NotebookCHECK - Notebook Forum

What all those Windows OEMs are ignoring is the fact that, even when soldered, their laptops are still as pricey as ever, and at one point, you are better off going full Apple instead, because at least there, if something fails, there are less hoops to jump through to get a replacement.

I think it's ok when we buy slim device. It's just impossible to put DDR4 slots. But when we buy gaming machine its just bad that there is soldered 8 GB or even worse 4 GB and one DDR4 slot.

Then when we know that it's all for space-saving .... we see empty slot for SATA drive... then I just go furious mode. For sure a laptop like that is removed from my list of laptops I could recommend or buy.

M.2 drives are cool, and it's super great that in most laptops we can change it. The same for WI-FI/BT.

I think that the RAM slots/form is just ... bad for laptops. I think if it had different form it should be for sure also used in slim devices.

I will never buy a laptop with soldered Ram,Wifi adapter or storage and won't suggest to friends and family members.

And i don't mind if it's little 0.2mm thick...

There are plenty of thin laptops with replaceable components. I'm sure it helps, and it might be impossible to get them super crazy thin, but I suspect most people would prefer, as @Joshua said, an extra quarter-mm thickness in exchange for upgradeability. Sure, there are some that want ultimate thinness and low-weight, but I find it hard to believe there's enough to justify the amount of laptops out there with this issue, as I suspect companies would make more money selling upgradeable laptops to those that want it than extremely thin-and-light ones to people that value that over all else. So I'm forced to believe that it is all about money, meaning they want you to have to pay for the upgrades when you buy the laptop, at a ridiculous up-charge, and they want you to have to replace it sooner (planned obsolescence). Of course, the first reason doesn't explain why so many laptops are limited to just 8 or 16GB RAM, but I'm convinced there's also a fair amount of ignorance and stupidity involved in these decisions.

As with @Joshua, I would never, ever buy a laptop where the storage can't be replaced/upgraded. RAM and Wi-Fi are less of an issue to me, so long as they come with a reasonable (in both quantity/version and upgrade cost) amount, but even so, all else being equal, I'll always go with a laptop that I can upgrade these parts, especially RAM, over one that I can't, even if it does mean a little extra girth and weight, which frankly could just be used for more battery, so even better.

removing ram upgradability is like when smartphones companies started to remove 3.5mm headphones jacks without any reason
they were saying removing them to make space for bigger battery, better speakers, better sound quality
however these things haven't improved since they removed 3.5mm

same thing with laptops
there are plenty of cheap and normal size option (15+ , normal thickness ) without the ability to upgrade the ram
the size and thickness is not excuse to remove ram upgradability
there are still small and thin option that still have 2 so-dimm slots of ram like HP 435

Speaking of phones, and this is where I thought you were going, the move away from removable batteries was done largely in order to make phones thinner, and secondarily to make them more water-resistant. Yet the majority of phones today are similar in thickness to phones years ago that had removable batteries, and many still are really no more water resistant than they were then. Meanwhile, battery life has only gotten marginally better with a few exceptions, and while my phone does pretty well, I still miss being able to swap out the battery and be back to 100% in a couple minutes.

There is going to be a e-waste credit system like carbon credit really soon. All this e-waste from non-upgradeable and difficult to repair electronics really is destroying the planet. China has in recent years stopped accepting e-waste and many recycling companies are scrambling to find alternatives.

I have multiple GPUs with cracked BGA solder contacts that I can't be bothered to fix. It pains me that I'll have to throw them out and they'll end up in some poor folk's village, forever polluting their lives.

I just thought of something else with this: when going through reviews comparing different notebooks, it would be incredibly helpful if the RAM situation was clearly stated in a standardized place, ideally at the top in the specs for the reviewed computer (e.g. "Memory: 16384 MB, dual-channel, 32768 MB max, soldered" or "Memory: 8192 MB, single-channel, 24576 MB max, soldered + unsoldered"). And a list/spreadsheet of computers and what components are upgradeable and what the max RAM is, or adding that as a search filter, would be especially great, allowing users to just eliminate any that don't meet their needs quickly, without having to dig through a bunch of reviews. Not to mention it would help discourage the companies from doing this, as doing so would mean their computers would simply be ignored by people.

As for what else would be nice to be able to upgrade or swap it out, there are a few things I think would be interesting, though obviously they would add to the cost and complexity. A swappable keyboard would be nice, as would a port module that could be swapped out to provide different combinations of ports (more USB-A or USB-C, HDMI/ethernet/etc or not), allowing the user to choose what they want and change it later, e.g. getting 2 USB-A and only one USB-C but later switching to 1 and 2. Even a replaceable webcam module to upgrade it with a newer, better one after a couple years. And of course external batteries. That's a feature I sorely miss from my old Dell laptop, where I could just have a spare battery or two and swap out as needed. Of course, that wouldn't fit in to the modern desire for ultimate thinness, and it would be trickier to do with a convertible, but it was nice. I always thought with laptops and phones where you could swap the battery they should have a small internal one to allow for swapping without powering down.

We can always dream about the fully upgradable compact laptop it won't change things... The smart approach is not to avoid non upgradable laptops because then you might be left with simply worse ones. The smart approach is to choose a laptop that you won't need to upgrade, even if this means buying into the expensive tier where the OEM makes more profit. Personally I exclude any laptop that has not (or cannot be upgraded to) at least 16GB RAM. As for storage it has to have at least 512 in total and preferably more, but I am ok with a laptop that has 256 + microsd card, even if I prefer those that have either replacable SSD or a second slot. I have both the lightest 13.3in and lightest 15.6in laptops in the world (respectively 787gr and 999gr), they both have 16GB of soldered RAM. The 13.3in has a replacable 256 sata ssd + microsd (I put another 256) and the 15.6 has 512 NVME soldered plus another NVME slot (I put 1TB). They have both full USB A, full service USB C and full HDMI. They were purchased at $1000 each in 2017 and 2019 and are worth it IMO.  For me they are future proof enough (both i7, 7th and 8th gen) while having mostly soldered-on components. The problem is that people don't want to spend $1000 in a laptop, buy a cheap one with 8GB a RAM and then complain it's not upgradable....

Laptops can be made easier to upgrade and easier to repair than they are.  It just takes willingness from the OEMs followed by some relatively minor design tradeoffs.  Companies don't do it because they don't believe repairability and upgradeability drives purchase decisions for a large enough audience, and because it optimizes against their current revenue streams.  I believe there is a meaningful audience between people who value upgradeability, people who care about the environmental impact of their purchase decisions, people who want to save money, and those who just philosophically hate the idea of their devices being locked down.  I also believe it's possible to address these consumers in a way that can make for a successful company.  In fact, I plan to do it!

First of all, it isn't a conspiracy theory. We are getting closer and closer to a point where upgrading PCs make less and less sense. Outside of COVID impact, PC sales have been declining.

Manufacturers need to get people used to soldered components, glued batteries and the like so that you continue to buy hardware. Otherwise 10 years from now their sales would be virtually gone. Cause we are coming close to the limit of dieshrinks, only way forward is if light based computers work out.

Second of all, there is more to the issue of soldered components than simply enthusiasts. I mean what happens to your data on a soldered HD when the motherboard dies? It gets even worse for hospitals and many companies dealing with sensitive data that have policies to destroy the harddrive. So instead of re-purposing or selling it, they would have to trash the entire laptop!

And it also harms the 2nd hand market, as cost of reusing old hardware would go up. If 1 ram chip fails, most people can still sell a computer. If it is soldered and pc is dead, most won't bother to sell it and just junk it. Cost of buying 2nd hand parts will also increase as it requires more work to get components.

Personally, I don't need a swappable gpu or cpu in a laptop. What i'd like to see is more options for laptops. You know, more choices of screens, some choices in keyboard layouts, some choices in types of touchpads. Choices of what ports you'd like to have. That is where I'd like to see more customization.

In a thin and compact laptop, I'm ok with soldered RAM. But a storage should be upgradable since M.2 SSD is so small (compared to 2.5").

Kudos to HP for bring dual slot upgradable ram to the sub 1kg Aero 645 G7

Frankly, I don't really care about upgrading down the road. I rarely upgrade even desktops. Perhaps because I was never strapped for cash and as a result I tend to buy what I want and more than I need (I don't do the "upgrade little by little as you save up"). It lasts me comfortably for years and when the time comes for a replacement, all the major parts need to go. Looking back, I have reused cases, optical drives, sound cards, even power supplies, but motherboards, CPUs and GPUs always go. Of course, it didn't help that I do CPU heavy work and Intel doesn't do backward compatibility. About the only thing where I truly value upgradability and compatibility are testing rigs in our lab. And it doesn't always work out. Look at Threadripper. The new I/O die in 3000 series was a leap forward, but the processors weren't backward compatible. Tough luck. It's hard to decouple CPU from motherboard.

What bothers me is the "lock in." If, say, Dell fails to offer me good price on RAM or SSD, I can take the cheapest option and upgrade it myself using components bought at market prices. And I can "threaten" them with doing just that to push for a better deal. If it's soldered, that option doesn't exist. Look at what Apple or Microsoft are doing. They're just gouging people on RAM and SSDs. They're cheap as chips on the market, but you're screwed if you want one of their machines. It annoys me because I can afford it, I just don't like getting shafted. So, I have to deny myself to avoid supporting such habits. Voting with your wallet is the only thing that counts.

Also, there is the data recovery and management aspect. If there is a problem with a laptop, I can always remove an SSD before giving it to an external technician to protect access to our data. No matter how screwed up the laptop is. I can just pull it out.

I do have an Area 51m. I didn't buy it for modularity. I didn't expect to be able to upgrade the CPU. Nor was I expecting RTX 3000 series GPUs being available for it. I value the powerful components and cooling. I didn't plan on buying it but I was really surprised by the value. For similar money as m17, it offered performance of a different league. Yes, it's big and heavy. But I'm a man, not a tiny lady (no offense). And I remember times when business laptops were not much smaller or lighter (my first business laptop was almost as heavy and I believe it was actually thicker - and I carried it every day). It's a shame they don't have a Precision in this style. The battery life sucks but I bought it as a transportable workstation and the battery is more of a built in UPS. This isn't something I'm going to whip out at an airport (and neither is the m17).

Quote from: kek on October 05, 2020, 19:07:16
What all those Windows OEMs are ignoring is the fact that, even when soldered, their laptops are still as pricey as ever, and at one point, you are better off going full Apple instead, because at least there, if something fails, there are less hoops to jump through to get a replacement.

What hoops are you talking about? I never had to jump through any and I have received service Apple can only dream about. Funny thing is that unofficial Apple re-sellers back in the day before the official re-seller program offered the same level of service. They had to switch to Apple Care instead when they went official. I never had serious issues, but the small niggles I had like a switch developing a rattle (required a new motherboard) or a black pixel were resolved within a couple of days and at my home. It has happened that wrong parts were supplied as the operator misdiagnosed the problem - but two days is still great and I could keep using the laptop; of course, it could be more with a weekend or holidays getting in the way. Complete replacement can be problematic as I tend to have customized systems which they make to order. But then you're probably talking about accidental destruction (like when my colleague wrote off a laptop in a car crash) rather than a warranty repair.

Actually, soldering RAM and SSD can be more expensive. You're saving some money on assembly, connectors don't come free either, but you might not have that high a volume, it becomes more problematic to offer larger number of configurations, the logistics, stockpiling of spare parts. Modules might require assembly, but they offer flexibility. Or you end up with the mess Microsoft has where I have to pay for a more expensive CPU if I want more of ridiculously overpriced RAM.

Just start voting using your wallet.

Personally I started with the Fairphone 3+ and now I'm gonna buy a laptop from Tuxedo or Xmg

Soldered RAMs are OK. There are some technical reasons for that, very likely for BOTH performance and energy efficiency. There is a reason why there are no GPUs with socketed VRAM. Also, just look at what LPDDR4X on Ice Lake, Renoir, and Tiger Lake SoCs can do: crazy memory bandwidth with very low power, both when idling and active.

However, I absolutely disagree with soldered storage. First, they don't need that much bandwidth (the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD can't still outperform a single channel DDR3 1066 MHz). Then they have a limited lifespan. Finally, accidents do happen and if somehow the laptop's motherboard got fried (such as from electric surge, liquid spill, or simply because of a failed firmware/BIOS upgrade), with a soldered storage you're done.

Agreed that CPU upgrade is next to pointless, especially on an Intel system. You're going to spend half as much getting a barely newer and/or faster CPU, which will be the best you can do due to newer ones using a different socket (hence why it makes a bit more sense with AMD), as you would just getting a new mobo/CPU combo which will also get you the newer I/O and features and possibly memory. However, depending on the upgrade, you can reuse drives and sometimes reuse RAM and definitely GPU if you're not a hardcore gamer.

I build my own desktops and probably upgrade every 3-5 years, so I always replace mobo/CPU/RAM, but I often will transfer my GPU, some or most of my storage drives, and my ODD. Even the case and PSU can be reused, though I usually don't because I typically end up giving my old setup to someone, and even desktop cases are unfortunately rarely modular enough to even allow swapping out ports for newer ones, which is another thing that bugs me (I've looked at fairly expensive, high-end cases like Caselabs and Mountain Mods, but wasn't willing to spend that kind of money when they didn't even offer something as basic as a USB 3.0 panel upgrade years after USB 3.0 was out; no wonder Caselabs went out of business).

So yes, having the ability doesn't mean you will use it to the full extent, but it does save quite a bit of money: initial purchase (being able to shop around not only based on price but to be able to get exactly what you want); repairs (being able to replace a CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD/etc that goes bad, vs needing to deal with a warranty repair/replacement of the whole computer or having to buy a whole new computer, not to mention being able to do it myself vs having to have someone else do it, whether on-site or not); and upgrading (as much as I hate my Surface, if I could bump the RAM up to 16GB for $50 that would make it significantly less crappy and help allow me to limp along with it until I find an adequate replacement, and last time I rebuilt my desktop I reused my GPU among other things, but I may very well end up upgrading that and the SSD well before upgrading the CPU/mobo/RAM again).

And MS is far from the only one charging ridiculously excessive amounts to step up RAM or storage amounts. Many/most others do it too, as well as requiring i7 just to get >8GB RAM, so not only do you have to pay twice as much (or more) for that extra 8GB as you would pay for a full 16GB on your own, but you have to pay for the upgrade to the i7 as well. So you end up forking out $200-300 more than you should have to and getting a CPU you don't even want just to have a usable computer, which is why I'm not typing this on an HP right now, since that's the only reason I didn't get a Spectre several months ago.

If a laptop has enough space for a 2.5" slot, it should have battery there instead

"The motherboard chipset, of course, patently limited the upgrade path because it's a foregone conclusion that in a few generations, new CPUs wouldn't support its motherboard chipset or socket"

Read as "one generation" for Intel 😏

Quote from: vertigo on October 06, 2020, 20:22:25
However, depending on the upgrade, you can reuse drives and sometimes reuse RAM and definitely GPU if you're not a hardcore gamer.

You don't have to be a hardcore gamer. I always tended to buy a sort of upper-mid range cards for occasional gaming. But, in a few years, performance can go up significantly, games get more demanding and you might want support for newer APIs. And HDDs are mechanical, they wear. I might have kept it, but I would always buy newer, bigger drives. Granted, in a desktop, HDDs were the one thing that I actually upgraded (well, usually, I just added more). I sort of allowed them to live their own life independent (out of step) of the rest of the computer. Because I could. It wouldn't be that big a deal if I couldn't. I guess partly because swapping drives meant transferring data. As long as there was space, it was easier to keep it. I have never reused RAM. Even if the same technology was still used, it was cheaper and I wanted more (bigger modules). Frankly, quite often, I happened to buy a computer at the wrong time, before a significant change. I needed it so I bought it. Which limited upgrade potential.

Quote from: _MT_ on October 08, 2020, 12:57:43

Quote from: vertigo on October 06, 2020, 20:22:25
However, depending on the upgrade, you can reuse drives and sometimes reuse RAM and definitely GPU if you're not a hardcore gamer.

You don't have to be a hardcore gamer. I always tended to buy a sort of upper-mid range cards for occasional gaming. But, in a few years, performance can go up significantly, games get more demanding and you might want support for newer APIs. And HDDs are mechanical, they wear. I might have kept it, but I would always buy newer, bigger drives. Granted, in a desktop, HDDs were the one thing that I actually upgraded (well, usually, I just added more). I sort of allowed them to live their own life independent (out of step) of the rest of the computer. Because I could. It wouldn't be that big a deal if I couldn't. I guess partly because swapping drives meant transferring data. As long as there was space, it was easier to keep it. I have never reused RAM. Even if the same technology was still used, it was cheaper and I wanted more (bigger modules). Frankly, quite often, I happened to buy a computer at the wrong time, before a significant change. I needed it so I bought it. Which limited upgrade potential.

Yeah, I realize you don't have to be, but if you are, you're replacing the GPU, whereas if you're not, you may or may not. As I said, in my case, I didn't on my last rebuild. I'm still running a 770 and have had no issues on any of the games I've played.

Drives, I do typically replace for larger quantities, but I do that even during the lifespan of a computer, so it both allows me to do it anytime and to not do it during a rebuild if I've replaced them recently. And the old drives then become backups, so two 4TB drives would get replaced by a single 8TB in the computer, but the old ones are then kept as backup. My point is that it's nice to have options, and when those options exists, people can and will replace various things at various times, proof that it's helpful and even necessary to be able to do so, which is why it's a problem that laptops can't.

As for replacing before a significant change, as you know that's always the case just because there's always some significant change around the corner. But I always wait until an upgrade is actually worth it, to get significantly more performance and different features, e.g. new USB gen or, with my last build, M.2 was the big driver for upgrading, since I needed and NVME drive (yes, needed, since Windows apparently doesn't run from RAM but rather from the drive, and when doing stuff that heavily accessed the drive, like RAR unpacking, Windows would temporarily freeze up, which also happens on my Surface). My mistake on my last upgrade was doing it right when RAM prices went through the roof, especially since I was putting 64GB in it. Luckily I found a deal with a good price, which was the absolute only one I saw over the course of around a month plus of looking, including around BF/CM.

The article is worrying about the wrong things. Upgradability has limited returns for a given device. So it's economically best to leave the spec of a device intact. You don't gain much for performance through upgrades especially for laptops, notebooks, tablets. You might gain some capacity when it comes to RAM or storage. But even power users aren't maxing out the capabilities of their devices. They would have you believe that they are, they are not. You can already get a great deal of performance by altering work flows and/or using carefully written software. But if you're unable to do this then get the device that suits you now and stop complaining.

Quote from: doa379 on October 09, 2020, 13:23:10
The article is worrying about the wrong things. Upgradability has limited returns for a given device. So it's economically best to leave the spec of a device intact. You don't gain much for performance through upgrades especially for laptops, notebooks, tablets. You might gain some capacity when it comes to RAM or storage. But even power users aren't maxing out the capabilities of their devices. They would have you believe that they are, they are not. You can already get a great deal of performance by altering work flows and/or using carefully written software. But if you're unable to do this then get the device that suits you now and stop complaining.

My desktop has 64GB of RAM and is consistently using over half, meaning 32GB wouldn't me enough. My laptop has 8GB and my main browser is constantly crashing due to running out of memory, even with a 16GB page file. Which brings me to the point that I'm constantly running out of space on my laptop's 250GB SSD, so having to use such a large page file only makes that worse. Even on my desktop, which has a 1TB SSD and 8TB main storage, I often find myself running low and having to move or delete stuff I'd rather not, and I intend to upgrade both within the next couple years or so. As I mentioned earlier, if I were able to upgrade the RAM and storage in my Surface, it would help significantly. Though it would still need to be replaced for other reasons, including the fact the CPU is often spiked for minutes at a time, bringing everything to slow motion, because it's just not able to keep up anymore, especially with certain websites that are incredibly poorly optimized. If I could upgrade the storage in my phone, I could probably use it a few more years, but instead I've been looking for a replacement for a while just to get one where I won't constantly have low storage issues. So yes, I am maxing out my computers' capabilities, which is why I build my desktops the way I do, why I prefer desktops for the ability to upgrade them, and why the current state of laptops is so problematic.

I'm sorry we can't all be like you and write our own browsers, office software, file managers, etc, to make them run at maximum efficiency, or somehow make poorly made websites magically run better (or just not use them). Some of us have to use the available tools, which are pretty much always never all that well-written. And saying it's economically best to leave a computer's specs is ridiculous; it's common knowledge that an SSD upgrade, followed by a RAM upgrade, are the best ways to cheaply improve a computer's performance and give it new life, allowing for its continued use vs paying several hundred dollars plus for a replacement, and I have done so in the past when able.

Even with CPUs, which generally don't make much sense, there can still be a benefit. Just look at the latest 5000-series Ryzens coming out which use the same socket as the previous 2 (or more?) generations and, if AMD's claims are remotely true, would allow for a very significant boost in CPU and GPU performance just by swapping it out, which could be very enticing for many users I imagine.

As for getting "the device that suits you now," the problem with that is that many devices don't come with adequate RAM and/or storage, and if it's non-upgradeable, then it rules it out, which severely limits options. You may be happy choosing from a small handful of options just because OEMs place arbitrary limits and don't allow upgrades, but many of us are not. And you may be fine just buying whatever garbage the OEMs want to sell you, but we're not. So if you don't like the "complaining," then just keep giving your money to companies that want to rip you off and jumping through hoops to "[alter] work flows and/or [use] carefully written software" just so your under-specced computer will do the job, instead of just getting one that can do what you need without a hassle. The rest of us will continue voicing our opinions and voting with our wallets, which is how you let manufacturers what you really want so you can get a device that fits you, not one that they want to sell you. I'm not sure why you're even on a review site if you can't see the point in that.

Quote from: doa379 on October 09, 2020, 13:23:10
The article is worrying about the wrong things. Upgradability has limited returns for a given device. So it's economically best to leave the spec of a device intact. You don't gain much for performance through upgrades especially for laptops, notebooks, tablets. You might gain some capacity when it comes to RAM or storage. But even power users aren't maxing out the capabilities of their devices. They would have you believe that they are, they are not. You can already get a great deal of performance by altering work flows and/or using carefully written software. But if you're unable to do this then get the device that suits you now and stop complaining.

This is a joke right?

I currently have 14gb of memory and 14gb of swap being used. I can easily benefit from 32gb ram or better yet 64gb ram.

An XPS 15 with 8gb ram costs $1,579. 32gb ram costs 250 and 64gb costs $550.

In comparison I can buy 64gb of ram same clock speed for $250. And 32gb for $130.

I can get similar savings on the hd too. And if I reuse from an old pc, I can even get larger savings.

Here I have a whole new type of story for you NoteBookCheck. Take an LG Gram (say 17Z990  8) and a new one (say 17Z95N) and try to exchange motherboards. I found no info about it being possible or not. Or where to buy an spare new one.
I own a 17Z990 LG Gram and I am very happy with it, but I could use a i7-1165g7 with Intel Iris Xe graphic card. And I could use the new battery also.
I would bet LG Gram 17 has not changed it's internal structure so much in two-three-four generations. It would be a very interesting report you could do, and could work for many other laptops out there.

I have been in the industry for 30+ years. Flexibility is in the industries best interest. Every once in a while a CEO comes along and wonders why they are leaving money on the table and do things like taking the "Apple" approach to hardware (proprietary hardware; closed source approach) or try to cut out the channel by going direct to the end user. It fails miserably and the CEO gets fired and they go back to business as usual. An 1/8th of an inch thickness doesn't change anyone's life.

On another note, trying to find a laptop in Jan of 2021 with more than 16gb of ram is next to impossible right now. The Car dealership model of "impulse buy/discount the floor model" is dead. Basic systems that can be ordered form the factory ala Dell is the future. The sooner they figure this out the better.

This ever growing trend of soldered memory / storage in laptops has been infuriating me! >:( Having such a device would basically force me to buy a new one years earlier than I normally would. Imagine they did something comparable with cars, bikes and such...

So far I have replaced memory and storage in all my family's laptops. In general that has increased each devices' lifetime by at least 4 years.

In the past 20 years we have only bought 8 laptops in total so far (some of them used). Two of them had issues with a memory module at some point, unfortunately. So we simply replaced the defective memory. And one of those laptops is still being used almost every day for hours. We bought it in 2009. :)

Anyways, when buying computers my key requirements in this regard are:
1. Upgradability / Repairability (at least memory and storage)
2. Easy access of swappable components (glued devices are a no-go!! >:( )

That's one of major the reasons I would -never ever- buy an Apple product! ;)

Raspberry Pi will sell you an 8 GB soldered single-board computer for $75. Some laptops and tablets are still packing 4 GB soldered at over $350.

The problem with soldered RAM isn't necessarily the upgradeability. It's that it makes the RAM upsell much worse. Ideally, you would want to buy a device with a minimum of 4 GB or 8 GB and upgrade it to 32 GB or 64 GB yourself. If you could get 16 GB soldered at the right price, you wouldn't care as much. But we are being overcharged for RAM, especially at the lower price points.

Soldered + 1 module could be an acceptable compromise, even if you end up with a mismatched 36 GB or 40 GB configuration.

Been using NotebookCheck for a loooong time but never registered until I've read this post and had to write my opinion, like so many others.
Laptops with soldiered RAM, such as those with starting price 450-500 euro/dollars, are to be considered trash and any such laptop in my mind is prone to faster failure. Look at it for another perspective, not enough QA / QC done on those or serialized and / or pumped up manufacture just so that the companies reach certain shareholder goals.
Have been a power user for 28+yrs and when it comes to new equipment I spend significant time to make sure that "most" of components are good for my use (AMD/INTEL) but RAM and STORAGE upgrades are a must for me. I understand that lot of people want thinner and lighter devices, but coming from the age of "peeking under the hood" or being involved in actual computer builds (read starting to get old or millennial :)) for me soldered components, glued up portions do not make any appeal and I steer away from those as much as possible. I control the flow of upgrades of my electronic devices and I use them in a way that I want until their EOL.
In the end it is a choice just like everyone's else.

Soldered component is probably cheaper than socketed. When components are soldered directly to the motherboard, it's probably easier to make it run fast, since the impedance and everything is much better with a short solder joint compared to long copper traces and sockets that degrade the signals. Components are placed and soldered by automated machines which reduces cost. Reducing sockets would reduce hight inturn allow the laptop to go sleek. When i buy a product I knew the spec i need. Afterall Technology evolves every 2 year's.