I know it's not a group approved one but at $600...

I got the MSI 13bve with the i5 13420H, 16GB RAM and the, yes under powered version, rxt 4050. But there's a few reasons I went with this. One, I have a much much more powerful gaming desktop. Two, it is upgradeable both RAM and storage wise and RAM was the issue I was having with my other laptop for my school work. Three, for 600 dollars it honestly isn't bad, if I'd paid the non-sale price I'd feel different but for 600 I was not able to find better.

I've looked at the reviews of it, I've looked at the positives and negatives, but I mean for 600 can't beat it and it's mostly for my schoolwork (36, going back to school for a degree in Cyber Security so ability to add more RAM and storage is ideal) anyway. My desktop is not good for that because even though it's more powerful it's a.) on linux and my school wants you on windows. and b.) a pain to do serious typing on due to it being hooked up to my tv as a monitor in my living room. My cats do not like to leave keyboard lap space. My desk is taken up by my work computer. And my previous laptop was struggling with the amount of multitasking I needed last term.

I like it. It's budget yeah. But for $600 I'm not doing much better tbh. And given that for heavy gaming I have a desktop with an i5 12600k, 32GB DDR4 3200 CL 16, and an RX 6800XT, I think this will be just fine for my needs of a cheap upgradeable school laptop that can do some light gaming.