Soldered RAM is a dealbreaker for video editing laptops.

Yes. Soldered RAM absolutely limits how long a laptop stays usable for video editing or heavy multitasking. You are locked into whatever you bought on day one—no upgrading later when software demands more.

Video editing is RAM-hungry and getting hungrier. A 16GB machine might feel fine today, but in three years, 32GB could be the bare minimum for 4K timelines or After Effects. Multitasking between Premiere, After Effects, and a browser chews through RAM fast. Soldered RAM means you can’t react—you have to buy a whole new laptop.

Apple Silicon laptops are the main exception because their unified memory is fast and efficient. Even then, buying the minimum RAM is a mistake. If you get a MacBook Pro with 16GB soldered, you will feel the squeeze sooner than you think. The only safe soldered choice is maxing out RAM at purchase, but that’s expensive and still doesn’t allow future upgrades.

For a Windows machine, avoid soldered RAM entirely unless you plan to replace