I’m looking for recommendations for a Linux laptop!

I just want a little laptop to play around on and maybe take places that I don’t want to lug my MacBook to. It doesn’t need to be powerful or big. Honestly, 4Gb of RAM and 64Gb of hard drive is probably plenty but more is always gravy. Littler is better, 11 or 13 or 15 inches. And I’d like it to be less than $500 ideally.

But what is necessary—absolutely necessary!—is that the laptop buttons like screen brightness and volume must work without fuss, as well as the lid open and close functionality.

I’ve got a Dell Inspiron now, but it suspends when I close the lid and never comes back no matter what and I’ve spent TOO MANY HOURS fighting with it. It’s no longer fun. So please, only bulletproof compatibility suggestions please.

I’m planning on probably using Ubuntu if that matters, but bonus points if it’s bulletproof for multiple distros.

Thank you for your help!