Hi

1. Budget : 2.5k preferably (but could max to 2.7k)
2. Usage : Online learning, ms office, social media, youtube, watching videos, non-gaming
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : 8GB RAM and upgradeable RAM.

I am looking for one without soldered RAM but I understand that for this price range, such notebooks are using soldered RAM, unless I buy much older generations of CPU, right?

I was aiming for Ryzen 5 5500U and eyeing LENOVO IDEAPAD 5 82LM006RMJ which uses a soldered RAM of 8GB but I am disappointed that it doesn't have an extra RAM slot for upgrade? So the max possible is 8GB only?

I also noticed that ZM Fong has removed this model from his recommended list.

Are there any notebooks that could meet my requirements?

This post has been edited by toffy: Aug 6 2021, 10:20 PM

Thanks for your advice, ZM Fong

For Thinkpad E Series, the cheapest I could see and also matches your list would be 20T8CTO1WW.
What's the max RAM I could upgrade for this model? 16GB? Does that mean 8GB onboard plus 8GB SODIMM?

Is it true that budget laptops at this price range have limited RAM upgrade capability?

Thanks for the informational reply, ZM Fong. I really appreciate it.

Questions:
1) I read that my initial choice, the out-of-stock IP5 model, does not have a slot for RAM upgrade. Any reason for that? Does that mean I am stuck with the onboard/soldered RAM size?

2) Since more and more laptops are having soldered RAM, is this the direction going forward for premium or mid-range laptops also? Or do we need to pay a premium price, say RM5k or more, to get machines that use non-soldered RAM?

3) How do I check the max allowable RAM for soldered RAM laptops like this such cases?

Sure, no problem. Will do.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any available, unless you visit physical shops, which is rather inconvenient right now. The sellers on the usual ecommerce platforms post them for display but actually no stock for now.

2. To be honest, the soldered option is not a big issue but I read that if the RAM is faulty, I will have to change the whole motherboard. For non-soldered option, I just need to change the RAM module (assuming it is a faulty RAM). That's why I am trying to avoid this. Too bad I couldn't avoid it now since the price range for my current options come with soldered option only.

3. If I am getting a gaming or higher end laptop, I would prefer to have 32Gb RAM. So if the laptop comes with soldered 8GB RAM, then the max I could get is 24GB RAM. That's one concern.
You mentioned 16GB as the max here but you mentioned max 24GB for the Thinkpad E Series. So should i assume Thinkpad E Series is an exception, which allows me 24GB in total?

This post has been edited by toffy: Aug 7 2021, 09:32 PM