Okay so I have to replace my laptop and while I'm at it I thought I'd ask for advice on things like browser choice, since if I have to set everything up from scratch anyhow it's a perfect time to make a change.

So far I've gotten recommendations for:
Vivaldi (because of customizability)
Brave (because "I just like it, you should try it")
and Chrome (because "Google is Evil now, but it's also super convenient")

Anyone here have an opinions?

This has been a topic of discussion ever since the first free browsers, when IE was the evil one from a large corporation that wants to control you.

Back then Opera was a huge hit, and many of us thought it would become widely popular but it never reached that point.
I gave up on figuring out browsers long ago, and I actually don't know some of the ones you mention.
I'm therefore completely dated and can't share an opinion based on technical knowledge.

I use Chrome because it's certainly very convenient.
In my case I use Windows, Linux and Android; and works very well with all those OS. Also allows me to save all my stuff from one browser to another one.
There may be other browsers doing the same, but because I've already found one that works well I'm not changing unless they offer something even more convenient.

I also don't uninstall default browsers.
They are usually not the greatest, but for some stuff (I'm looking at you, e-signature ) it sometimes goes smoothly.

I don't have the most know-how on browsers, but I got Opera GX recently, and I'm really liking it. I've been using Google Chrome for a long time but it's such a massive RAM hog. It got to the point where I was trying to watch Twitch streams and they were stuttering really badly because Chrome was like "I need ALL of the RAM for reasons that are apparently not this Twitch tab". I saw Opera GX advertised as like a "light" browser that don't take up as much resources, and it really does seem much better than Chrome about that.

Also it comes with a lot of built in stuff to see video game sales and releases, since it's popular with gamers. I like that part a lot too, but it depends how in to games you are.

That's interesting.
I'm not much into gaming, but I find it very amusing that they have built-in add-ons for gamers.
I had no idea!

Yeah they go pretty hard with it in the advertising too LOL. It's more or less a meme at this point. At least in the circles I run in.

"Are you searching that video on Opera GX?"
"You mean, am I searching it up on... the FIRST BROWSER FOR GAMERS??"

I guess it worked though, because I downloaded it looool

Hahaha, somehow I missed that!
I used Opera for a while back when someone I knew was playing with Tampermonkey options but that was a few years ago now.

I remember having Opera ten years ago or so. Back then they advertised reliability.
Things have changed

Opera GX is perfect! I use it for practically all of my browser games. If you've never heard of WaterFox or LibreWolf, you should give those a try. WaterFox is perfect. Chrome is too much of a hog on resources.

Been using Firefox for YEARS and never had much of an issue.

I've been debating on using Waterfox since I heard it still has flash support.

I've gotten to comfortable with Chrome lol idk if I could every lose it lol