I have used the same laptop daily for four years. It has been repaired once, upgraded twice, and it remains entirely adequate for what I do.
Looking back at the purchase decision, most of what I compared did not matter and two things I barely considered did.
What mattered most, in order
The keyboard, which I use for hours every day and which is the single component I interact with most. I chose partly on this and it was the best decision in the purchase.
The screen, similarly, for the same reason. Not resolution particularly, but brightness, matte or glossy finish, and physical size.
Memory, which was the specification that most affected how the machine felt over time, because software has grown more memory-hungry considerably faster than it has grown processor-hungry.
And whether components were replaceable, which turned out to be the thing that extended its life.
What mattered much less than expected
Processor generation and model. The difference between the option I chose and the one above it, at the time, is not perceptible in anything I do.
Storage speed, beyond having a solid state drive at all. The step from a mechanical drive is transformative; the step between solid state tiers is not perceptible outside benchmarks.
Graphics capability, for my use, which is not gaming or rendering.
Thinness and weight, which I weighted heavily at purchase and which mattered less than I expected because I carry it far less than I imagined.
The upgrades that extended it
Memory, doubled after two years, for a modest cost. This produced the single largest improvement in how the machine felt, more than any component swap could have.
Storage, replaced with a larger drive at three years, which was becoming a genuine constraint.
Both were possible because the machine has accessible, socketed components. A comparable machine with soldered memory and storage would have been finished at the point either became limiting.
This is the specification I would now weight most heavily, and it is the one that has been disappearing from the market fastest.
The repair
A failed cooling fan at around three years, which is a common failure and an inexpensive part.
Replacement took about forty minutes with a service manual and a screwdriver set.
The relevant point is that the manual and the part were both available, which is not universal. Some machines require specialist tools, are held together with adhesive, or have no published service documentation.
Repairability ratings exist in some markets now and are becoming mandatory in others, which is a genuine improvement for anybody buying.
Battery, which is the wear item
Down noticeably from new, on the expected curve.
Replaceable, which extends the useful life considerably. Machines with glued-in batteries are effectively disposable once the cell degrades.
Charging habits appear to matter. Most manufacturers now offer a charge limit setting that stops at eighty percent, which reduces wear for a machine that spends most of its time plugged in. Enabling that early would have been sensible.
What I would check when buying now
Whether memory and storage are socketed, which is now a genuine differentiator and is frequently buried in the specifications.
Whether service documentation and parts are publicly available.
Keyboard, in person if possible, because it is unquantifiable and it is what you touch.
Screen brightness in nits and finish, which affects usability more than resolution.
Memory quantity, generously, since it is the constraint that arrives first.
And the support period for firmware and driver updates, which is shorter than people assume and which affects security.
The general conclusion
The specifications that appear in comparisons — processor model, benchmark scores, storage speed — differentiate machines that all feel the same in use.
The things that determine whether you are still happy in four years are the physical interfaces, the memory headroom, and whether you can open it up.
None of those photograph well or produce a chart, which is presumably why they get the least coverage.
Ports, which I underweighted
A small thing that has caused disproportionate irritation.
The machine has fewer ports than I need, which means a dock or an adapter, which means another thing to carry and another point of failure.
Universal connectors have genuinely simplified charging and are not a substitute for having enough of them.
Worth counting what you actually plug in on a normal day and checking the machine has that many, because the alternative is a permanent accessory that costs money and gets forgotten.
The operating system question
Something worth deciding before the hardware.
The support period, the update behaviour, and whether an older machine will continue to receive a current version differ substantially between platforms.
Some machines become unsupported by their vendor's operating system while remaining entirely capable, at which point an alternative operating system extends their life considerably and requires some willingness to deal with it.
That path has become much more approachable in recent years, and it is the main reason a well-built machine can stay useful for eight or ten years rather than four.