On November 25, 2025, Dell's Vice Chairman Jeff Clarke said something most people ignored: "The cost basis is going up across all products." Then he said: "We're working to minimize—but unable to eliminate—customer cost impacts."
Your next laptop is going to cost more and have worse specs. And Dell told investors six weeks before you'll see it in stores.
OEMs don't announce spec cuts in press releases. They don't send emails warning customers that 8GB RAM is becoming the new budget standard. They tell investors in earnings calls—using phrases like "portfolio optimization" and "configuration flexibility"—months before consumers notice.
And then, when laptops ship with half the RAM and smaller SSDs for the same price, they act surprised that you're upset.
A post on r/laptops from December 2025 went viral:
"Please stop buying 8GB RAM laptops in late 2025. It is a trap. In 2025, 8GB is the new 4GB. Windows 11 alone uses 4-5GB. Open Chrome with 10 tabs and you're swapping to your SSD. I bought a Dell Inspiron at $650 and it stutters doing basic multitasking. I can't upgrade because the RAM is soldered. I'm stuck with this for the next 4 years."
That post had 2,400 upvotes. The top comment: "Dell cuts every possible corner on the Inspiron models."
The earnings transcripts explain exactly how this scam works.
The Four-Step Pipeline (Or: How You Get Screwed Six Months Before You Know It)
Step 1: Upstream cost shock
Memory and storage suppliers—Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron—raise prices because they're prioritizing AI data centers over consumer products. HBM for AI chips sells for ~$1,000. Consumer DDR5 sells for $30-40.1
TrendForce reported in December 2025 that DRAM prices would rise 30-40% through 2025. DDR5 retail prices already up 40-75% since July 2024. SSDs up 20-60% in November alone.
This is confirmed, public, and not in dispute.
When AI data centers pay 25-30x more for HBM than consumers pay for DDR5, the memory suppliers have already made their choice. You're not the priority. You're the rounding error. Samsung and SK Hynix aren't turning down $1,000-per-chip AI sales to make sure you get affordable DDR5.2
Step 2: OEM margin math breaks
Dell, Lenovo, HP, ASUS, Acer—they all operate on thin margins. Dell's Client Solutions Group (consumer PCs and laptops) ran at 6% operating margin in Q3 2025. That's razor-thin.
When component costs jump 30-40%, OEMs have three options:
- Eat the cost (kills margins, pisses off investors)
- Raise prices (kills demand, loses market share)
- Cut specs (maintains price point, sacrifices quality)
Guess which one they pick.
This is where the language starts getting slippery.
Dell's Jeff Clarke, November 25, 2025 earnings call:
"Management is working to minimize—but unable to eliminate—customer cost impacts as the aggregate cost basis moves across all product categories."
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang, November 20, 2025 earnings call (when asked about rising memory prices):
"While supply shortages and rising component prices are challenges, Lenovo is well-positioned to manage these due to its scale and strong supply chain relationships. The company is confident in maintaining competitive costs and protecting margins."
HP CFO Karen Parkhill, Q3 2025 earnings call:
"We continue to execute with discipline and focus, delivering on our commitments."
Notice what's missing?
Nobody said: "We're raising prices."
Nobody said: "We're cutting RAM on budget laptops."
They said they're "managing costs" and "protecting margins" and "executing with discipline."
That's corporate-speak for: We're downgrading your laptops and hoping you don't notice.
"Protecting margins" is what you say when you can't admit you're cutting corners. "Executing with discipline" is what you say when you have nothing to say. These statements aren't information—they're camouflage. Imagine Toyota announcing "we're managing material mix carefully" instead of "we're putting smaller engines in the Camry." That's what's happening. The difference: Toyota would get sued for that. OEMs do it every quarter and call it "transparency."3
Step 3: Decisions are locked before consumers see products
Laptop configurations are decided 6-9 months ahead of retail availability. When Dell talks about "managing configuration mix" in November 2025, they're talking about laptops shipping in Q2-Q3 2026.
By the time you see a laptop with 8GB RAM where 16GB used to be, that decision was made half a year earlier—and disclosed to investors in an earnings call you didn't listen to.
Step 4: Consumers experience it last
Spring 2026: You walk into Best Buy. The $700 laptop that had 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD in 2024 now has 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.
You ask the sales associate what happened. They shrug. "Supply chain issues."
You check online. Tech sites report: "Laptop prices remain stable despite component shortages."
Dell's press release: "We remain committed to delivering value to customers."
And if you complain on Reddit, someone says: "What did you expect? Component costs went up."
But nobody told you that was coming. Nobody warned you in advance.
The OEMs told investors. They just didn't tell you.
Decoding the Bullshit: What They Say vs What They Mean
The actual quotes from Q3/Q4 2025 earnings calls, translated:
Dell
What they said (Jeff Clarke, November 25, 2025):
"The cost basis is going up across all products. Demand for components is way ahead of supply. Strategies are in place to recover costs through pricing, but clearly, we're in a situation that is not typical."
In plain English:
"We're raising prices and/or cutting specs. This isn't temporary. Get used to it."
Jeff Clarke isn't some mid-level executive reading scripted talking points. He's Dell's Vice Chairman and COO—the man who decides what goes into your laptop and at what price. He makes $23 million a year. On November 25, 2025, he looked at a room full of investors and explained exactly how Dell would recover costs "through pricing"—at your expense.4
He could have said: "We're absorbing some costs to protect customer value." He didn't. He could have said: "We're being transparent with consumers about upcoming changes." He didn't.
Think about that: A man making $23 million a year couldn't find the time to warn the customer buying a $650 Inspiron that it would stutter with basic multitasking. But he found plenty of time to explain to investors exactly how Dell would "recover costs through pricing" at that customer's expense. That's not an oversight. That's a choice about who matters.
Remember that Reddit user stuck with a $650 Inspiron that stutters doing basic tasks? Jeff Clarke knew that was coming. He just didn't tell them.
What they said (David Kennedy, CFO):
"We're managing mix carefully."
In plain English:
"We're shifting customers toward higher-priced configurations because the budget ones won't be profitable anymore."
Notice the word "mix." That's the tell. When executives talk about "managing mix," they're admitting they're making budget options deliberately unattractive to push you toward higher-margin models. This isn't market forces—this is product management strategy disguised as necessity.
Think about that math: Dell's CFO openly admits they're "managing mix" to push customers into higher-priced tiers. That's not adapting to market conditions—that's manufacturing artificial scarcity in the budget segment to maximize profit per sale. They're not saying "we can't afford to sell 16GB laptops at $700." They're saying "we don't want to because the margins are better at $900." There's a word for deliberately degrading the budget option to force upsells: manipulation.
Lenovo
What they said (Yuanqing Yang, CEO, November 20, 2025):
"Lenovo plans to leverage its procurement power and strategic inventory management to manage rising costs while maintaining market share and profitability."
In plain English:
"We're using our size to negotiate better component pricing than smaller OEMs, but we're still passing costs to consumers—just less aggressively than competitors."
What they said (Luca Rossi, President of IDG):
"With an inflationary component cost environment, the ASP [average selling price] will probably continue to go up. The trend is and will be sustainable, definitely in 2024. And I have no reason to believe that it will not be in 2025."
In plain English:
"Laptops are getting more expensive. This won't stop. Deal with it."
Rossi also noted Lenovo's ASP improved "$100 pre-COVID versus today." Not because laptops got better—because everything costs more and they're charging you for it.
Historical context: This is the same Lenovo that settled with the FTC in 2017 for the Superfish scandal—preinstalling adware that intercepted sensitive user data. The same Lenovo that earned an "F" grade for laptop repairability in 2025 despite promising improvements in 2023. The same Lenovo now facing a class action lawsuit for "willful deception" about Legion Go defects. When Lenovo's CEO talks about "leveraging procurement power," remember: this company's track record on consumer trust is garbage. They're just better at PR than Dell.
HP
What they said (Enrique Lores, CEO, August 27, 2025):
"We are seeing an uplift in pricing of AIPCs compared to similar units. We maintain the assumptions that we had shared before of the 5% to 10% price increase driven by AIPCs."
In plain English:
"We're charging 5-10% more for laptops with 'AI' branding (even though the AI features barely work). This offsets some component cost increases while making it look like you're getting something new."
My take: HP is charging you extra for "AI PCs" that run the same local LLM features Windows 11 already supports for free. The AI branding costs them nothing. It costs you 5-10%. Not innovation—a markup with a marketing campaign. And they're honest about it in earnings calls: "uplift in pricing driven by AIPCs." They're not selling you better technology. They're selling you a label and betting you won't notice the difference.
What they said (Karen Parkhill, CFO):
"We continue to expect free cash flow to be in the range of $2.6 billion to $3 billion for fiscal year '25."
In plain English:
"We're making plenty of money. We just don't want to spend it absorbing component costs when we can make you pay for it instead."
The Coordinated Silence
All three major OEMs are doing the exact same thing at the exact same time, using almost identical language.
- Dell: "Managing configuration mix"
- Lenovo: "Leveraging procurement power"
- HP: "Maintaining discipline"
They're all acknowledging component cost pressure. They're all protecting margins. They're all avoiding specific commitments about specs.
But none of them are telling consumers what's coming.
TrendForce published a report on December 11, 2025 explicitly stating that laptop manufacturers are "compelled to increase their product prices and reduce specifications."
That report was public. Tech journalists cited it. And yet—go check Dell's website. Check Lenovo's. Check HP's.
You won't find a single consumer-facing statement warning that budget laptops are about to lose half their RAM.
Think about the pattern here: Dell transitioned Inspiron models to soldered RAM in 2023—the same period they were quietly addressing a widespread bulging battery epidemic in XPS models (2020-2024) that turned laptops into potential fire hazards. Lenovo's facing a class action lawsuit in 2025 for "willful deception" about Legion Go defects while simultaneously "leveraging procurement power" to downgrade laptop specs. HP's been fighting class action lawsuits over their "infamous hinge problem"—a decade-long design flaw they refused to fix—while telling investors they're "maintaining discipline" on component costs.
This isn't their first rodeo with calculated silence. It's the standard playbook: prioritize quarterly earnings, let defects or downgrades ship quietly, deny warranty claims when customers complain, and act shocked when called out. The spec downgrades are just the latest iteration.
My take: The coordinated silence isn't an accident—it's strategy. All three OEMs are facing the same cost pressures, making the same decisions, using identical corporate language. But not one of them published a consumer-facing blog post saying "component costs are forcing configuration changes." Why? Because consumers would revolt. So they disclosed to investors (legal obligation), stayed silent to customers (strategic choice), and let the downgrades ship quietly. By the time you notice your $700 laptop has half the RAM it used to, the new normal is already established. That's not poor communication. That's calculated deception.
This isn't oversight—it's strategy. OEMs know consumers would revolt if they announced "we're cutting specs to protect profit margins." So they say nothing. Let the changes ship quietly. By the time you notice, it's already the new normal. Not a communication failure—calculated silence. Imagine if airlines stopped telling passengers about flight changes until they showed up at the gate. That's essentially what's happening here—except with your $700 purchase.5
Connecting the Dots: Why This Matters Beyond Laptops
This isn't just about laptops getting worse specs. It's about a pattern of behavior where OEMs communicate one thing to investors (the truth) and another thing to consumers (nothing, or lies).
It connects to:
- The memory crisis: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron prioritizing AI data centers means consumer components stay expensive indefinitely. OEMs know this. They're planning for it. They're just not telling you.
- The Ubisoft collapse: When companies prioritize short-term profits over customer relationships, they eventually implode. Ubisoft told players to "get comfortable not owning games." OEMs are telling you to get comfortable with worse specs for the same price.
- The Xbox disaster: Microsoft laid off 15,300 employees while claiming Xbox had its "most profitable year ever." OEMs are cutting specs while reporting record revenues. Same playbook: screw the customer, reward the shareholder.
- Stop Killing Games: Publishers kill games to force you onto sequels. OEMs downgrade specs to force you into higher-priced tiers. Both industries are eroding what you actually get for your money while pretending everything's fine.6
The playbook is always the same: tell investors the truth, tell customers nothing, pocket the difference.
The Part That Pisses Me Off Most
You know what Dell's Client Solutions Group revenue was in Q3 2025?
$12.5 billion.
Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group (PCs and laptops)?
Over $15 billion in Q2 FY26.
HP's Personal Systems?
$9.8 billion in Q3 FY25.
These companies are making tens of billions of dollars per quarter selling PCs and laptops. And they can't absorb a 30-40% increase in component costs without cutting specs?
Bullshit.
Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group (servers and data center equipment) reported $14.1 billion in revenue in Q3 2025 with a 12.4% operating margin. That's double the margin of their consumer PC business.
Think about that: Dell's server division makes double the profit margin of consumer PCs. They're not hurting for money—they just don't want to spend it on you. Jeff Clarke makes $23 million a year managing both divisions. The servers get 12.4% margins. You get 6% margins and spec downgrades. Guess which division he prioritizes when component costs spike?
They could afford to eat some of the component cost increases on consumer laptops. They don't want to because it would hurt quarterly earnings, and that would upset investors.7
Think about Dell's priorities: When XPS batteries were bulging and creating fire hazards (2020-2024), Dell eventually replaced them—but only after widespread complaints forced their hand. They could've issued proactive recalls. They didn't. When Inspiron models transitioned to soldered RAM in 2023, making future upgrades impossible, Dell could've warned consumers it was a permanent change. They didn't. Now, in 2025, Dell's cutting specs while reporting $12.5 billion quarterly revenue. The pattern is clear: Dell protects quarterly numbers first, customers last.
So instead, they cut specs, maintain prices, protect margins, and tell investors they're "managing the portfolio" while telling consumers nothing.
What Happens Next
Based on the earnings call language and TrendForce projections:
Q1-Q2 2026:
- Budget laptops ($500-800) start shipping with 8GB RAM as standard instead of 16GB
- Mid-range laptops ($800-1200) maintain 16GB but lose SSD capacity (512GB → 256GB)
- Premium laptops ($1200+) maintain specs but increase prices 10-15%
Analysts are already calling 8GB in 2026 a "false economy"—a laptop that stutters with 15 Chrome tabs isn't a bargain at any price. And since most newer laptops have soldered RAM, you can't upgrade later. You're stuck with what they sold you.
Think about what that means in practice: You buy a $650 laptop in April 2026. By December 2027, Windows updates and browser bloat have pushed memory usage past 8GB during normal use. Your laptop starts swapping to the SSD constantly. Performance tanks. You can't upgrade because Dell soldered the RAM. Your options: live with a stuttering mess, buy a new laptop, or realize you got scammed into planned obsolescence. Dell knew this would happen in November 2025. They sold it to you anyway.
Q3-Q4 2026:
- If memory prices stabilize (optimistic scenario), OEMs might restore some specs—but prices won't drop
- If memory prices stay elevated (realistic scenario), 8GB becomes the new normal for anything under $1000
2027:
- OEMs will claim they're "responding to market conditions" by offering 16GB again—at a premium
- What cost $700 with 16GB in 2024 will cost $900-1000 in 2027
- And they'll market it as a feature upgrade, not a return to previous standards
The scam is complete: they downgrade your specs, wait for you to normalize it, then charge you a premium to get back what you already had. And because they soldered the RAM, you have no choice but to buy a new machine if you want better.
My take: Soldered RAM is the lynchpin of this entire scam. If you could upgrade your laptop's memory, OEMs couldn't force you into a repurchase cycle when 8GB inevitably becomes unbearable. Framework proved upgradeable laptops are viable—Dell, Lenovo, and HP choose not to build them because planned obsolescence is more profitable than customer satisfaction. They're not soldering RAM for engineering reasons—they're doing it to ensure you can't escape their downgrade treadmill. When the $650 Inspiron becomes unusable in 2027, Dell wants you buying a new one, not a $50 RAM stick.
The Accountability Gap
When laptops ship with worse specs in Q2 2026, OEMs will say: "We kept prices stable despite rising costs."
Journalists will write: "Laptop prices remain flat amid component shortages."
And consumers will think: "I guess this is just how it is now."
But it didn't have to be this way.
Dell made $12.5 billion in Q3 2025 from consumer PCs. They could've absorbed some cost. They chose not to.
Lenovo's IDG operating margin is over 8%. They're profitable. They could've eaten some cost. They chose not to.
HP reported $2.6-3 billion in free cash flow for FY25. They have the money. They chose not to spend it protecting consumer specs.
These are choices, not inevitabilities.
And the proof is in the earnings calls. They told investors what was coming. They warned Wall Street. They adjusted guidance.
They just didn't tell you.
My take: This is the real crime. Not that they made hard business decisions—but that they made them in November, told investors, and left consumers to discover the damage five months later at a Best Buy checkout. That's not capitalism. That's contempt. The legal disclaimer buried in quarterly filings doesn't make it ethical. "We disclosed this to investors" is the corporate equivalent of "well, technically it was in the terms of service." At some point, "we warned Wall Street" stops being a defense and starts being an indictment.
What You Can Do
1. Buy now if you need to upgrade
If you're planning to buy a laptop in the next 6-12 months, do it now. Current specs at current prices are better than what's coming. Once 8GB becomes the standard, you're stuck with it.
2. Check actual specs, not marketing
OEMs will rebrand 8GB laptops as "efficient" or "optimized for AI workloads." Ignore the marketing. Check the spec sheet. If it's 8GB and non-upgradeable (soldered RAM), walk away unless you genuinely don't need more.
3. Vote with your wallet
Framework laptops have upgradeable RAM. Some ASUS and Acer models still use SO-DIMM slots. Support companies that let you upgrade components instead of locking you into planned obsolescence.
When HP recently offered one customer a lower-spec laptop as a warranty replacement for a defective unit, it revealed what OEMs actually think of you: a captive audience who'll take what they're given.
4. Spread the word
Share earnings call transcripts. Quote the actual statements from CEOs and CFOs. When OEMs cut specs in Q2 2026 and act surprised, remind people: they told investors this was coming six months earlier.
5. Demand transparency
When you see a laptop listing, look for:
- Is the RAM upgradeable or soldered?
- What was this model's spec last year vs this year?
- Did the price change, and if so, by how much?
OEMs bet on you not noticing. Prove them wrong.
The Bottom Line
Dell's Jeff Clarke wasn't lying on November 25, 2025 when he said "the cost basis is going up across all products."
He just wasn't talking to you. He was talking to investors.
And that's the scam.
OEMs communicate different realities to different audiences. Investors get the truth: costs are rising, margins are under pressure, configurations will change. Consumers get silence—or vague reassurances that "we remain committed to value."
Then, six months later, you walk into Best Buy and wonder why the $700 laptop has half the RAM it used to.
Now you know.
They told Wall Street in November 2025. They just forgot to tell you.
And when you complain in May 2026 that laptops got worse, they'll act like nobody could've seen it coming—even though they literally forecast it in a public earnings call.
Not a supply chain issue. Not market conditions. A deliberate choice to prioritize shareholder value over customer value.
And the receipts are in the earnings transcripts for anyone willing to read them.
That Reddit user with the stuttering $650 Inspiron? They're stuck with it for four years. They can't upgrade because Dell soldered the RAM. They didn't know 8GB was a trap because nobody told them.
Jeff Clarke knew. He made $23 million last year. He told investors exactly what was coming. He just didn't tell that user.
That's the real crime here. Not the component costs. Not the margin pressure. Not even the spec downgrades. It's the calculated decision to tell investors the truth while leaving consumers in the dark. Dell, Lenovo, and HP all had the same choice in November 2025: warn customers about upcoming changes, or stay silent and let them discover it at checkout five months later.
They chose silence. They chose quarterly earnings over customer trust. They chose Jeff Clarke's $23 million salary over transparency with the person buying a $650 Inspiron.
That's not a supply chain problem. That's a values problem. And the man at the top made his choice.
Sources: Dell Q3 FY2026 earnings call transcript (November 25, 2025), Lenovo Q2 FY2026 earnings call (November 20, 2025), HP Q3 FY2025 earnings call (August 27, 2025), TrendForce market reports (November-December 2025), IDC PC market forecasts, company financial filings, retail pricing data from Newegg/Amazon/Best Buy.