Framework launched its modular Laptop 13 Pro starting at $1,199 for the DIY version, but soaring memory costs driven by hyperscaler AI demand have forced steep price hikes, delayed shipments into December, and triggered unexpected RAM downgrades for existing preorders.
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 this Framework first-timer. However, with the memory crisis driving up prices for many PC components, 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 our Editors’ Choice award in its category for delivering more power for less.
Ordering Odyssey and Long Ship Times
You have to really want to buy the Framework Laptop 13 Pro DIY Edition. Normally, you’d simply click an order button and have a new laptop delivered in just a few days. 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 sells its Laptop 13 Pro solely through its website, not individual retailers. Buyers have the option of two versions: 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 latter 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. Framework requires a $100 deposit on the purchase to get into the company’s build queue.
Memory Price Hikes and Preorder Downgrades
Thanks to hyperscalers’ insatiable demand for memory pushing up prices, Framework has nearly doubled the cost of the 32GB and 64GB LPCAMM2 options for its upcoming Laptop 13 Pro overnight. The decision was made after it received a supplier quote that was more than twice the price of its previous shipment. Framework’s 32GB module has jumped from $439 to $800, an increase of 82%, while the 64GB option has risen from $849 to a brutal $1,600, up 88%. Framework is keeping the 16GB module at $239 for now, but warns that price will also increase once its remaining lower-cost stock runs out. CEO Nirav Patel said the firm had expected a low-to-mid double-digit percentage increase between the second and third quarters. The actual quote went far beyond anything we had predicted,
and absorbing it would place Framework’s ability to operate at real financial risk.
The situation is especially problematic for customers with existing preorders. Framework says it has enough LPCAMM2 modules to fulfill all outstanding orders, just not the right mix of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities. Laptop preorders through Batch 4 and mainboard orders through Batch 7 should receive their selected 64GB configurations. Later 64GB orders are being changed to 32GB at the original 32GB price. Some 32GB DIY Edition and mainboard orders beyond those batches are similarly being downgraded to 16GB at the original 16GB price. Framework hasn’t affected 32GB prebuilt orders because it does not yet offer a Core Ultra X7 prebuilt configuration with 16GB. Customers unhappy with the changes can cancel for a full deposit refund. New orders have also become more expensive. The prebuilt Laptop 13 Pro now starts at $1,599 with a Core Ultra 5 325, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD, $100 above the launch price.
Hardware Configurations and Modular Upgrades
It’s difficult to narrow down the price of any Framework Laptop, since so much of the product is customizable both before and after checkout. What I can say is that the laptop starts at $1,199 in a build-it-yourself DIY setup. If you want it pre-built, that costs $1,599 to start. These prices, however, are exclusive to models containing Intel’s latest Core Ultra Series 3 processors. The starting model comes with the Core Ultra 5 325, but the Ultra X7 358H is available for another $500. 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 of my 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.
The True Cost of Repairability
The laptop starts at a reasonable $1,199—well, “reasonable” were it a fully built laptop. But that price is without the memory, storage, operating system, or optional ports, which add up fast, mounting to $2,932 in our test model after Framework’s latest hikes in prices. Still, what Framework pulled off here is dazzling, presenting a MacBook Pro-like laptop that you can take apart beyond any Mac’s wildest dreams. Expert reviewers note a superb day-long battery life, a solid keyboard, a lovely display, thorough and detailed instructions and packaging, excellent cooling, and great noise filtering, alongside drawbacks like lengthy ship times, fluctuating prices, Intel-specific memory costs that are twice as much as Ryzen, and a mediocre webcam. Framework’s Laptop 13 Pro DIY Edition is a pleasure to assemble and use, meeting all requirements for a solid productivity laptop, even as market forces blow hard against it.
Worth a look
