If you mostly use spreadsheets and web apps, you can safely buy a 10-year-old i5 and you'll be fine. I regularly sell refurbished i3/i5/i7 machines with first/

If you mostly use spreadsheets and web apps, you can safely buy a 10-year-old i5 and you'll be fine. I regularly sell refurbished i3/i5/i7 machines with first/second/third generation processors to customers for very low prices (think $60 for a laptop that used to cost $800). They work fine. You can check your email, do spreadsheets, use Discord, watch Netflix. This is an extreme example, of course, but the truth is the idea you don't need something new to do the same things you were doing ten years ago. If your expectations are to do reasonable normal people stuff, you'll have no problem at all. Minus the caveats others have mentioned about battery life, charging speed, and portability, you'll be fine.