[GFischer]

Why wouldn't they have more than 4 GB of RAM? Current Android flagships are shipping with 6 GB of RAM, and 8 GB phones have been announced.

I'm not sure about the laptop-class performance requirement, you mean for light browsing and office tasks, they should be there already (even with the emulation penalty).

Edit: 8 GB phone announcement: http://bgr.com/2017/01/05/asus-zenfone-ar-release-date/

[Samathy]

Lots of Chromebooks don't come with more than 4GB of RAM, theres no reason why they couldn't have more too. But the mostly don't because the target market is not seen as needing it.