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16GB has become the practical baseline for a laptop you want to keep for a few years. It clears the ceiling that 8GB hits the moment Windows, a browser with many tabs and a couple of apps are all running, and it comfortably feeds a mainstream gaming GPU or a creative workload without paying for capacity most people never touch at 32GB. The right 16GB laptop still depends on what surrounds that memory.
Match the rest of the machine to how you work. A student or office user wants efficiency and battery life; a gamer wants a discrete GPU and a fast display; a creator wants a strong CPU and colour-accurate screen. Below are the factors that separate a good 16GB laptop from a frustrating one.