Framework calls out Dell and Apple for using the RAMpocalypse to 'gouge customers' on memory upgrade prices but the reality is more complicated
Framework, the maker of some of our favourite modular laptops, has announced that it will "need" to increase memory pricing soon. But it also called out Dell and Apple for gouging their customers on memory pricing. To quote Framework's post on X in full:
"We are going to need to increase our memory pricing soon, but we won’t use this as an excuse to gouge customers like @Dell apparently has and that @Apple does as their norm."
We are going to need to increase our memory pricing soon, but we won’t use this as an excuse to gouge customers like @Dell apparently has and that @Apple does as their norm.December 9, 2025
The "apparently" may be doing some heavy lifting in that X post. Framework posted in reply to another X user, Vadim Yuryev who fronts the Max Tech YouTube channel. Yuryev posted screen shots of the Dell website showing the XPS 13 laptop configured with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X CPU and an upgrade price of $550 to move from 16 GB of RAM to 32 GB.
The only problem is that when you actually view this laptop on Dell's website, the upgrade cost of the exact model in the screen shot is actually $150.
It's hard to be certain how that screenshot was generated. But very likely, it comes down to how Dell's various discounts come and go, and how it tends to bundle features and specs together, even when choosing the DIY configuration.
In other words, it's likely in the screen shot in question, when selecting the 32 GB option, other spec upgrades were also required, such as a premium CPU, a larger SSD and so on.
You also have to factor in that Dell's discounts sometimes only apply to specific models. In the offending screen shot, for instance, the unit's base price is $849. It's currently $999.
So it's possible, even likely, when the screen shot was taken, adding the extra RAM moves you off that discount onto the standard price, onto which an additional charge for the memory is then added. In that scenario, it looks like a massive fee for the memory, but that's not quite what is happening.
Looking at numerous Dell XPS options, including models with x86 CPUs, the company seems to be charging between $100 to $200 for the upgrade from 16 GB to 32 GB. Not great, but miles off the $550 that has had X users agitated.
Now, it's also true that the way Dell prices these things and bundles features is essentially a nightmare for the average buyer. It's quite possible to go round in circles with Dell's website, find a configuration and price that looks good, only to test some other options, try to achieve the original price and it's seemingly gone.
You could put that down to user error, but it's thoroughly confusing all the same. As for Apple, it's guilty of the opposite. Its prices for memory are always very transparent. And they're always awful.
Right now, Apple charges $400 for the upgrade from 16 GB to 32 GB on the MacBook Air M4. And that's pretty much what it's charged for that upgrade for years. In other words, long before the current memory price.
Framework got that bit right on X, at least. But the Dell price gouging claim? That's a little harder to justify. For now at least. What happens in the coming days, months and years is another matter! Oh, and for now there's no word on exactly how much Framework plans to charge for memory after its announced price increases. Right now, it's charging $80 as an upgrade cost from 16 GB to 32 GB, and that's definitely going to get a lot closer to Dell's pricing very soon.