Laptops of yesteryear were never the easiest things to upgrade or repair yourself, but today's machines are even less so. The Framework Laptop is very much designed for user tweaking, and has now been upgraded to 12th Gen Intel Core processors.
The latest Intel Core processors come with either four or six performance cores with Hyper-Threading, and another eight efficiency cores – meaning that the top i7-1280P processor option available for this 2022 upgrade offers 14 CPU cores and 20 threads for a marked boost in performance.
The base pre-built model comes with an i5-1240P processor supported by 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB of storage. A Performance tier uses i7-1260P processing brains with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. And the Professional level loads in that impressive i7-1280P CPU, 32GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. Those processors are also offered in the DIY Edition, with up to 64 GB of RAM and 4 TB of storage ready to be optioned in.
Framework has also taken the update opportunity to redesign the laptop's lid assembly, which is now machined from a single block of 6063 aluminum for much improved rigidity over the forming process used for previous versions. The standby battery life has been improved too, particularly for those running a Linux distro, and a new 2.5-Gb Ethernet Expansion Card is being added to the range of plug-in modules soon.
Each model flavor comes in at under 16 mm (0.6 in) thin and tips the scales at less than 1.3 kg (2.8 lb), rocks a 3:2-aspect 13.5-inch display at 2,256 x 1,504 resolution, features a 1080p webcam with hardware privacy switches and includes Wi-Fi 6E. A bunch of Expansion Card modules mean that users no longer have to stick with the spread of ports included by the manufacturer, but can choose from a number of different options.
The new Frameworks Laptops are up for pre-order now to customers in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland – and can be purchased as fully built Windows 11 units for a starting price of US$1,049 or as a DIY Edition starting at $819. Upgrade kits will be available for existing users shortly.
Folks living outside the current supported shipping areas can register interest for possible future availability. The video below has more.
Product page: Framework Laptop
