"But this just means that a laptop would also have been a luxury for you." You're pivoting to a very circular definition of luxury here. A laptop is something

"But this just means that a laptop would also have been a luxury for you." You're pivoting to a very circular definition of luxury here. A laptop is something that would have been very useful to me, as it turns out it always ended up one lower then other things on the budgetary priority. That doens't make it a luxury/status item as you said 3 up. Ultimately there's a contradiction in your claim that a laptop in general is not a luxury/status good ("sign of affluence" - wiki) but a cheaper iPad, which often functions as a laptop substitute, somehow is.