5/23/2026 at 5:00:53 PM
Okay, the article I read on HN yesterday about the ram shortage crippling inexpensive devices feels relevant here. As far as I can tell, the article treats the low memory capacity as a foolish business decision rather than perhaps a required economic decision.Like, I didn't see a single mention of why they chose 8GB while recommending 16GB. It's like a straw man argument: why not at least explore possible causes?
by whiterook6
5/23/2026 at 5:47:33 PM
Does it matter? Is 8GB enough for marketing AI acceleration on a professional laptop? If not, then the reasons don't make a difference if it can't achieve the marketed use.My take-home message is Microsoft's hypocrisy, like "When Microsoft unveiled the Copilot+ PC standard, they drew a hard line in the sand when they said that 16GB of RAM is the absolute minimum requirement to earn the Copilot+ PC badge." but "now that Surface Laptop 13 for business is about to get an 8GB RAM variant and it’s still marketed as a Copilot+ PC, it just goes to prove that Microsoft isn’t consistent with RAM recommendations".
Plus, "It is shamefully hypocritical to mock Apple for shipping an 8GB laptop, only to turn around and announce an 8GB Surface Laptop for $1,299.99, which is, hilariously, more than double the price of the $599 MacBook Neo."
FWIW, the author says "It’s not the first time Microsoft has experimented with crippling low RAM" and believes it's "a return to the standard business playbook Microsoft used with the Surface Laptop 5 and 6", so not necessarily tied specifically to the RAM shortage.
by eesmith