The quality of Dell has tanked

I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time finding anything that specifically states that microsoft requires the ram be soldered on. The only thing close I can find is that the ram used for "connected"/"modern" standby should be low power ram, which the so-dimm style packing with a ram slot would still fall under. And assuming that's the case, it makes far more sense for an OEM (like microsoft, msi, apple, samsung, etc.) to solder the ram on. While they may claim it the only reason they did it was to save space or is more secure, it also enables them to sell different variations of their devices at higher/lower tiers while maintaining the same manufacturing process and design specifications. This process increases profit margins, and still has the added benefit of ensuring that when the device becomes obsolete, the average person has no other choice other than to buy another brand new device instead of upgrading the old one. I suspect shareholder dividends and ceo bonuses had more to do with the design descision than standby requirements. If you ask me, claiming that soldering the ram on prevents a coldboot attack (which is not specific to microsoft hardware), and that was the sole reason for soldering the ram on seems at the very least suspicious if not completely disingenuous when doing so was likely far more profitable. Pandering to the paranoid might add a couple sales here and there, but I don't think soldering the ram on won them any multimillion dollar contracts over their competitors who were already doing the same thing and not to prevent a coldboot attack. Again, I'm not aware of any involvement on microsofts part in the planning/development of the S1-S5 standards or specifications, but I could be wrong here. I only see that microsoft soldered theirs on in the surface tablets.