Laptop prices keep climbing due to RAM crunch — and students will feel it

Students hunting for an affordable laptop ahead of the new school year are walking into a tough market. The ongoing shortage of RAM and storage has pushed prices out of whack: some machines cost a little more than they used to, while others have become dramatically pricier. And there's no relief in sight — prices are expected to keep climbing well into next year, since all memory that will be manufactured through 2027 has already been allocated to buyers.

Still, good options exist. A solid laptop can be had for around $700, and a tolerable one for under $500. But the advice from those who test machines for a living is to avoid the cheapest possible pick, especially for a college student. Spending a bit more, for example on a MacBook Air, buys better build quality and enough performance headroom to last through four years of school and well beyond. Many staff members at the publication are still using MacBook Air models from 2020 with the M1 chip, which says a lot about their longevity.

The key rule: steer clear of anything that feels slow or janky on day one. It will only get worse from there. Even the more modest new or refurbished options in a curated list should easily hold up for several years. If your school or program recommends specific laptops or minimum specs, then the choice is simpler — just follow those guidelines. In any case, it's better to invest a little more now than to replace a sluggish machine mid-semester, especially given how much further prices are expected to rise.