Comeback of laptops with 4 GB RAM: Acer hints at drastic cost-cutting measures

The Apple MacBook Neo competes with mid-range laptops with Windows – Apple uses a smartphone processor and only 8 GB of RAM, but offers a high-quality aluminum chassis, a 500 nits bright display and a large multi-touch trackpad, which is rarely found in this price range.

While some laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X are already available at a similar price to the MacBook Neo, the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon C will enable even more affordable laptops, which will be offered at prices starting at around $300. It is still unclear how much performance buyers will get for this price, as Qualcomm has not published any details about the chip's specifications or even benchmarks for the launch. There is probably no way around a plastic chassis and modest display for a $300 laptop.

However, the memory configuration could also evoke memories of netbooks. The data sheet for the Acer Aspire Go 15, the first laptop with Snapdragon C, states that the laptop comes with "up to" 8 GB of RAM and an "up to" 512 GB SSD. According to Microsoft, Windows 11 also runs on laptops with only 4 GB RAM and a 64 GB SSD. With 8 GB of laptop RAM already costing around $120 due to the DRAM crisis, it is not difficult to understand why $300 laptops could save money in this area in particular. The DRAM crisis could make cheap laptops far less attractive over the next few years.