processors- does anyone have thoughts on these??? (I’m really wary of ai on the computer because I work with HIPPA compliant stuff, so I just generally want to avoid it because if it isn’t managed right its a potential violation.)


from an IT/help desk perspective, i don’t like Macs. But their battery life is so much better than the Thinkpads at my job. If you buy a used Macbook, look to see if the seller lists how many cycles the battery has gone through. Its also something you can find in the settings.
i have a Legion 15ach6 that has a RTX 3050 ti, which would probably manage to run RDR2 but it might not look great.