Framework Just Made Their Best Laptop Yet

I want to start this video by thanking

Framework for flying me out to their

event in San Francisco. They put me up

in a nice hotel and fed me yummy food.

That being said, their hospitality did

not sway my opinions on their

announcements. Let's start with the star

of the show, a brand new version of

their Framework 13, the 13 Pro. The

Framework 13 Pro is bringing us a

refined CNC aluminum chassis. It comes

in black, aka graphite, which looks

quite sharp. Silver looks a little dated

in my opinion, even on something like

the MacBook Pros. and the black feels

more modern. The new color does pick up

fingerprints pretty badly, so it's still

available in silver if you prefer that.

The new chassis feels a bit more premium

and well-built, but the difference was

not as big as I was expecting. The size

and form factor itself couldn't change

too much because they've made it

backwards and forwards compatible. All

the displays fit in both chassis. Old

mainboards can go in the new chassis and

vice versa. On the keyboard, there is

now an alternate color way, as Framework

calls it, with gray and orange accent

keys on their black keyboard. I love

this. It truly makes it look like a

laptop that belongs to a coder. On the

other hand, they have a lavender accent

option, too, which I expected to like

more, but I think the white text on the

lighter lavender keys makes them hard to

read. Another big announcement on this

new 13 Pro is that we are getting a

brighter 2.8K touchscreen option. This

not only helps small text look sharper

with its high resolution, but also adds

functionality we did not have

previously. It's rare that we see a

matte non-reflective display that also

supports touch. As with the prior

screens, it is still 13.5 in with a 3x2

aspect ratio, which provides more

vertical space than many modern laptops.

Still, it's disappointing that it's an

IPS panel, not an OLED or tandem OLED.

Instead of the screen, the crowd was

more excited by the haptic touchpad. We

know that touchpads were Windows and

Linux laptops have typically fallen

behind MacBook Pro. So, we put a ton of

focus on this. Framework's mechanical

trackpad might be one of the better ones

I've used, but finally having a haptic

option is great. I got to try the

touchpad, and I think the tap to click

was a bit too sensitive. I found myself

double clicking a little, but tracking

felt smooth. Hopefully, on a production

unit with some minor settings changes,

it would be fine. In terms of overall

quality and premium feel, this laptop is

nicer than it used to be, but not as

nice as something like Lenovo's Yoga

Slim 7i Ultra. That is the most premium

laptop I've ever used. The Framework 13

Pro simply isn't at that level, but I'd

say it's getting to the level of other

metal laptops like the Samsung Galaxy

Book 6 Pros. Now, while these

improvements are great, the new Intel

processors are just as exciting. All

three CPU options offer benefits that we

haven't seen in prior framework 13s. To

help you figure out how these perform,

I'll be showing you some example laptops

with these chips. First, you've got the

higherend 16 core X CPUs, which offer

solid performance rivaling Apple's M5

base chip, but definitely not at the

level of an M5 Pro chip, both of which

can be found around this price point.

They've also included a 100 watt charger

to support these new 16 core Panther

Lake chips. The 8 core CPU falls near

the bottom here, but it lasts forever on

battery, which is probably where

Framework's 20our battery life claim is

coming from. Of course, we'll have to

test that and see what it actually gets

because they test video playback and we

don't feel that's very realistic. We do

office tasks instead and likely at

higher brightness, which is closer to

what we think someone would actually do

unplugged. We should still be seeing

much better battery life than last gen

though, especially since they've

included a larger 74-watth battery

instead of the 61. This new one is still

compact enough to fit in the same space

as the smaller one, though. Lastly, back

on the CPU options, both higherend X

chips bring awesome integrated GPU

performance, similar to an entry-level

dedicated GPU. I often use Xchip laptops

for light creative work, like reviewing

our videos at lower resolutions, and

they do a good job of that. Another

improvement to the internals is the 13

Pro's LP cam memory modules. These can

offer fast memory speeds comparable to

soldered RAM while still being

replaceable. This technology is super

cool. We're glad to see Framework is the

first to truly embrace it here, but

let's talk about where the team and I

were a little disappointed. There is

still a single fan cooling solution.

Panther Lake is more efficient than

prior chips, yes, but I still think

we're going to want two fans with those

more powerful X CPUs. A more effective

cooling solution means less fan noise

under heavy load and a cooler feeling

laptop. I imagine this decision was made

because of compatibility, but I do hope

they find a way around it soon. We'll

have to wait and see how it does under

load. So, get subscribed with the

notification bell on so you can see our

full review when it drops. We'll test

all of its performance modes to see

which has the best balance between

performance, heat, and fan noise. Okay,

now for the rest of the announcements.

The Framework 16 is getting a facelift,

or I guess you could say they're filling

in the cracks. One of the biggest

complaints about the Framework 16 is how

its modular design around the keyboard

and trackpad makes it look janky and

sometimes even cheap. The pieces moved

around a bit when you touch them. So,

I'm glad to see a new haptic touchpad

that comes on a singular plate, which

looks much cleaner and more cohesive.

The part housing the keyboard will also

have a single plate option. Both of

these make the laptop look much better,

but it's still a clunky laptop. Another

new product for the Framework 16 is this

new Oculink dev kit, where you can use

an external GPU directly via eight PCIe

lanes. This avoids the bandwidth issues

of other external GPUs that connect via

USBC or Thunderbolt. With this dev kit,

you can either connect to a framework

GPU module or a desktop GPU. We're

actually testing quite a few external

GPUs right now for a big video on them.

I'll add this one to our list. The last

product they went over was their new

wireless touchpad keyboard, which I will

admit looks a lot like a product I

already have in my home. We use ours for

the living room PC we game on and

connecting to our servers. If you also

have one, you might know they can be a

bit janky and don't always work

perfectly. If this thing can improve on

those even a little bit, it'll be great.

Regardless, it will get framework in

front of more people, which is a good

thing. Another product they announced is

their new laptop bag for the 12-in and

13-in frameworks. The black one looks

fine, pretty boring, whatever. But the

silver one, which I think they're going

for like a spaceacuit look, really just

ends up looking like duct tape. I did

not like it, and I think it looks cheap.

All right, let's wrap. We like what

we're seeing here a lot. In the past,

framework laptops didn't make sense for

most people outside of techy land. The

modularity doesn't matter to everyone.

The laptops can look sort of

Frankenstein, and the chassis weren't

very stylish. Plus, they were just too

expensive. This pricing often negated

the whole value proposition of an

upgradeable laptop. What's the point of

a framework if it's cheaper to just buy

a regular laptop, sell it every 3 years,

and get a new one? But now we are seeing