New Laptop confusion

[Notquitegrownup2]

I'm old. Need a new laptop and am totally overwhelmed by the choice. Current thinking:

Started by setting budget at c £650 to get something that should be reliable and last.

Dell vs Lenovo. Love my work Dell. Bought one last year for home but didn't love it. Dh just broke it. Am thinking of trying a Lenovo this time. Anyone disagree?

Think books seem to have better reviews than ThinkPad yes?

Intel vs AMD. Does it matter?

Thank youuuu

I asked Chatgtp. Gave it a list, 16gb, good battery length and price range

For home use, I prefer Lenovo Thinkpad. 16GB RAM, 256GB Solid State hard Drive (SSD) Win11 Professional, Intel I7 or better, touch screen if you can run to it. I am happy buying 2nd hand from mycheaplaptop.co.uk, currently abou £450 call them and have a chat if unclear about the details. Might be scuffed but fully functioning. My partner has a Lenovo Yoga that flips into a tablet c/w pen.
One order they shipped failed on boot up, swapped next day without quibble, another order was for two, they shipped different specs, again swapped one without quibble in two days.

I had a Dell and I would never have another, as I had nothing but problems with it.

What will you be using the laptop for? It's difficult to recommend anything without knowing what your requirements are. What screen size do you prefer? Does It need to be lightweight?

Oh good question @Herbie! Sorry, should have said.

Main uses:
email,
internet searching/filing household stuff/tax returns etc
word processing,
watching netflix
Athe odd Zoom meeting. . .

Rarely download, save my pictures in Google images, so all really low key stuff, but I do use it a lot. Could probably go cheaper couldn't I, but want something which will last/be reliable . . .

Many thanks for the thoughts so far.

And I prefer a 16" screen for watching films. Doesn't need to be lightweight.

(Partly the reason I love my work Dell is that it has a fairly sturdy feel to it . . . The one I bought last year just felt less solid/more fragile. And it was!)

I recently bought a Lenovo on the advice of my computer guy and it was only about £400 and he even set it up for me. I use it for similar stuff to you plus a couple of very casual jobs.
Work bulk buy Thinkpads and a lot of those get a lot of use and carried around a lot

Thanks all. @Wibble128 do you prefer your Thinkpad to anything in particular(eg Thinkpad vs Think book) or do you mean you prefer it to anything else.

Looks like there's a slight preference on here to Thinkpad to other specific suggestions, which will save me a bit. Are they easy enough to set up oneself? (I managed my last Dell ok, having been told on here it was easy to do )

Thanks for all the advice/reassurance!

@Notquitegrownup2 Apologies for late reply. I have had both, I much prefer the Thinkpad it is far more robust / business appropriate IMHO. My only Think book was flimsy and one hinge broke, I wnet back to Thinkpad. I really like the keypad & trackpad on the Thinkpad. WIN 11 PRO makes setting up easier, wih less restritios and more variables for me.

I have had the same Lenovo that I bought about 12 years ago. I totally love it