Intel is overpriced for the performance. Its like buying a proton saga for RM200k.

Current (4xxx series) Ryzen series much better from performance AND power consumption (vs old ryzen or current gen intel).

Hence get a machine with 16GB RAM. Office work on 8GB machine is suffocating (few excel tabs, remote desktop, copy thousands of lines SQL result). When you actually need to open many tabs and refer many journals and stuff like that for research (in uni), the 16GB will make life much better. Also when you wanna do some actual Excel work involve many tabs and filter function.

I think for the 3k range one can get a FHD screen at least. 1366x768 hurts the eyes because usually constructed of dim screen (not enough nits).

https://www.lenovo.com/my/en/laptops/thinkp...d/p/22TPX13X3A2

The weight of X series (1.3kg) is well appreciated especially if one likes to watch movies with the laptop on chest.
E series is kinda heavy and uncomfortable (1.7kg).

SME/Business grade laptop easily last 10 years. I still have my Dell Vostro (1.86kg THEN from 2008) working with new SSD.