I've been using a cheap, shitty laptop that I got in 2013 for my entire bachelor's and master's degrees. Now I'm going to be starting a PhD in economics and I would like to upgrade.

What suggestions do you have for me?

• Total budget and country of purchase: US. Depends on what I can get. If the improvement between $800 and $1500 is only marginal, I'll spend $800. Otherwise, willing to explore up to $1500.

• Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply. I am interested in taking notes and annotating with a 2-in-1 laptop with stylus support. I have never owned a 2-in-1 laptop (or used a 2-in-1 stylus), so I would be really grateful to hear opinions about what to look for in this department. I've used plenty of "touch screen" technology in the past what was an absolute nightmare. I want something that works AS WELL as a physical pen on paper.

• How important is weight and thinness to you? Thinness does not matter at all. Weight matters to the extent that I will be carrying this on my back and I would prefer that it not be a lead brick. Lightweight is not a major priority.

• Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. Windows

• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. At least 15"

• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. -fill here, remove dashes-

• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? It will need to run common economics software reasonably quickly. That includes R, Stata, Matlab, ArcGIS. It is my understanding that R can use quite a bit of RAM, so good RAM is a must. I only occasionally game, and when I do it is with games that are not graphically intense (think TF2). No need to go crazy with the GPU.

• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? As an academic, I'll be using the keyboard A LOT, so nice feeling keys will be a must. I'll be taking this from my home to campus and back everyday, so somewhat rugged build would be nice. Don't need a tank, but would prefer that it not be the cheapest, flimsiest plastic possible. Higher battery life would be great but not first priority. 500 GB of storage is what I would consider minimum, 1 TB would be nice, above that is also nice but not a priority. Though I won't be doing much gaming, photo or video editing, etc; I WILL be looking at this screen for multiple hours a day, sometimes reading scanned pdfs. A nice screen would make that a lot nicer, even if GPU is not a priority.

• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. Basically, I am looking for help finding good quality for the $900-1500 range that will be able to run common economics software quickly and allow my to take notes with a stylus. The 2-in-1 tech w/ stylus is the only part of this that is completely foreign to me, so that is where I'd like the most advice.