I haven't owned a functioning laptop in like, ten years because my phone does most of what I like, but I (probably) have tendinitis and carpal tunnel and need something more ergonomic for my terminally online needs. Arguing with strangers on the internet is not as effective on a cell phone lol.
I'm mostly streaming media, researching online and screwing around on lemmy. I'm interested in toying around with linux just to try it as an OS but would probably want to keep windows because Im not super tech savvy as people here seem to be. That said I can figure things out pretty quickly if I put my mind to it. I would like the ability to game if I wanted, but that might mean a whole different beast so if I could even run at least SNES roms or something like that that would be cool. I'd also like a decent sized screen, 16 inches at least. Hoping not to spend more than 1k if possible but I'm old and don't know what the average price is really for something that's upper-middle quality so whatever clever.
Thanks for any recommendations!
I would advise against a laptop if ergonomics are a factor, they are slightly better than smartphones but still overall bad. Get some basic PC setup (if you don't want to build your own, I suggest an ASUS mini PC or mac mini) and spend the rest on getting a decent chair, a desk where the monitor and keyboard/mouse are at levels that are comfortable for you.
i agree with opting for a desktop pc over a laptop here in this case.
the phone's worked for them for a decade, so i don't think portability is needed.
with being chained to a desk and chair for health reasons when using the pc, there's no point to a laptop other than for portability (which isn't needed)
it will be easier to configure the work space, and offer more flexibility on display size and quality.
a traditional desktop is easier to work on if something goes wrong or hardware upgrade is wanted down the road.
For carpal tunnel you want a split keyboard. I’ve used the kinesis freestyle 2 for many years and swear by it.
I'm hoping that as a good compromise, I can get a monitor and a keyboard to hook up to it for working at home, that would work out I assume?
That’ll be fine. Just make sure you get a separate mouse no matter what your setup is to begin with. also you can get a laptop stand instead of a separate monitor, which will be cheaper while still improving ergonomics, though you will need to also get a keyboard