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The Death of the Cheap Laptop Is Coming

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philb2

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https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/...7880&user_id=c383821527c441214d07ce6e4a6ba12a

For PC components and laptops, the price changes are already here. For phones and other smart devices, the increases are almost certainly coming.

Last fall, the price of desktop RAM, the memory inside home PCs, began to skyrocket, and though the rate of increase has slowed, we’re still seeing prices that are 300% higher than they were last summer. Similarly, prices for solid-state drives have risen sharply since December 2025, in some cases doubling or more.
 
Even cheap miniPCs (IIRC n150 w/24GB + 512GB SSD for ~$125 shipped, some with dual 2.5GBe) are dead
 
I'm hoping to get a good deal on a newer laptop this Black Friday, and I hope prices will have somewhat normalised before then.
 
I'm starting to feel that this is my last PC and laptop I'm going to own for at least half a decade or more. I won't subscribe, I won't rent, I won't pay outrageous prices. So, I'm done for 2026 and it looks like 2027 may be done, too.

Decent home lab (really, really need more RAM and storage, but DAMN....). Decent PC. Decent laptops. Good enough.

Time to go spend more time outside, I guess...
 
Ur_Mom said:
I'm starting to feel that this is my last PC and laptop I'm going to own for at least half a decade or more. I won't subscribe, I won't rent, I won't pay outrageous prices. So, I'm done for 2026 and it looks like 2027 may be done, too.

Decent home lab (really, really need more RAM and storage, but DAMN....). Decent PC. Decent laptops. Good enough.

Time to go spend more time outside, I guess...
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Depends on budget and wants/needs. I have seen a couple of reviews of the new Snapdragon X2 Asus Zenbooks, and based on a comparison between this year's and last year's A14, the new one seems like it'll be pretty nice outside of gaming. It's even got 24GB instead of 16GB for only $150 more than last year's model (as of yesterday.)
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Even cheap miniPCs (IIRC n150 w/24GB + 512GB SSD for ~$125 shipped, some with dual 2.5GBe) are dead
Click to expand...

yeah.. this right here is insane...
I previously had 3 Intel NUC's .. but have recently got rid of them over the recent years...
Fast forward to now... and I was having a slight itch in getting a small "lab" set back up..
Was going to grab a couple of mini PC's with 16-32gb of ram.. but with the current component pricing... debated..back & forth.... refrained as it feels like more than a slap in the face.... even for some Chinese made, cheap mini PC's... ugh
The itch is not that strong... it barely itches.. NO way lol
 
Randall Stephens said:
I mean, the raspberry pi price hike was a real WTF moment.
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Raspberry Pi's were stupidly over priced and now they're beyond that. There are plenty of better mini PC's for $300 instead of a RPI 5 16GB. Same goes for laptops as nobody can expect good sales when products of priced out of peoples reach. This is where I expect China to come in, if USA doesn't ban their laptops too.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Time to go spend more time outside, I guess...
Click to expand...
Whoah - take it easy! No need to do anything drastic!

I'm lucky to have gotten upgrades done before the SHTF. Got a top gaming system, a couple down 1 tier, parts for a couple other perfectly capable systems, a spare set of DDR5, a great laptop and a great backup.

I got stung a bit in January when I rebuilt my NAS and bought some ECC DDR4, but even since then the price for those sticks more than doubled.

Should be set to ride it out until the bubble pops.
 
This is really unfortunate for most people. You shouldn't be forced to use a bogged-down PC because OpenAI or Google needs more RAM for a data center.

I won't rehash past arguments in full, but it does feel like the MacBook Neo is an unintentionally well-timed product: Apple's first cheap laptop, and one that will be relatively resistant to price hikes.
 
Delicieuxz said:
I'm hoping to get a good deal on a newer laptop this Black Friday, and I hope prices will have somewhat normalised before then.
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Not likely happening. If there's a cheap laptop out there, buy now.
 
Aurelius said:
This is really unfortunate for most people. You shouldn't be forced to use a bogged-down PC because OpenAI or Google needs more RAM for a data center.
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and GPUs, and CPUs, and storage, and electricity, and real estate and freshwater. And we thought the crypto craze was bad.

Aurelius said:
I won't rehash past arguments in full, but it does feel like the MacBook Neo is an unintentionally well-timed product: Apple's first cheap laptop, and one that will be relatively resistant to price hikes.
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Not even close to the same market segment. A cut down cheaper macbook is no alternative to the stuff creators, enthusiasts and gamers buy.
 
DukenukemX said:
Raspberry Pi's were stupidly over priced and now they're beyond that. There are plenty of better mini PC's for $300 instead of a RPI 5 16GB. Same goes for laptops as nobody can expect good sales when products of priced out of peoples reach. This is where I expect China to come in, if USA doesn't ban their laptops too.
Click to expand...
IF you could get the Pi's directly, they were still decently priced... But those disappeared fast to the scalpers, the new pricing is... Crazy to say the least.
 
M76 said:
and GPUs, and CPUs, and storage, and electricity, and real estate and freshwater. And we thought the crypto craze was bad.


Not even close to the same market segment. A cut down cheaper macbook is no alternative to the stuff creators, enthusiasts and gamers buy.
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It will be when they can't afford anyting else and have to use cloud compute for their projects.
 
Cheap computers aren't going anywhere, you just won't have a super computer at home anymore. Developers will once again have to learn how to write a web browser that works in 1MB of system memory.

RIP.
 
Aurelius said:
This is really unfortunate for most people. You shouldn't be forced to use a bogged-down PC because OpenAI or Google needs more RAM for a data center.
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Similar argument of the past with people wanting to create made up currency with computing power, although that shortage was largely due to scalping
 
sfsuphysics said:
Similar argument of the past with people wanting to create made up currency with computing power, although that shortage was largely due to scalping
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Crypto also only hit GPUs, and even then, entry-level/basic 1080p gaming GPUs weren't affected that much.

The AI datacenter build out shenanigans are hitting RAM, SSDs, CPUs, GPUs, hell, even flash drives and HDDs.

I am preparing to not buy new computer hardware until 2029 or 2030. I really hesitated to drop $2,000 on a 5090 FE, but now I am glad I did as this will be a great GPU for years and years to come. I will not spend $3,000 or more on an RTX 6090. My wife and I can fly to Europe or Asia for that kind of money!
 
M76 said:
Not even close to the same market segment. A cut down cheaper macbook is no alternative to the stuff creators, enthusiasts and gamers buy.
Click to expand...
The piece is about the "death of the cheap laptop," and points out how prices for laptops have been climbing across the board. It even centers on how the best values in tech are the ones most likely to be affected.

You'll certainly feel a lot of pain if you're trying to buy a gaming desktop or premium laptop, but the differences will be more noticeable for budget laptop buyers precisely because they're more sensitive to price fluctuations. Someone who can afford to buy a gaming PC already has the luxury of significant discretionary income, so a few hundred dollars extra might be doable. It's another matter when you're just scraping by, and even a $100 price increase means the difference between buying new and searching Facebook Marketplace.
 
24GB-1TB macbook M5 pro are the same price the 24gb - 1tb macbook M4 pro were at launch back then (same for the 48gb/4tb model), premium laptop for that crowd is not necessarily were the pain point will be as ram/hdd were not a large part of the bom price and will not be now either.

Will see as fume of old stock goes if the prediction will be true, the article start with looking at DIU pricing vastly affected by spot price, the impact on the Lenovo-Apple-Dell-Hp price is a different world.
 
Aurelius said:
The piece is about the "death of the cheap laptop," and points out how prices for laptops have been climbing across the board. It even centers on how the best values in tech are the ones most likely to be affected.
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The Neo is only cheap compared to other Macbooks, but it's not a cheap laptop. There are dozens of 30-40% cheaper options which is a LOT if you are price sensitive.
Aurelius said:
Someone who can afford to buy a gaming PC already has the luxury of significant discretionary income
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Someone who could afford a gaming pc 6 months ago might not be able to today.
 
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M76 said:
The Neo is only cheap compared to other Macbooks, but it's not a cheap laptop. There are dozens of 30-40% cheaper options which is a LOT if you are price sensitive.
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It's still in the cheap segment, but I'll agree that you can go lower if price is paramount and you insist on a new system. (Side note: it's surprising how some vendors make it difficult to go below $600 outside of sales.)

Keep in mind that I'm discussing price sensitivity for whole categories, not just absolute cost. You might have more than $400 to spend on a laptop, but that doesn't mean that you'll be happy if the $600 machine you were eying suddenly costs $700. And this is where Apple might inadvertently win as the savings gap narrows.

I look at the Dell 15 Laptop, for instance... yes, you can get it for $330, but it's not going to be nearly as enticing if it costs $430 (about 30% more). Especially not if you're a student who can buy a Neo for $499.
 
The cheap laptop segment is going no where, it'll just be have a delayed progression in performance per dollar until the AI bubble pops.
 
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