Laptop Rex’s needed

Most important question is, “do you want to dock it?”
Then price range.
Nice: anything copilot certified with snapdragon chip. Nothing from Intel at the moment.
Cheap: used enterprise 11gen i5. Latitude, elite book or thinkpad.
Or budget 12th gen i3 machine if no docking required. Make sure support dual memory channels w: budget machine.
Really cheap: same as used above but 8th gen. At least try to get the 8259u or something with Iris plus in that case.

I'm a big fan of Framework laptops. What's unique about them, is that the entire laptop can be self repaired/upgraded. Framework sells all the individual components. I have a 13" laptop that I bought a couple years ago.

I'm thinking about upgrading it. I can buy just a new mainboard with latest cpu, swap it in and that's it. The same laptop shell, screen and other components will work just fine. They provide online guides with pictures on how to do everything.

You can then take the old mainboard/cpu and put it in a case and make a mini PC. There is at least 1 company that sells cases for Framework mainboards. Framework even provides 3D files to print your own.

They recently released a higher res/refresh screen and might upgrade that too.

The only thing that Framework is below average at is battery life. But I'm usually plugged in so not a big deal for me. Though if a higher capacity battery comes out, I'll upgrade that.

I know you don't need it for gaming. Fyi, their 16" laptop supports a dedicated discrete gpu which can also be upgraded in the future as well.

https://frame.work

This board never fails. A newbie comes asking for help, and the conversation starts talking about memory bandwidth, discrete GPUs, and build your own PC almost immediately.

IdeaPad Slim (Windows)

Lenovo Chromebook

You can buy either direct, or get the equivalent from BestBuy. If you have a specific retailer you're infatuated with (that's code for the dirty C word store) let me know and I can give you direct links.

You can get a far better PC for less (not that the better PC matters in your use case) on eBay, buying one generation back. I picked up a very nice last generation "top of the line" Surface laptop for under $300 six months ago, but this would be even cheaper and suit you. Mine was without a fingerprint and works perfectly, but that may not be your jam. Just an option.