When Framework’s fixable and upgradeable laptop 13 was released a few years ago, that was exactly the disruption we needed in the portable computing space. This is a laptop that allows you to customize your guts when ordering, and you can then upgrade or repair various components as needed. It’s expensive, but you don’t have to pull out a new laptop every five years every five years because you don’t have enough RAM.
The company is back. Earlier this week, Framework announced the laptop 12 along with a new desktop PC. Laptop 12 is a budget laptop that doesn’t look bad, is completely modular, and doesn’t have the performance and display. If it sounds too good, you are not alone. We don’t know the price yet, it’s very important. However, keeping it as a “budget” laptop is the framework’s stated goal.
“We make products to fix what we see as a broken industry, and there are few categories that symbolize consumer electronics like entry-level laptops,” said Nirav Patel, CEO of Framework, on the company’s blog. Patel is right for diagnosis whether the framework has an antidote. Buying cheap Windows laptops today will make you frustrated with the situation in the industry. They are often inadequate and slow, not to mention ugly.
Chromebook killer
The frame laptop 12 has a small 12.2-inch screen, hence the name. But it’s a convertible 2-in-1 laptop, which means it has a 360-degree hinge that allows you to flip the screen to use it as a tablet. With it comes the touch screen and optional stylus, which is the first of the frame.
We are still missing a few details to complete the picture, such as the thickness and weight of the laptop – those details will arrive when it opens in April – but the photos of the machine show a stylish PC that looks better than any budget laptop I’ve ever seen. Five new bold color options will not hurt either.
However, it has some very thick borders around it that you won’t find outside the world of budget Chromebooks these days. Laptop 12 compensates for this by ensuring that the display is better than what a budget laptop usually finds. It has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, up to 400 columns of brightness (the MacBook Air tops with 500 nits).
The main selling point of the framework is modularity again. Unlike Chromebooks (almost all Windows laptops), the Frame Laptop 12 is completely modular, just like its larger siblings. The motherboard system is still in place, allowing you to easily swap the CPU (and the attached motherboard) for a newer years. Very easy, IT administrators can upgrade these PC ships in just a few hours.
