Framework positions its new Laptop 13 Pro as The MacBook Pro for Linux users,
offering a modular design with high-end processors starting at $1,199 for DIY editions. However, severe memory price surges, production batches stretching into December, and fluctuating component costs complicate the buying experience.
The Hardware Odyssey: Buying and Building the Framework Laptop 13 Pro
Purchasing the Framework Laptop 13 Pro requires patience and careful navigation. Framework sells its Laptop 13 Pro solely through its website, not individual retailers. Buyers choose between a more traditional pre-built version, with everything ready to go out of the box, or the DIY Edition, where the customer assembles the components and installs the operating system. The DIY route feels more like assembling IKEA furniture, simply connecting parts rather than building a PC. Though the complexity might seem visually intimidating, you’re actually doing less than you would to build a desktop PC; there’s no thermal paste to apply, for example. Basically, Framework’s Laptop 13 Pro DIY Edition is a pleasure to assemble and use, meeting all requirements for a solid productivity laptop, and most users—even relative novices—can pretty easily assemble it. Still, the company charges a $200 premium for pre-built configurations.
Market forces make acquisition challenging. Framework’s process is its own sort of odyssey: pricing out your configuration, risking that it might increase in price while waiting literally months for it to arrive, then sitting down with a collection of parts to put it all together. It’s not Nolan’s latest epic, but the parallels are there. Framework requires a $100 deposit on the purchase to get into the company’s build queue.
Processor Options, Pricing Tiers, and Component Realities
Base pricing starts at $1,199 in a build-it-yourself DIY setup for the Laptop 13 Pro with an Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor. If you want it pre-built, that costs $1,599 to start. These prices are exclusive to models containing Intel’s latest Core Ultra Series 3 processors. The starting model comes with the Core Ultra 5 325 chip (4 performance cores, 4 low-power efficiency cores), 16GB of LPCAMM2 LPDDR5X memory (rated at 7,467 megatransfers per second, or MT/s) and a 512GB PCI Express 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive. CAMM2 memory is a recent addition to the Laptop 13 Pro, a newer mobile memory standard that’s more power-efficient than regular RAM. The Ultra X7 358H is available for another $500. (The Ultra X9 388H was an option at one point, but that chip was out of stock from Framework at publish time.) You’ll also find AMD chip options for the Laptop 13 Pro, with DIY Editions starting at $1,399 for the Ryzen AI 7 350 and then $1,649 for the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, while pre-built AMD options climb to a pre-built price. Note that the DIY Editions do not come with memory or storage preconfigured, and those necessities cost extra.
Memory costs introduce a volatile economic factor. Intel-specific memory costs twice as much as Ryzen, and the memory crisis is driving up prices for many PC components. The pricing stops there at $1,599, but you’ll likely want to add an OS and some ports. Windows 11 Pro and the standard array of port modules bumps the price to $1,811 with a one-year warranty—or knock $200 off that if you’re satisfied with Linux. (A three-year warranty bumps things up to $249.) Altogether, optional ports, memory, storage, and the operating system mount to $2,932 in the test model after Framework’s latest hikes in prices.
Linux Integration and the Software Ecosystem
Framework is positioning the Laptop 13 Pro as a MacBook Pro for Linux users,
and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is available for the first time as a preinstalled OS for the laptop’s prebuilt edition. The Laptop 13 Pro still supports Windows 11 just fine, of course, and for the sake of consistency, all performance and battery benchmarks were done in Windows 11 25H2. But aside from the ability to have Linux preinstalled, there’s actually nothing special about the Laptop 13 Pro’s Linux support.
That’s because Framework has officially supported Ubuntu and Fedora on all of its laptops, including previous Laptop 13 models. After a couple of bumpy years during which Linux users who wanted BIOS updates would need to figure out how to temporarily install Windows first, Framework’s BIOS updates are available for easy download and installation through LVFS.
Modular Customization and Display Upgrades
Those are all marginal but noticeable improvements over the previous-generation display, and if you’re still using a glossy or matte 2,256×1,504 screen from early Framework Laptop 13 iterations, this new screen will be an especially noticeable upgrade. But it’s still not an OLED display, and it’s still missing complete coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, to name a couple of more advanced features that remain absent. Minor light bleed across the top of the review unit’s display was noticed when it was showing something dark. One less-noticeable screen change: the top corners of the new screen are actual 90-degree angles again, rather than little curves. The curves on the older display were a side effect of a display panel Framework used that was originally designed for another company. The rounded corners didn’t line up with Framework’s bezels, and Windows and Linux have never respected the tiny little dead zones that they create. In the end, this is still the Framework Laptop 13, representing as close to a design overhaul as you can get while still maintaining compatibility with a critical mass of important parts, with the board, screen, and expansion port modules chief among them.
Competitive Landscape and Market Stacks
Framework achieved the almost unthinkable with the Laptop 13 Pro: a flagship, top-end laptop you can tear down for upgrades and repairs that also feels like a one-piece, luxury design once assembled. It’s a remarkable achievement in hardware design, and impressive to first-timers. However, Framework’s latest flagship laptop almost works better as a statement on what’s possible in laptop engineering than as an actual product to buy. Software developers and well-funded enthusiasts have been eagerly anticipating the Framework Laptop 13 Pro, but the traditionally built flagship Dell XPS 14 holds on to the Editors’ Choice award in its category for delivering more power for less.
