Hi, I am a bit late to reply, but for laptops I would suggest something with a great keyboard. Historians type a lot. A good screen and small size should also be up there. My recommendations would be the Dell XPS 13 - good keyboard, great screen and size - or the Lenovo X1 Carbon - extremely durable and excellent keyboard. The Microsoft surface laptop is good too. The new Macs are horrid. The keyboards fail, and they overheat. Also, Macs have too few ports.