A RAMageddon guide to back-to-school laptop shopping

Computer Prices Soar, But Affordable Options Remain for Students

The ongoing RAM and storage crunch has led to a significant increase in computer prices, making it challenging for students to find affordable laptops. Despite this, there are still many great options available, including the MacBook Neo, which is an easy recommendation for students. This laptop offers impressive performance for its price, making it perfect for middle school and high school students. It features a solid mechanical trackpad, good speakers, and a screen, but has some limitations, including 8GB of RAM, slow storage, and no keyboard backlighting.

For college students, the MacBook Air is still the best laptop option, despite its higher price point. It offers a much more powerful processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of much faster storage, making it a worthwhile investment for those who plan to use their laptop for the long term. Other options include the Asus Zenbook A14, which is a Windows laptop with a superlight design, long battery life, and a nice OLED display. For those on a tighter budget, the Acer Aspire 14 AI and HP OmniBook 3 16 are also worth considering, offering great processors and plenty of ports at an affordable price.

In addition to these options, refurbished laptops can also be a great way to save money. Lenovo ThinkPads, for example, are known for their durability and are often sold refurbished at a lower price. Finally, Chromebooks are still a great option for basic tasks, such as web browsing and homework, and the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is a mainstay of The Verge's laptop recommendations.