Framework announced a bunch of stuff last month: powerful AMD upgrades for its bread-and-butter Laptop 13 design, its first modular desktop, and a brand new, smaller, more affordable model, the Laptop 12. This 2-in-1 with a touchscreen is intended to offer repairability and upgrades to cheaper laptops. Now there’s a confirmed pre-order date, April 9.
The Framework 12 takes aim at budget designs that are ” janky, locked-down, disposable, underpowered, and frankly, boring machines,” according to CEO Nirav Patel. And indeed, it’s a colorful TPU/ABS plastic design offered in blue, pink, green, and a relatively buttoned-down silver or black, and that’s before you trick it out with the company’s signature add-on modules for various USB ports, HDMI ports, card readers, et cetera. It’s also the company’s first convertible design, with a 12-inch touchscreen that’s compatible with stylus input.
The laptop 12 is intended to be a budget machine, or at least a budget alternative, so it’s notably “chunkier” than the existing Laptop 13 design. But it still has the same kind of hardware flexibility, with every internal and external component accessible to the user with a screwdriver, and four modular USB-C ports that can be swapped out on the fly. The Intel 13th-gen-based motherboard (i3 or i5) can handle up to 48GB of RAM and 2TB of M.2 storage, with a choice of Windows or Linux at purchase.
We’re still waiting on perhaps the most crucial element of the Framework 12, the price. With the company specifically targeting low-price “craptops,” the price of the design — particularly the cheapest configuration — will be a huge factor in whether it succeeds or not. After all, someone who’s budgeted for a $500 laptop has a lot harder time stretching up to the $1,000 mark, no matter how much more flexible and upgradeable the latter is. With import tariffs in the U.S. sending electronics prices ever higher, there’s still a lot of uncertainty floating around.
We’ll find out in a week, I suppose. There’s also no precise shipping date, though “mid-2025” was given at the announcement event. I hope Framework can hit approximately a $750 price tag with the Framework 12, otherwise it’ll be a tough sell for the budget market.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.