TL;DR: Get a Grade A refurbished Dell Latitude (2020) and Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for only $274.99 (MSRP $1,019.98). For the budget-conscious, a laptop purchase can be a real pain point, especially with all the bells and whistles.

At $934, you’re getting flagship specifications at $615 below the standard retail price that Dell rarely discounts this aggressively. The 40% savings bring a Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage into the price range typically occupied by mid-spec laptops with half the memory and storage.

I tested the computer maker's rebranded XPS laptop. It's still a good fit for creators as long as you aren't turned off by its peculiar design, hefty weight and high price.

In Texas they do everything big, even obsolescence. Take the abandoned Dell desktop computer factory just a few miles from its Round Rock headquarters. It's bigger than the Alamo. Back when Dell had 18% of the worldwide personal computer business in 2004 ...

The battery is designed to last an entire workday, and when you’re running low, you can juice it back up to 50% in just 30 minutes. Ports include a power jack, HDMI 1.4 (supports up to 1920×1080 @60Hz), USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (full function), USB 2.0, SD card reader, and a headset jack.

Users on various forums have been troubleshooting video playback errors on newer Dell and HP laptops over the past few weeks. While the specific issues vary,