Hello, I’ve been uhmming and ahhing over which laptop to buy. I was almost decided on the HP Envy 16 but the HP Envy 17 is a much better fit for me personally (full size sd card slot and number pad). It’s also a couple of hundred pounds cheaper and atm is on sale for under £800 whereas the 16 inch model is going to be about £1100. I never felt comfortable spending over 1k on a laptop but couldn’t seem to get what I needed at a lower price point. The HP envy 16 was a bit of a compromise but has the advantage of upgradeable RAM (and 2 ssd slots but the envy 17 ssd can be upgraded).
I’m just not sure whether it’s too much of a risk to buy the potentially unfixable envy 17 (with a decent amount of RAM of course) and get everything else I was looking for spec wise or whether I should spend a few more hundred and buy the fixable envy 16 and compromise on practical use instead. A compromise obviously has to be made - where would you make it?
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Main actual compromise with soldered RAM is that you have to pay through the nose for sensible amount of it and do it all up-front. Depending on your use case for a decent laptop today you’ll want 16 or 32GB RAM - so that you aren’t hampered by it 5 years down the line or so. Some vendors ask plainly absurd amounts of money for it.
As far as laptops go though I have just a general apprehension. It obviously depends on your specific use case, but for a ton of situations a standard PC along with a cheaper laptop will be a better option. This is especially egregious with gaming/workstation - if you think about getting decent GPU/CPU, an external monitor/keyboard/mouse etc, account for upgrades over the years - you quickly run into situation where desktop PC and cheap laptop together cost much less money for the same performance.
On the other hand there is something to be said about convenience of a setup with single powerful laptop and a dock that plugs into your peripherals.
A desktop would definitely be a better machine overall but unfortunately I just don’t have the space for a permanent set up so I need the mobility of a laptop even if I don’t actually take it out of the house at all! So I’m looking at more of a desktop replacement standard laptop which as you point out, have got so pricey.
Last one I bought was an ASUS G14 with soldered memory and that shit’s still going strong. Just make sure you get the maximum amount and you’ll be fine.
Your bigger issue is buying an HP. Don’t. You’ll get what you pay for.
Can I ask why you don’t rate HP? I’m not into tech for tech’s sake so although I know what I’m looking for I’m not really sure which brands or lines within brands are the better options so any advice appreciated!
I have no problem with hp. If anything buy business class not consumer grade. Everyone has their preference with brand
I used to do desktop and laptop repair, HPs were by far the most common failure. It’s usually hinges and keyboards. Memory failure in any laptop or desktop isn’t common at all.
Also, like, if anything the socketed modules present a weak spot in a mobile device compared to soldered down memory.
I’m against soldered memory in principle but you’re entirely right. It’s a much stronger design overall for use in a laptop.
I think the problem with soldered memory is more about upgradability, less about reliability. The chips can be replaced with specialized tool.
Thanks. I’m certainly wouldn’t want to try and upgrade any soldered RAM lol. But HP customer services essentially said it’s pretty unfixable and not worth bothering price wise to even try and fix it so is more about reliability for me if anything should go wrong and I guess I’m trying to work out (as much as anyone can really) how common issues with soldered RAM are.
What’s you current laptop, how long did you keep and have you upgraded ram on it? From past experiences for me, I’ve upgraded laptops to 16gb but never more than that. So if the laptop comes with 16gb of ram to begin with, I am fine with it.
I would buy the one that suits you best.
There are many components that can potentially fail in a computer, and RAM is just one of them. Plus, you still have a warranty.
If a RAM module is defective, it should show signs early, I believe. Also, I can’t remember the last time I had issues with RAM.
Thanks, yes I think this is what’s been holding me back from the envy 16 - although it might be better under the hood I know I’d prefer ‘driving’ the envy 17. I did read that RAM failure is rare and I’d go for a 3 year care package regardless of which laptop I buy, I’m just concerned if anything happens once that’s expired but I guess I won’t be too upset if I can get it at a much cheaper price than the envy 16.
As a secondary machine just for browsing or spreadsheets and text documents, I wouldn’t mind soldered RAM, even if it’s only 16GB (or on ultra cheap <$300 laptops even 8GB).
If you expect to use the laptop as your main computer for many years, then no, soldered RAM is not a good idea (unless it has at least 32GB).
I wouldn’t worry about not being able to fix it, because RAM rarely goes bad. I’d worry about needing more RAM in the future and not being able to add more.Depends on the amount soldered, speed and what the laptop is for.
8 soldered + empty slot? No.
16GB? Probably.
32GB? Definitely.
Its been 25 years since i bought my first laptop and i never changed any memory in any of them…