My current laptop which I bought in 2015 is starting to be really annoyingly slow and freeze/crash with just 3 tabs open if I open a chat window at the same time a video is buffering or something. The one I had before it also lasted 5 years before becoming basically unuseable.

Is this normal? I can't think of anything I'm doing to wear it out, I don't push it to its limits, I pretty much only ever use it for web browsing and Youtube/Netflix.

Also, any recommendations on what brands are good for a replacement? I'd like to get one that will last me a longer time, spending nearly $1000 for 5 years of useful service just isn't good enough in my opinion.

Any computer, if using original parts, will get slower after a while. Things wear down over time even when they aren't being used, let alone used regularly. That being said, clean out the whole computer physically, wipe all the dust off, reapply thermal paste, decompress hardrive, make sure if HDD it isn't almost full. If all of these are some and it's still slow then yeah time for an upgrade.

If recommend, of you just want it for browsing and YouTube, getting a super cheap netbook rather than a full laptop.

I can't even defrag the fucking piece of shit, when I click on defrag it won't even open it.

Depends on the specs but the main thing that I have seen that kills laptops is dust as people don't clean out the fans and insides. So when you have enough dust buildup, the laptop heats up which causes the components to throttle down. Also depends whether or not it has a SSD or Hard Drive as laptop hard drives are typically slow and gets even slower as time goes on. Usually if you replace the hard drive with a good SSD, you will see a night and day difference.

The good news about buying a laptop this year as opposed to previous years is that you can get pretty nutty specs without breaking the bank thanks to Ryzen 6-8 cores being very affordable.

I usually go with Asus and Dell but I'd always check the reviews as every company has good and bad models.

This is my Macbook Pro build from 2012.  Still using it right now, but I am thinking about buying the newer model when it comes out.  I use it for my professional work and not for gaming.  It hasn't slowed down but does get hot when running video conference with background tasks running at the same time.  The current models have a weird swipe bar on top that I don't like.  The next model will get rid of it and go back to the magnetic charge cable.  I'm pretty sure I dished out around $5000 in 2012 and will probably be doing that again or more for the new one.  I usually click on every upgrade possible and get it. The only thing I might sacrifice this time is the storage.  I'd rather run an external SSD for the extra storage, the apple storage upgrades are too expensive.  I will upgrade to the 2 terabytes and run the rest externally as I need it.

This is the current build I was looking at but don't like, so I'll wait.

Huge jump from what was available 8 years ago.  I've also had no issues with my battery life.  I will probably still replace the battery later on and continue to use it in areas I would not take a new one into.  I'm just hoping I can squeeze out 8 years from a new one.  

Seems pretty normal to me. I had a single laptop from 2010 to 2014, similarly to you, and it already started to feel gradually slower from year 2 until it died. Today I have another one that I bought in July of 2019 and it keeps doing fine. I barely download stuff, though, and barely use it, for that matter. Hopefully it keeps doing fine, I can't afford another computer this year, have lots of other expenses.

I would recommend first reinstalling Windows (there is an option to keep files) from the advanced boot options. You could also try a Linux partition with Ubuntu (if you don't use any Windows specific program), you don't have to uninstall Windows.

Man my gaming laptop from 2012 Lasted me 8 Years, until i got a Tower PC.

I will go with Yuri hear sounds like the airflow is blocked with dust or or watever. Take it apart and clean it, likely cleaning 5 years worth of dust is all it needs.

It is normal to have a computer that lasts 5 years.

My GF had the same issue with her (back then) 4 years old laptop (slowdowns + battery issues), so that's what I did:
- bought an SSD (she had a HDD) and clone her Windows into the SSD
- double the RAM (she had 4GB, bought 4GB more so she have now 8GB)
- buy a new battery

Now it's faster than ever, and she loves open 255 tabs at the same time and keeping them open for weeks, so that's a huge relief for her computer