So I am in my last semester at my university and I am looking at getting a new laptop seeing as the current one that I own I bought around 4ish years ago for $350. It's an Asus core i3, 4 gigs of ram, and a shockingly awesome track pad.

For the past year I was lucky to work remote for a company which gave me access to a pretty awesome work laptop but that contract ended... and it turns out my wifi chip on my old Asus is garbage which is putting me in the market for buying something in the next twoish weeks.

I have been flirting between a laptop that can handle a few games here and there (mostly things like civ 6 and a few other not so super demanding games) and an ultra portable like the hp spectre x360.

Just wondering if there is anyone out there with any specific recommendations? a price range of around $800-$1300 is pretty much what I am looking for and as I am a software engineering major the comfort of the keyboard is a huge deal to me.

Thanks in advance!

My default recommendation is the Surface line, expect for the keyboards aren't the best.

For myself, I have a HP Stream 11 netbook ($99) for light work use, and an i3 Alienware Alpha ($350) for PC games.
Work provides a Surface Pro 3 for all my normal work.

I really enjoy my Spectre. Upgraded from my 2011 MacBook over the holidays. I don't find myself using the tablet functions all that often, but it's a really nice feature and I could see it being beneficial for some people.

I went with the version that has the i7 and 8GB RAM. Has been way more than enough for my needs thus far. Obviously if you're looking into it you know it's limitations as far as gaming, but it's not really a problem for me. I play almost exclusively PS4 and have things like Frog Fractions 2 and Undertale loaded on my laptop in case I just have an urge when I'm away from home.

Overall, I've had it about two months or so, and I've had a great experience with it.

I really like my Lenovo Yoga. I have the Yoga 3, 14 inch, though it was 18 months ago so I can't speak to newer models. Overall though, good form factor, about a day's worth of battery life, and can run most indie games or old PC games with its i5 processor. I got it at about $800.

I was between the Spectre and the Yoga but it looked like I would pay a bit more for the Spectre with similar specs. I recommend!

I love my Surface Pro 3, but I also write a lot on it, not so much type. The only Surface I would tell someone to buy right now is the Book, because the Pro and Book are about to be refreshed, but the Book is outside your price range anyway.

As far as traditional laptops go, you can't go wrong with a new Dell XPS or HP Spectre. Lenovo has some good stuff too, but the likes of the X1 Carbon I think will be too much as well.

Stick with Asus, the Republic of Gamers laptops they produce are really great quality. I've owned one for a few years with no issues, only swapped out the dvd for a ssd. For the price you're looking at there's one on sale at the moment with a 1050 which will be able to handle Civ.

Link to one on sale.

I'd seriously consider a Sager/Clevo. Best bang-for-your-buck specs you're going to find. The build quality has improved quite a bit over the years as well. The variety of builds is intimidating, but:

About $800 could get you an NP3245:

• 7th Gen (Kaby Lake) Intel® Core™ i7-7500U Processer
• 14.0” Full HD IPS LED-Backlit Display, Matte Finished
• Intel HD Graphics 620
• 8GB DDR4 at 2400MHz
• 500GB 7200rpm SATA3 HDD
• Intel Wireless-AC 3165 + Bluetooth
• Windows® 10 Home 64-Bit Edition
• 22mm thin Ultra-slim design

Closer to $1200 could get you an NP8155

• 7th Gen (Kaby Lake) Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ Processer
• 15.6” Full HD IPS Matte Display
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5
• 16GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2400MHz
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 HDD
• Intel Wireless-AC 8260 + Bluetooth
• Color illuminated keyboard
• Built-in Fingerprint Reader
• 25mm thin Slim Design