Low intensity demands, but high quality?

My five-year-old HP spectre laptop was always a little janky, but now the battery life is at the point where I think it might be worth replacing it. I'm thinking that if I can save money on my laptop, I can save money for a steam deck for mobile gaming. Still, I'm not willing to put up with poor performance when navigating the OS and I'd like a high quality screen for streaming. Nice aesthetics are also a plus; gray laptops with rounded edges are ugly.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

  • Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US: < US $1000 (but preferably a lot less)
  • Are you open to refurbs/used? Only if the battery is new
  • How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? It should have a great screen, good performance and good aesthetics. Durability is not a major concern and battery life should be good but not exceptional.
  • How important is weight and thinness to you? Something light and thin would be great.
  • Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. I'm comfortable with 15", maybe a little less.
  • Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. Not really.
  • If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? It's not for gaming.
  • Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? Because I plan to use it for watching videos, above average sound for a laptop would be great. Probably an OLED screen if that doesn't drive up the cost too much?
  • Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.-I know there are all kinds of laptops out there for extra cheap for people who don't need it to do any heavy processing/graphics, but I'd rather have a machine that still provides a premium experience so long as I don't ask it to do more than it was made for.