Mixing RAM brands is fine — but match specs.

Yes, you can mix brands, but it’s safer to match speed and timings.

If your laptop has one soldered stick and one open slot, you’re already stuck with whatever that soldered RAM is. Throwing in a different brand is usually fine — modern laptops are good at negotiating between mismatched sticks. The system will just run both at the speed of the slower one, and dual-channel might still work depending on the size difference.

The real risk is instability. If the timings or voltage are way off, you could get random crashes or the laptop refusing to boot. That’s rare with DDR4 or DDR5, but it happens.

Best bet: use a tool like CPU-Z to check the soldered stick’s exact specs (speed, CAS latency, voltage), then buy something matching those numbers — even if it’s a different brand. Worst case, it doesn’t boot and you return it. So buy from a place with easy returns.

You’re not going to break anything by trying.