Assuming I’m gone need to buy a brand new laptop, which wallet do you recommend using? And what about the software updates? After I download a wallet on the laptop cut off all internet going in the laptop?
You don't need to worry about the software updates it will work without any issues based on my experienced.
it depends on the update. for example there are times when a bug is found in the wallet software that requires upgrading both online and offline versions. but most of the times, specially for older wallets, the upgrade is not so necessary but not always. for example you can be sure that the new Electrum version (4.0) will have a lot of updates follow its stable release.
so i'd say user has to always be aware of what is changing in each wallet. usually projects have a changelog, maybe a mailing list,... that they can subscribe to.