Laptop buying guide

Hey everyone,

Quick question for the group. I’ve been digging through various laptop listings lately, but I am having a hell of a time finding anything that fits my specific budget—what I’m looking for is
a machine with a backlit keyboard, sitting somewhere in the $300-$$1100 range—though, honestly, if we have to push it to $1167, I suppose I could make that work. 😁

To give you some context: this is for my wife. She doesn't need a NASA-grade supercomputer or any high-end overkill,
but it would be a massive win if I could find something in a color like purple, white, red, or pink. 🤦🤦🤦

Finding those colors is apparently just as difficult as finding the backlight, so—fingers crossed—maybe she'll get lucky with the keys too, haha. 😁

Since I'm hitting a wall within this price bracket, if any of you happen to know of a solid option around
that amount, I’d truly appreciate it if you could drop the exact model name
so I can do some deep-dive research... 🙂

As for the specs, the essentials are 8GB of RAM, at least an i3 processor, and a minimum of a 256GB SSD—having an extra HDD wouldn't hurt, either,
and if there is any way to snag an IPS FHD screen, that would be ideal.

Anyway, apologies if there's already a thread covering this; if so, moderators, please feel free to move this to the right section.
I would be incredibly grateful if anyone has a specific model recommendation. 🙂

Thanks much.
Best,

Finding a decent laptop at this price point isn't exactly rocket science, for example:

https://www.bestbuy.com/lenovo...m_medium=click

The real headache is that retailers rarely bother listing the screen type. I have no clue if an IPS panel is even an option for this kind of money.
Then there’s the whole color accuracy mess.

I actually think this MacBook looks pretty sharp

https://www.amazon.com/Ra%C4%8Dunal...m_medium=click

Oh man, this MacBook is absolutely killer. Now, don't get me wrong—that Dell is technically a step up,
but since that Dell comes with its own OS and I’m stuck here in New York City, my wife will probably end up falling
for this white 😁 model instead. Still, that screen quality? Absolutely stunning.

Anyway, thanks a ton for the hand, George...