Of the 38 laptops released in 2025 and 2026 that we track, 27 have memory you can never upgrade. That is 71%. The RAM is soldered to the board or built into the processor package, so the amount you buy on day one is the amount you keep until the laptop dies.
The split is sharper than the headline. Among those 38, 13 are gaming laptops with a discrete GPU, and 10 of them still use SO-DIMM slots. The other 25 are thin-and-light, business and Chromebook models, and only one of them lets you add RAM: the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16AKP10.
Storage has held up better. 28 of the 36 recent models with a known storage layout still take a standard M.2 SSD, so a bigger drive remains a 10-minute job on most of them.
If you are still deciding what to buy, this fits inside our laptop buying guide 2026. If you already own the machine, how to tell whether your laptop's RAM and storage can be upgraded walks through checking it yourself.
Which 2025 and 2026 laptops have soldered RAM
These are the recent models in our database where memory cannot be changed after purchase.
| Laptop | Memory |
|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Air 13-inch and 15-inch (M4) | On package |
| Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch (M5, M5 Pro, M5 Max) | On package |
| ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) GZ302EA | Soldered |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) GA403WW | Soldered |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) GU606AX | Soldered |
| ASUS Zenbook A14 UX3407RA | Soldered |
| ASUS Zenbook Duo (2025) UX8406CA | Soldered |
| Dell 14 Plus DB14250 | Soldered |
| Dell XPS 14 DA14260 | Soldered |
| HP OmniBook 5 14 (Snapdragon X Plus) | Soldered |
| HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14 | Soldered |
| Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 Gen 10 | Soldered |
| Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable | Soldered |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition | Soldered |
| LG Gram Pro 16 and Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (2025) | Soldered |
| Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch and 15-inch for Business | Soldered |
| Razer Blade 16 (2025) | Soldered |
| Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 15 and Galaxy Book5 Pro 16 | Soldered |
Three of these are gaming machines: the Zephyrus G14, the Zephyrus G16 and the Razer Blade 16. All three ship with a discrete GPU and still lock the memory, which is the trade they make to stay thin.
Which 2025 and 2026 laptops have upgradeable RAM
| Laptop | Memory slots | Max RAM stated by maker |
|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro V 14 AI ANV14-62 | 2 SO-DIMM | 32GB |
| Acer Nitro V 15 ANV15-52 | 2 SO-DIMM | 32GB |
| Alienware 16 Aurora | 2 SO-DIMM | Not stated |
| ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 G835LX | 2 SO-DIMM | 128GB |
| ASUS TUF Gaming A16 (2025) FA608 | 2 SO-DIMM | 64GB |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16AKP10 | 2 SO-DIMM | 32GB |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10 15AHP10 | 2 SO-DIMM | 64GB |
| Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 | 2 SO-DIMM | 64GB |
| MSI Katana 15 HX B14WGK | 2 SO-DIMM | 96GB |
| MSI Titan 18 HX AI | 2 SO-DIMM | Not stated |
The pattern is plain. If you want a 2025 or 2026 laptop you can add memory to later, you are almost always buying a gaming laptop.
Is soldered RAM getting more common
Across all 172 laptops in our database with a known memory layout, 70 have upgradeable RAM (41%). By release year:
| Release year | Laptops | RAM upgradeable |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 to 2021 | 50 | 40% |
| 2022 to 2023 | 28 | 64% |
| 2024 | 56 | 38% |
| 2025 to 2026 | 38 | 29% |
Our catalog is not a random sample of every laptop sold, so read the year-by-year line as direction rather than market share. The gaming split is the stronger finding: 39 of 51 laptops with a discrete GPU have upgradeable RAM (76%), against 31 of 121 without one (26%).
Two brands in our data have no upgradeable models at all: Apple (20 of 20 soldered or on package) and Samsung (5 of 5).
Why laptop makers solder RAM
Three reasons come up again and again.
Thinner boards. A SO-DIMM slot adds height and board area. Soldered LPDDR5X chips sit flat next to the processor.
Faster, lower power memory. LPDDR5X runs at speeds SO-DIMM DDR5 cannot match in a laptop, and it draws less power at idle. Intel Lunar Lake and Apple M-series chips put the memory on the processor package itself.
Cost and fewer configurations. One soldered layout per model is cheaper to build and test than a slot that has to work with any module a buyer installs.
There is an exception worth watching. LPCAMM2 is a replaceable module built for LPDDR5X, so it keeps the speed and power benefits without locking the buyer in. Lenovo uses it in the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7, and modules are sold on their own, such as the Crucial 32GB LPDDR5X-8533 LPCAMM2. It is still rare.
What to do if you are buying now
Buy the RAM you will need in four years. On a soldered laptop there is no second chance. 16GB is the floor for Windows in 2026, and 32GB is the safer choice if you keep laptops for a long time. Our guide to how much RAM a laptop actually needs works through the sizes by workload.
Check the exact model, not the series. The same series can ship with soldered and slotted memory in different years. Look up the model code on our laptop upgrade checker before you buy, and see which laptops still let you add RAM and storage for the wider picture.
If the slots are there, the kit is cheap. A machine with two SO-DIMM slots can be bought at 16GB and taken to 32GB or 64GB later for a fraction of the maker's upgrade price. Common fits are the Kingston FURY Impact 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-5600 and the G.Skill Ripjaws 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-5200 for recent machines, or the Crucial 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3200 for anything on DDR4. Check your laptop's maximum and generation first, they are not interchangeable.
Storage is usually fine. Most recent laptops still take a standard M.2 2280 or 2230 SSD, so you can start with a smaller drive and upgrade later.
How we collected this data
Consumercarts tracks laptop specifications from manufacturer spec sheets, service manuals and parts lists, including Lenovo PSREF, Dell and HP service documentation, and Apple tech specs. For each laptop we record the memory form factor (soldered, on package, SO-DIMM, LPCAMM2 or a mix), the number of slots, the maximum RAM the maker states, and the storage layout. This snapshot covers 172 laptops with a known memory layout as of 8 October 2026. You can browse every model on our laptop comparison page.
The data in this article may be reused with credit and a link to Consumercarts.
Related reading: Best Laptops for Game Development, which uses the same soldered-memory data to build five buying tiers against Epic's published Unreal spec.
Per-game buying guides, each tiered against the publisher's own published requirements: Counter-Strike 2, Rust, Helldivers 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds.