HP's $520 (USD) OmniBook 3 16 packs 16GB of RAM, and The Verge found it outperforms pricier laptops stuck at 8GB. As laptop prices climb, this shows RAM, not price tag, now decides whether a cheap machine actually works well.
What actually happened
The HP OmniBook 3 16 sells for about $520 (USD) at Walmart and Amazon. It runs an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 chip, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 16-inch 1920x1200 IPS screen at 300 nits and 60Hz, covering 62.5 percent of the sRGB color space. Battery capacity is 68Wh, giving roughly 12 hours of mixed web use. It weighs 3.65 pounds (1.66kg) and measures up to 0.63 inches (16mm) thick. Reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto wrote in The Verge that 'an okay laptop with 16GB of RAM is better than a nice laptop with 8GB.' For comparison, the $950 (USD) Microsoft Surface Laptop ships with only 8GB of RAM, and the $449 (USD) Chuwi UniBook, also with 8GB, crashed during a 4K Premiere export test the OmniBook completed in 12 minutes and 8 seconds.
How we got here
Before this year, $500 (USD) typically bought a tolerable laptop and $900 (USD) bought a genuinely good one, with similar CPU, RAM, and storage across both tiers. The difference used to be build quality and screen, since memory and storage were cheap to include. A market shift The Verge calls 'RAMageddon' has driven memory prices up sharply, pushing even $950 (USD) machines like the Surface Laptop to ship with just 8GB. Manufacturers competing with the $700 (USD) MacBook Neo have responded by cutting CPU power, storage, and build quality instead. HP's OmniBook 3 16, alongside the OmniBook 5 reviewed in December, has so far avoided that trade-off.
Why this matters for you
For anyone buying a laptop under $600 (USD) right now, RAM capacity matters more than brand reputation or screen quality. Students, employees issued work laptops, and budget-conscious buyers can get smoother multitasking from a $520 (USD) machine than from costlier options with only 8GB. Builders and buyers watching component pricing should note that this value is tied to current memory costs, not guaranteed to last. The reviewer explicitly flagged the OmniBook 3's price as 'anomalous' given where RAM prices are heading.
The bigger question
If memory shortages keep pushing costs up, will affordable multitasking laptops disappear entirely, leaving 8GB as the new floor for budget buyers everywhere?
What to watch
The review was published on 22 August 2026. The Verge says it plans to test more sub-$800 (USD) laptops soon as the RAM shortage continues to reshape pricing. Whether HP holds the OmniBook 3's $520 (USD) price, or raises it like much of the market, remains the key thing to track.
