[00:01] rough news to share today, but I think you need to hear it. I've now heard the same message from multiple people in the industry. Laptop prices are going to go up a lot in the second half of this year. What adds to this is there are
[00:13] fact, here in the USA, I'm actually hearing that some of the best know, the ones you might actually want, might not be sold here at all. Now, even didn't specifically tell me why, I think we can put this puzzle together.
[00:28] There is a memory shortage that is affecting component supply, and then here in the USA, there are higher tariffs. HP's CFO actually recently stated that memory prices have increased from 15 to 18% of the cost of a laptop
[00:42] to now roughly 35%. That's pretty much double, guys. She also said that she expects their personal systems business, you know, the one that makes laptops, to decline by double digits this year as higher prices
[00:55] hurts demand. In fact, they're actually forecasting further cost increases above particularly from the second half of the year onwards. Now, on the tariff front, stating the freaking obvious, most laptops they aren't assembled here in
[01:09] the USA. Either the whole laptop is going to be subject to tariffs or part of it. And if you think that's just a US problem, I'd think again. I've heard that manufacturers are actually upping the prices of laptops elsewhere to
[01:21] lessen the blow to the US consumer. So, manufacturers are now having to make some really tough decisions. Should new laptops come with less memory? Should should they not sell certain configs in certain regions at all as they're just
[01:37] too expensive to be viable? So, what the hell should we do? Well, if you are planning to buy a new laptop this year, I'd buy it sooner rather than later. I've talked about this a lot in my videos. If you can't afford to buy a new
[01:52] laptop, do not go into debt to buy one or use some, you know, buy now, pay later scheme or something like that. There are plenty of laptops in the second-hand market that would just love a new home to go to. Now, if you can
[02:04] afford a new one, you need to be right on it when it comes to pricing. You need to know what's actually a good deal and not one of those stupid fake sales. We have a price tracker on our website bestlaptop.deals to help you do this.
[02:17] Over there, we do track prices right across retailers. From that tracker, you can see what a laptop was sold at and not just its current price. We perform our own pricing analysis so we can tell you what we truly think is a good or
[02:29] great deal. That's based on all aspects of a laptop, including its historical price. We are going to be super focused this year on keeping those targets up to date. And I have a question for you guys, actually. Would it help if we
[02:42] website? That way, you know, you can perform your own analysis. Anyway, the next thing you can do as a laptop buyer is buy a laptop from last year. Calling a spade a spade, there are a bunch of buyers who really won't see that much
[02:56] benefit of buying a 2026 laptop. The biggest thing in laptops so far this year is the new Panther Lake H and X chips, specifically. At least that's at the time I made this video. Both give you significantly more battery life for
[03:09] high-performance laptops. The X chip, specifically, they give you the kind of low-end creator or gaming laptop in a much thinner form factor. Look, don't get me wrong. Panther Lake is a big improvement, at least the H and X chips
[03:23] improvement, at least the H and X chips are. But seriously, you may not need it. more often, you can just buy one from last year. Honestly, nothing else major has changed. Heck, the dedicated GPUs, they're exactly the same.
[03:37] The other type of buyer who can easily buy a model from last year are casual users. If you're just using a laptop to browse the web, respond to emails, or doesn't require a lot of computing power, law, med, that sort of thing, you
[03:51] guys, you can just buy a Lunar Lake laptop from last year. Fun enough, the 8-core Panther Lake chip that was meant to replace it is actually a little performance, similar battery life, but that older Lunar Lake chip, it has a
[04:04] better integrated GPU. So, look out for one with Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 with a V at the end, that means Lunar Lake, or AMD's Ryzen 5 or 7 chip from their 300 or 400 series, that's their latest series with Zen 5. Or, you could
[04:18] just get a MacBook Air. I mean, anything with an M3 chip or newer, it'll be perfectly fine. Once again, to help you out, we've made it pretty easy on our processors. Or, if you're clicking on a laptop, actually look at the tab at the
[04:32] top for the prime models. Now, on that note, another question for you guys, do you want us to make it even easier to find laptops from a prior year, rather processors, you know, we had a filter where you can just say, "Give me all the
[04:44] laptops from 2025." Let me know in the comment below. Finally, we have a big team here of laptop buying experts, and we're going to make sure all those lists that you see on the site are kept up to date very regularly with the best
[04:57] laptops available to buy right now. All right, I want to switch gears for a moment and look at this from a business lens. This is going to be a pretty challenging year for us. As I've hopefully told you, we earn money when
[05:09] you buy a laptop that we recommend. I actually prefer this model over pushing a ton of sponsored videos on you. You see, using an affiliate revenue model, laptops we like, rather than being incentivized to talk up a specific one
[05:23] that we may not feel too strongly about, which is of course what sometimes sponsored videos do. Obviously, the danger of an affiliate just give positive reviews for everything, you know, trying to sell
[05:35] more. If you've seen our videos, you'll probably know that we just don't do this. I believe in the long term, your trust is far more important than short-term gains. Anyway, back on the finances, if we sell less laptops this
[05:49] plans. Now, I don't want to scare anyone. We are doing fine here. It's just going to be tough to grow as fast as we'd hoped. You see, we know you guys want more videos from us, and boy do we
[06:02] want to deliver, you know, more testing, more regular videos, all that kind of stuff. The other issue, which is interesting, is that we're a very US-centric company. Up until now, being based in the USA has been a big
[06:14] advantage. You see, laptops are released here first as it's the biggest market. make. You know, we do a lot of testing and comparisons, those beautiful b-rolls, all of that kind of stuff. Anyway, to maximize that investment, we
[06:29] want to get our videos out as fast as possible as tech it does have a short watching reviews of laptops from 2 years ago. Take Jared's Tech in Australia, good friend of mine. It's harder for him to get laptops in than it is for us. So,
[06:43] this is another concern that I am going to have to keep my eye on, and it's not as simple as just let's focus more internationally. You see, the US's market for laptop reviews, it's just more mature. Affiliate commissions here
[06:56] are higher than they are elsewhere. Retailers here in the USA, they really like us. That being said, it's always good to diversify in any business, and luckily, we've been investing heavily in
[07:09] internationalizing our website. Our Canada version is about ready to go. Look, however, this whole situation, it really sucks, but we're all going to get through it. As a buyer, it's all about being as informed as you possibly can.
[07:23] website is going to help other people, then definitely share it. As a business, a challenge to be more focused and be more efficient than we ever have before.
[07:35] had better news to share, but I think it's important for you guys to know what's really going on. If you want to support us, something free and easy that and getting subscribed. And if you want to do a little more, you can become a
[07:49] YouTube member or patron subscriber, which is linked down below. I have a ton of videos to get moving on. We have so many new laptops here that are really going to be able to buy. Anyway, with that said, till next time, go do
[08:02] something awesome with your day and I will catch you later.