HP Envy x360 15.6" Touchscreen 2-in-1 Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 4700U - 1080p - HP Digital Pen - $749.99

wow thatnks a lot for that, that was really helpful.

I am new to laptops, for the nits is it just brightness only? So only matters if you use it more outside? or it's about the screen's color etc and how pretty the screen looks so the higher the nits the better?

Costco's version doesn't have an ethernet connection? Do more and more laptops are like that?!

Let me see if I can shed some light here since I have owned both the Costco version of this Envy laptop and the BestBuy version. Yes, there are differences between them. I kept the BB version and returned the Costco one b/c the latter developed a dead pixel after 2+ months.

* RAM:
- Both versions are upgradable. I upgraded them to 32 GB (2x 16GB DDR4-3200). It's a bit of a hassle to open them up since the screws are hidden under the rubber strips and require a #5 Torx driver (IIRC), a small Philips driver, and a small piece of plastic like a guitar pick to separate the bottom lid from the frame. The RAM is covered with an aluminum shroud that you have to carefully remove.

* Screen:
- 250 nits. Normally bright enough when you're sitting in a lecture room. Obviously not great for outdoor. However, it's not necessarily a deal breaker. For students, it should be enough. Touch screen is a bonus, but I never really had good use for it. I'm working much faster with my Logitech TrackMan.
- Pen: Only the Costco version comes with a pen and uses a AAA battery. Reaction time of the pen is "meh" because of the lag, especially when you're used to working on your iPad. In my case, the pen stayed in the box and was only used at the beginning b/c of curiosity. Should not be a deal-deciding factor.
- Screen format: Now *this* is important! BB's Envy has a much smaller bezel at the bottom compared to that one or two inches of black space on the Costco laptop. Therefore, if you do a lot of word processing or use spreadsheets, visibility of letters and numbers is obviously slightly better if the screen is not compressed, i.e. BB's Envy for the win.

* Runtime: I get about 5 hours of continuous Zoom time. Sorry, that's my only metric. As the laptop gets older, you can assume that battery life decreases, too.

* Noise:
- Amazingly quiet! For Zoom meetings and light work, fans are not or barely noticeable. It's a nice change to the whining of Intel laptops.
- Fans (there are 2 of them) are sometimes audible when the laptop is turned on or when you upgrade the BIOS.

* USB-C:
- PD (power delivery) capable, i.e. you can charge your laptop using a USB-C charger. I really prefer this route rather than lugging around the original power brick! Look on Amazon for a USB-C charger and compare how small and light those are! I grabbed a small 100W cube.
- 10 Mbit/s port: I was able to transfer 300+ MB/s between the laptop and an external SSD. Not too shabby.

* Power button:
- The power button on Costco's version is annoyingly located at the left side and protrudes prominently! You have no idea how many times I grabbed the laptop and accidentally hit that power button! Assinine design!
- Power button on BB's laptop is next to the small [Delete] button, and you might think that I would constantly hit it! Nope, never happened once -- and I type a lot.

* Ethernet/RJ45 port:
- Nope! If you need wired connection, you have to buy a USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

* WiFi:
- No problems with it.

* Camera:
- Well-lit and detailed video. No complains here.

* Other:
- I sporadically, but rarely had issues when my audio would suddenly freeze and I had to restart the laptop to continue with the Zoom meeting.

* Bottom line:
- As usual, it depends what you're looking for in a laptop since there is no "perfect" laptop. I don't game, hence cannot comment at its performance. But you can check out the various YouTube videos. I'm using my laptop to view CBCT (cone beam computer tomography) scans, and the GPU is plentiful powerful for that!
- For this price, it's easy to overlook the above flaws. So if you're student, this laptop would fit the bill very nicely (literally). If you need more memory, this thing can grow with you -- including your possible need for a bigger SSD.
- Yes, there is space for a 2.5" SSD, but don't think about putting one in there because you cannot find a connector that fits. I tried.

Hope this helps!