I was always happy with everything I got from Lenovo (mostly ThinkPads but also IdeaPad), both cheap ones, used and new ones, always worked without any problems.

I'm ok with the XPS 13 from Dell but I had some problems, they needed to replace the motherboard and when you hold it it bends a bit and does register a click on the touchpad.

I hated my Tuxedo laptop, very expensive and very bad quality, had to send it in to repair twice and after a year I gave up on it because it was so broken and bought a used ThinkPad.

Are running 2 Dell's at home with Linux desktop on them. A 7280 and a 7480 model. Support for drivers etc just works. Dell get's A+ from me in regards to ease of use with support for Linux. HP's, not so much - what a struggle....

I have an old Lenovo W550s Thinkpad with a 2GB Dedicated Nvidia and an i5 5500U. It's got two batteries and sips power. It's only 4 cores, but for what I run it does great. I get fairly consistent 60fps on low settings for "boomer shooters" like Selaco. The thing is an absolute beast and hardly flexes. The plastic is cracked and I can just hand it to my kids without a care in the world. Dump a drink on it, drop it, I could care less. I had them help me change out the RAM and SSD because it's essentially bound for the dumpster and any value I get out of it is the cherry on top.

That and I can run pretty much and retro gaming console on it to about the Wii/GameCube, which blows my mind. All for probably like $200 of hardware.

I cannot say that I have done extensive testing, but the Acer Swift 315-51G and Gigabyte Aero WV8 that I have both worked fine with Linux with zero prior research on my part. No issues with any drivers, even the SD card readers, although I have not checked the fingerprint sensor on the Acer. Maybe I have just been lucky.

Both have hybrid Nvidia graphics, though, and 10-series and prior hybrid graphics especially, as I understand, have issues with high idle power usage unless you manually disable the dGPU when not gaming, which I had to do using envycontrol and nearly doubled my battery life on both. I might avoid hybrid dGPUs and especially older ones unless you need that.

Used laptop-wise, I agree with others that a used business laptop like a Dell would probably be your best bet.

Thinkpads, macs and dells are what I use.

They’re cheap and have lots of spare parts lying around.

I am gonna get a shit ton of hate for this... MacBook air. Yes, I am on a Linux sublemmy, saying that I like macs but the hardware is just too good to justify spending money on a x86 laptop.

Though, those new snapdragon X Elite laptops do look pretty spicy... Too bad they weren't yet announced when I bought my Mac.