Soldered and socketed RAM perform the same.

No, performance is identical if the specs are the same. Timings, frequency, and capacity are what matter — not whether the chips are soldered or in a slot.

The difference is entirely about repairability and upgradability. Soldered RAM is stuck forever. Socketed RAM can be swapped or upgraded. But while the computer is running, the RAM does the same job at the same speed. Same latency. Same throughput. No magic.

So if you’re deciding between two laptops with the same RAM specs, performance won’t be the tiebreaker. But future you might care a lot about not being able to add more RAM later. Pick socketed if you can, but don’t lose sleep over a few nanoseconds.