# How to buy a laptop when everything’s expensive

An episode of [The Vergecast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/430333725), 27 Aug 2026, 31 min.

Audio: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP1281442363.mp3

If, after months of increasingly dire RAMageddon warnings, you just now find yourself in the market for a new laptop... we're here to help. In the latest installment of our "RAMageddon Survival Guide," laptop reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto joins David Imel to offer his recommendations. Further reading: • Apple announces September iPhone launch event • Xbox announces disc-to-digital feature that digitizes your physical games • Xbox’s limited-edition green Series X is already sold out • Panic is passing Playdate tariff refunds on to customers • A RAMageddon guide to back-to-school laptop shopping • An okay laptop with 16GB of RAM is better than a nice laptop with 8GB, and this $520 HP OmniBook proves it • This is my new favorite laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon the price already went up by $800 Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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