Lenovo ThinkPad E14 - i3 10th Gen, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

ThinkPad keyboard, entry-level price. The E series is Lenovo's budget business line, so the chassis is part plastic rather than the reinforced construction of a T series, but the keyboard is close to the same and that is what most people are actually buying. This one has a 10th generation Core i3 with 8GB and a 256GB SSD, which covers study, office documents, browsing, online classes and video calls without hesitating. There is no backlight on this variant, so if you type in low light, look at one of the other units. The TrackPoint works. Cosmetically there are light scuffs on the lid and a small mark near the top edge of the panel; corners are good and nothing is loose. Ethernet and the card reader were both tested along with everything else. For a student who wants a proper keyboard and does not have thirty thousand to spend, this is a good, unglamorous, tested machine, and the keyboard is the part they will still be glad of two courses later. Ask us before you buy if you want the memory doubled. It is a socketed module on this model and it is the single change that makes the most difference to how it feels.