Mine had a dead battery too that I change just a couple of weeks ago after letting it sit in my room for over 2 years. It's about 8 or 6 years old.
But on a daily basis the last 2 years I've been using a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet, perfect to take to classes and take notes. The only downside per se is that it only runs with Chrome and the Google extensions.
With the new battery, I'll take both with me at the appartement, keep taking notes on the Lenovo but when I need to write a paper and also the research thesis I'll have to work on it'll be easie to have Word in the laptop