Even Microsoft couldn’t make Windows 11 run well on 8GB of RAM

Last year Microsoft Surface Laptop 13 inch It quickly became one of my favorite thin-and-light Windows laptops. At $900, it was easy to recommend to anyone who wanted a MacBook Air — such is the build quality and battery life on Windows — that I even convinced my sister to buy one on sale.

But that was last year. This year, thanks to RAMageddon, the same laptop costs $950, and now that price gives you half the RAM — just 8GB. It’s the same great machine on the outside, but it’s not the same laptop on the inside.

It’s been a long time since we’ve tested a Windows laptop with so little RAM. We’ve been saying for years that 8GB isn’t enough. But this is Microsoft’s laptop, and Windows 11 is Microsoft’s operating system. Maybe it will be good enough.

All the good things I wrote about last year’s devices still hold true: the keyboard is nice and tactile, the trackpad is great (surpassed only by one that lets you click from corner to corner), the webcam is sharp and clear, and the battery goes on and on—easily lasting 10 hours. The processor, an octa-core Snapdragon X Plus, is almost identical to the one found in the Surface Laptop I checked last year. In fact, it has Slightly faster boost speed. On last year’s Surface Laptop, it performed solidly and could even handle light photo editing in Lightroom Classic. But last year’s model had 16GB of RAM. It turns out that this makes a big difference.

Although the 8GB Surface was usually adequate for basic web browsing or video streaming, I sometimes pushed it too far in everyday use. I was on a Microsoft Teams call (using the app, not the browser) when the host broadcast a short video, causing my entire laptop to hang for several seconds. At the time, I had about 10 Chrome tabs open on two desktops, along with Slack and Signal — a not-so-obscene level of multitasking. We didn’t even have our own webcams.

My Surface Laptop would hang for a few seconds like this several times a day, even when I thought I wasn’t pressing it too hard. I experienced these temporary freezes while working on some Google Docs – and Teams calls wouldn’t play or stream anything in the background. This is only done twice a day on average, but that’s still quite a lot.

Keeping the Performance tab open in Task Manager showed that I was always using about 6.7GB of the 7.6GB of available memory. After a fresh reboot with minimal startup applications running, Windows was using 4.2GB of RAM. This is the minimum Microsoft requires Windows 11 to run onlywhich highlights how little space is allocated for the 8GB of RAM. My usage was limited to about six Chrome tabs, closing Signal, and refraining from using any virtual desktops, which kept memory usage at around 5.5GB.

Is all this practical for light loads? Yes. Do I want to live my life with extreme caution about how many apps I run and how many tabs I leave open on a new $950 laptop? Absolutely not. If it chokes on day one, how usable will it be in five years?

The same concerns can be said about the MacBook Neo, which also only has 8GB of RAM. But macOS is a little better with RAM, and more importantly, in my testing, the Neo can handle more multitasking. The Neo won’t have the shelf life of a MacBook Air, but it also costs $250 less than a Surface Laptop (even after Apple Recent price increase).

Microsoft has claimed Its focus this year is on improving Windows 11 performance And make it more reliable, especially for low-cost devices, to compete with the Neo. But if we’re really going back to 8GB as a starting point for Windows laptops, there’s a lot of work to do. It is of course ironic that Microsoft needs to address this issue when it is one of them The main culprits Subordinate Constant RAM crunch. Microsoft probably doesn’t care that its flagship Surface line will suffer because of its obsession with AI, but it still can’t see that.

We haven’t reviewed a Windows laptop with only 8GB of RAM More than three years. Unfortunately, the Surface Laptop won’t be the last. The recent Computex exhibition also brought announcements of upcoming laptops with 8GB of memory Dale, Acerand Asus. With a lack of RAM It will likely last for yearswe will see more and more 8GB offerings so that manufacturers still have something to offer “entry-level”.

But if Microsoft can’t make a Windows laptop that runs well on 8GB of RAM, what hope do OEMs have? 8GB won’t be enough for a Windows laptop in 2026. Barring Microsoft actually de-inflating Windows 11 enough to accommodate lower-spec PCs, your best bet is to spend a little more and get something with 16GB of RAM — like the same Surface Laptop for $1,150, which is something Another manufacturer that is still seeing some decent salesor look at renewal and Open box models From reliable sources. Or just opt ​​out and get a MacBook Neo.

Prices could still rise. Today’s $950 Surface 8GB Laptop could be next year’s $1,050 Surface 8GB Laptop, or the next year’s $1,200 Surface Laptop.

This is our new computing normal. The 13-inch Surface Laptop initially offered a respectable trade-off for a fair discount — “a little less for a little less,” as I put it at the time. Now the new base model offers less for more. RAMageddon changed the deal. Maybe it will get worse.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto/The Verge