At that budged I'd consider getting '2014, "used" business grade laptops like Lenovo Thinkpad T440, Dell Latitude E6440 or EliteBook 840.
I put used in quotation marks because they're often sold as practically new, barely even touched from leasing returns or just from surplus purchases at some companies.
Also they often come with next business day, on site warranties which are tied to the machine rather than to the user so you're purchasing the warranty along with a used laptop. So definitely get one with an active warranty.
Also look be sure to get one with a healthy battery.
When purchasing off ebay specifically look for this info or let the ppl. run a battery test & check the machine no. for warranty when buying them off of craigslist.
These laptops mostly have Intel's *M cpus rather than the newer, but weaker (though less power consuming) *U cpus. So you may prefer that if portability is not key.
Generally, when buying these biz grade laptops, you have the following advantages / disadvantages:
+ Easy access to most of the innards (which is sadly not the norm any more). You can even exchange shit like the keyboard or touch pad without voiding the warranty.
+ Docking stations. Docking stations are the shit.
+ Sturdiness and some
water resistance
- But that makes them rather bulky & heavy
+ A ton of users online who own the exact same laptops
+ A ton of spare parts online because they're produced in large values and use standardized parts. This sometimes enables you to mod shit, like
so
- These laptops often come with average to bad displays since they're rather meant to be used indoors at the docking station (hence: display mods like the one above)
