Everything is a cost/performance trade off but no matter what else you do just make sure it has a solid state drive (SSD). I'm pretty sure those are standard now in laptops but worth double checking. The low-power traditional hard drives they put in laptops trade performance for battery and are so slow you'll think you've gone back to the 90s...
Just a note on docking stations; USB-C based docking stations are fast becoming the standard and have come a long way. They are now perfectly fine for the average knowledge worker who wants a single convenient cable to plug in to get dual display, keyboard, mouse, etc. The only downside is your GPU won't work on the USB displays so there is a negative impact on graphics performance.
On the upside you don't have to buy a different docking station for every device. Here is a neat trick; plug your Samsung mobile device into a USB-C docking station and presto! You have a full workstation on your phone! Keyboard, mouse, dual display, everything (though some apps aren't optimized for it). Google "Samsung DeX" for more details, maybe you don't even need a laptop?
John