If so, maybe consider Dell Latitude 5590, 5500, or newer? I work tech support for an organization that has a couple thousand Dell Latitude, Pro, and Precision laptops running at any given time and they generally work great and often physically outlast their ability to run the current version of Windows easily.
There's a also severe tax on the oldest viable used ThinkPads on US eBay and you can often get a Good Enough Dell Latitude for half what a ThinkPad would cost.
For example, a T580/590 or T14 Gen1 will probably run close to the top of your $300 budget.
You could probably get a Latitude 5530 or 5540 (12th and 13th gen CPUs vs. 8th/10th gen on the ThinkPad side of things) for about $250-300.
(wow! the 15-inch Latitudes are actually way more than I thought they'd be! Here's one for 250, BYO-SSD, you'd need to make a Windows 11 installer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/317749184667 or better physical shape but no internal webcam https://www.ebay.com/itm/187949292080 ) (14-inch Latitude 5440s are easily $250-300 in i5/16/256SSD configuration.)
I'm personally using a Latitude 7490 as my personal computer and it runs windows 11, office, web tabs, streaming video, all great.
We're a dell shop here too, the Latitude 7490s and 7480s were the workhorses for our fleet for quite a while. Those things were solid... except for the usb-c ports and docks lol. Only issue is they're 14" and too small for my dad.
I'll definitely take a look at the 5530/5540s though, that's a good idea. We used to run 5510/5520s and they were solid too.
I didn't look at any Latitude 5510 but that should be equivalent to ThinkPad T15 Gen1 and may well be a bit cheaper.
I've also got a Latitude 5580 on hand and it's been great, but as a 7th gen system it's not something I tend to recommend unless you're willing to use Rufus to reinstall Windows fresh regularly. (IME 11 disallows in-place upgrades on unsupported hardware.)
Also, the 7th gen dualcores are just nowhere near as fast as the 8th gen quadcores. Although I do mean to install 16GB of ram into the 5580 at some point.
Type-C is the one thing that's failed on my 7490 and I intend to swap forward to something like a 5400/7400 or newer at some point.
There's also Precisions. If you want to bet on a really weird configuration, MS and Dell have given the gold seal of official windows 11 approval to the Dell Precision 5520 using the i7-7820HQ CPU. I actually have one of these as my work laptop and it's been great. They're a little bit cheaper on eBay, e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/147007420515
Unfortunately the 7520 is not officially approved because while those are even less mobile they're even more upgradeable and they're even cheaper, lolol.
Get a galaxy book pro, I have one and its a thin, powerful laptop with a nice battery, and has a beautiful oled display
Should be fine. Are you looking at the Gen1?
And, are you in the US?
If so, maybe consider Dell Latitude 5590, 5500, or newer? I work tech support for an organization that has a couple thousand Dell Latitude, Pro, and Precision laptops running at any given time and they generally work great and often physically outlast their ability to run the current version of Windows easily.
There's a also severe tax on the oldest viable used ThinkPads on US eBay and you can often get a Good Enough Dell Latitude for half what a ThinkPad would cost.
For example, a T580/590 or T14 Gen1 will probably run close to the top of your $300 budget.
You could probably get a Latitude 5530 or 5540 (12th and 13th gen CPUs vs. 8th/10th gen on the ThinkPad side of things) for about $250-300.
(wow! the 15-inch Latitudes are actually way more than I thought they'd be! Here's one for 250, BYO-SSD, you'd need to make a Windows 11 installer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/317749184667 or better physical shape but no internal webcam https://www.ebay.com/itm/187949292080 ) (14-inch Latitude 5440s are easily $250-300 in i5/16/256SSD configuration.)
I'm personally using a Latitude 7490 as my personal computer and it runs windows 11, office, web tabs, streaming video, all great.
We're a dell shop here too, the Latitude 7490s and 7480s were the workhorses for our fleet for quite a while. Those things were solid... except for the usb-c ports and docks lol. Only issue is they're 14" and too small for my dad.
I'll definitely take a look at the 5530/5540s though, that's a good idea. We used to run 5510/5520s and they were solid too.
I didn't look at any Latitude 5510 but that should be equivalent to ThinkPad T15 Gen1 and may well be a bit cheaper.
I've also got a Latitude 5580 on hand and it's been great, but as a 7th gen system it's not something I tend to recommend unless you're willing to use Rufus to reinstall Windows fresh regularly. (IME 11 disallows in-place upgrades on unsupported hardware.)
Also, the 7th gen dualcores are just nowhere near as fast as the 8th gen quadcores. Although I do mean to install 16GB of ram into the 5580 at some point.
Type-C is the one thing that's failed on my 7490 and I intend to swap forward to something like a 5400/7400 or newer at some point.
There's also Precisions. If you want to bet on a really weird configuration, MS and Dell have given the gold seal of official windows 11 approval to the Dell Precision 5520 using the i7-7820HQ CPU. I actually have one of these as my work laptop and it's been great. They're a little bit cheaper on eBay, e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/147007420515
Unfortunately the 7520 is not officially approved because while those are even less mobile they're even more upgradeable and they're even cheaper, lolol.
The review below is how well the T14 Gen 2 is in the year 2026. Since the T15 is just a bigger screen, the points of the review should all apply.
$228, Refurbished - Good Condition, 1 year Warranty:
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 gen 2, 14" 300nit Screen, i5 1145G7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/116933166925
Laptop Review:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_8lcnRrTKI
If you are open to other option then can you push your budget higher?