I like to build my PCs. I DIY my desktops, I over-configure my laptops, and I pick the best specs I can when choosing prebuilts. I like my systems personalized to my needs, as repairable and upgradeable as possible so I can give them mid-life refreshes and keep them going longer.
That’s why I absolutely refuse to buy anything with soldered memory. I mean that for all the laptops partaking in this trend as well as the growing number of desktops that are starting to join in.
Soldered RAM is entirely anti-consumer. It makes it impossible to upgrade a device. It craters repairability by adding a new point of failure. It reduces buyer choice, forcing you into more-expensive retailer and/or manufacturer configs to get the performance and capacity you need.
All of this reduces the usable lifespan of a machine, making them more likely to end up in landfills sooner and leaving you no choice but to buy a full-on replacement as machines die. When RAM and storage prices are already absolutely ridiculous, the last thing we need is to give manufacturers a free pass to shortchange us even more.
Here’s why I’ll never buy a laptop or desktop PC with soldered RAM and why you shouldn’t either if you care about consumer rights.
It reduces consumer choice
I love digging into PC specifications. I appreciate it’s my job and not everyone shares that interest, but I get a real kick out of finding the absolute best gaming laptop configurations for my money (and for my friends). Sometimes it just makes sense to buy the 8GB laptop and upgrade it later, or there might be a great deal for a laptop with larger capacity but lesser memory (or vice versa).
Maybe, in this current era of extreme memory pricing, you want to try buying a laptop without any RAM and adding some sticks you already have—or buy them later when you can afford it.
Soldered memory cuts out those options entirely. You have to buy what the manufacturer gives you, and you can’t change it later. That means paying higher prices in the long term even if soldered RAM might be slightly cheaper up front. Meanwhile, the ability to swap out RAM on demand gives you more control and flexibility.
The green argument
The environmental impact of laptops as e-waste has never been more important to consider. We’re certainly paying more attention as we use and review them, and laptop manufacturers are also lowering their carbon footprints.
Some people say that soldered memory uses fewer resources in the construction of a laptop—and they aren’t wrong. But without the ability to repair or upgrade a laptop, it’s much more likely to end up in a landfill sooner than it should (dispose of it in an eco-friendly way).
If soldered RAM breaks, the laptop needs to be sent back to the manufacturer for a full repair, which itself is eco-unfriendly with all the unnecessary shipping back and forth. Or if it’s outside the warranty, it just gets binned altogether. On the other hand, if the RAM isn’t soldered, you can just swap it out. That’s why user-replaceable RAM is one of the key factors in whether a laptop is eco-friendly.
And it’s not just about repairs. A laptop that’s showing its age after 3 to 4 years can be refreshed with bigger, faster sticks of RAM. Faster RAM can boost FPS in games and increase responsiveness in apps and services. It postpones the inevitable in a very real, very important way.
But with soldered RAM, you don’t get the opportunity to do that. The lifespan of a laptop is artificially reduced to whichever component breaks first. This isn’t just e-waste—it’s a drain on your wallet, too.
I hope you bought enough
The lack of upgradeability with soldered RAM also means you need to be sure you’ve bought a laptop with enough memory to last you. Maybe you’re only using the laptop for light office work today, but what if you pick up gaming again a year from now? Or you want to noodle around with AI? Or maybe video editing?
With an upgradeable laptop, you can always add more (or faster) RAM as your tasks evolve and demands increase. Not so with soldered RAM.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
That means you either risk buying a laptop with less RAM now and hoping you don’t need more later, or buying a laptop with more RAM than you need just to play it safe but spending more than necessary in the meantime. It’s a lose-lose.
Considering the price of RAM right now, that kind of purchasing decision can have real big-dollar ramifications down the road.
Is that laptop really premium?
Premium laptops are expensive. If you’re going to spend all that money, you better be getting excellent hardware and features for it.
While upgradeable RAM is more likely in higher-priced premium laptops, there’s also a bit of paradox here because the premium range is where you tend to find the most thin-and-light designs—and thin-and-light laptops benefit greatly from soldered RAM, which helps to reduce the overall weight and thickness.
Gordon Mah Ung / Foundry
Shouldn’t premium laptop designs feel… well, premium? To me, that means they should offer flexibility, durability, and longevity. Sure, the thin-and-light approach is great for portability, but there’s so much more to the laptop ownership experience.
If I’m buying a laptop that looks and feels like a high-end piece of kit, I want all the potential benefits for the long term, not just something that feels premium on its first day.
What about resale?
You know who I’m not buying a second-hand laptop from? Someone who’s selling a laptop with soldered RAM. Not only on principle, but also because of the reduced longevity we discussed above.
I’m not alone on this, either. Which means when you come to resell your laptop with soldered RAM, you’re reducing your pool of potential buyers—and that means putting up a reduced price. It’s one of several reasons why buying laptops with soldered RAM is a horrible deal.
Even if you aren’t selling it and are just handing it off to your younger sibling, spouse, or friend, the value of that hand-me-down is reduced. They now face all the same lack of upgradeability and repairability as you did, only now it’s already a few years down the line.
Killing the consumer with kindness
Soldered RAM can be faster than traditional plug-in SO-DIMMs. It can be lighter and thinner and allow for suitably slim thin-and-light laptops. When manufacturers pass on the savings, it even has the potential to make a laptop cheaper. But it has many other weak points—and frankly, it offends my tech consumer sensibilities.
Soldered RAM reduces consumer choice. It makes pricing for memory even more arbitrary than it already is. It makes it so I can’t define my laptop the exact way I want it to be. All of that reduces the fun of enthusiast tuning options and mid-life refreshes. It also normalizes disposable PC designs at a time when right-to-repair and eco-friendly designs are finally filtering in to mainstream device manufacturing.
I refuse to support soldered RAM.
For me, the fundamental appeal of the PC ecosystem is that it’s DIY and personalizable at its core. It’s a high-tech, garage-build industry that stands apart from other pre-packaged device industries like tablets and smartphones. PCs are supposed to be different—and to make sure it stays that way, I’ll continue to vote with my wallet.
Further reading: Looking to upgrade your PC during the current RAM shortage and pricing crisis? Check out my tips on how to get the RAM you need without spending too much.
Author: Jon Martindale, Contributor, PCWorld
Jon Martindale is a voracious writer and technology fanboy who loves nothing more than digging into the specs of the latest graphics cards, processors, and displays. He's passionate about everything PC, but also enjoys experimenting with AIs, and covering new standing desks that can help avoid his worst posture habits.