That's a great question

Looks like you already have enough RAM and storage for your needs, and 5 years is no great age for a laptop - should be "Windows" upgradable for some time if you need to

I use CCleaner every month to get rid of junk and speed things up, and my old laptop just keeps going and going

LG Gram 16 inch at Bestbuy for $850 on sale. Less than 3 lbs.
Model:16Z90R-H.AAY7U1

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-gram...?skuId=6579392

You didn't say why you need a new one. Did the old one die? You're going to be very disappointed in the replacement. It will be slower and buggier. It will refuse to run your old software and try to make you rent Word and Excel from Microsoft instead of using the programs you've already own. It will freeze whenever it feels like downloading an "update" -- which will be almost constantly. It will periodically download an update that breaks everything and forces you to recover from backups.

Personally, I've been keeping my old Win-7 laptop running for at least the last 14 years. I've replaced the battery twice and the hard drive once. I keep my wife's old Win-8 Dell in backup, against the day when I'm forced to replace mine. She insists on the latest and greatest, and is willing to wait for her computer to try to keep up with her typing, just to be able to say she's running the new stuff. I'm not. To each their own, I guess, but it sure is annoying when I'm forced to fix her computer every time some moron at Microsoft breaks it. I have turned off the updates on that stupid thing every way I can think of, using all the skills I learned in a 40 year career as a coder, but they keep finding ways to turn it back on so they can break it again.

But good luck with your new laptop. If I were you, I would scour the garage sales for an old one.

Neither windows 7 nor windows 8 have ANY security updates anymore. Win8.1 stopped updating in 2023. That means EVERYTHING you do on windows 8.1 is subject to hackers, crackers, trojans, phishing scams, ransomware - and there is absolutely NOTHING you can do to prevent it. If you're online, you're vulnerable, and the criminals who target vulnerable people will eventually find you (if they haven't already).

Whenever you are online and open any software on your computer, someone "out there" is watching you do it. They might not be interested in you. But if you have a decent bank account, or use credit cards online, they might be interested in you. Firewalls and virus protection won't protect you if you're using a legacy unsupported version of windows.

You don't need the most current one, but you do need one that continues to get security updates. Right now, that means windows 10. In October of 2025, Windows 10 will cease to be supported or have any security updates, and windows 11 will be the "oldest one that gets security updates."

I had stayed away from Lenovo laptops but finally bought one earlier this year at Best Buy. I have to say it is the best laptop I've ever owned. I got the Yoga with a 1 TB SSD.

You can get free upgrade to Win 11 from Win 10 before cut off for support in 2025, from Microsoft.

Some Windows 10 computers cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. It is not just a software upgrade.

Yes. I should have added, Microsoft will check existing com. to see if it will carry upgrade.
Mine does, so will do it nearer shutoff.

I’ve helped friends get rid of their windows crap (and a few times away from a Mac computer) to go to an iPad. Much better experience than a pc. If you type a lot, then you can get a keyboard/trackpad for it. I would get the 12.9” from 2022 or the more current 2024 models. I bought my wife a newer 2024 with the pencil so you can write/draw/sketch on it. Word/excel and apples equivalent software come on it. You can buy internal storage up to 2TB.
This iPad will allow you to have an easy experience doing whatever you need to do. We get the 256G storage option. We also buy Apple cloud storage to get more advanced features like private relay and many new mail security features and we can store files/photos/music in the cloud.

Jacobs Computer in Wildwood is the place to go for your shopping needs

Complementary colors
 

Warning: stream of consciousness posting. OrangeBlossumBaby and Blueblaze have lots of Bs and Ls and orange and blue are complementary colors which always reminds me of Thunderball which was out when the 47 year coder wifey and I learned that color fact together in 7th grade. We got together at our 25th high school reunion. :-) It's quite the luxury to be able to run the various points made in this thread by her, as my tech savvy is extremely limited (niche?), though I'm learning a fair bit in this thread. Fascinating to see that so many old farts here have come to know so much about tech. Had coincidentally read through the Wikipedia entry on Edward R. Murrow last evening. There have been some changes since that era, though I do (barely) remember seeing him on TV. BTW, got down *that* rabbit hole via reading up on King Edward VIII, about whom I had also known very close to nothing. No fan of "royalty", BTW.

I just bought this one. My Computer guy recommended it. It’s a steal right now at Best Buy.

Lenovo Ideapad 1i 15.6" FHD Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i3-1215U with 8GB Memory - Intel UHD Graphics - 256GB SSD - Cloud Gray $249.

Microsoft Office
 

Or, you could buy an Office Pro 2024 software key from any number of suppliers for about $35 and use it without having to connect to the internet to use all the Office apps or pay a new annual subscription It is legal. They buy the keys from companies that buy computers that are preloaded with Office but don’t want to use it and sell them to people that do want them. I have updating my copies of Office this way for years.

To decrease the weight, get one with a solid-state drive (SSD). You will want at least a 500 MB SSD. RAM memory is more important than speed of the CPU so get at least 16 MB of RAM. There will be great deals on Black Friday - Best Buy, Walmart, Sam's, Dell, will all have excellent deals. Also, I would plan on buying 2 anti-virus programs - example, Norton and MalwareBytes for internet protection - be safe out there!

I get my laptops from Walmart. Right now there is an HP 15.6" Windows Intel I3, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD for $283. on sale. I'm in IT, so, I opened it up and replaced the drive with a 2TB SSD. I don't recommend opening up your laptop if you aren't technical. But I would definitely recommend this laptop.