Framework launches the Laptop 13 Pro with Intel's new Panther Lake chips

Framework’s lineup of modular, repairable laptops has seen nan institution turn from a niche to nan mainstream. Now, nan institution is launching a pro type of its 13-inch laptop, but it’s still held adjacent to each of its principles. Because while this all-new type has plentifulness of bells and whistles, almost all of its components are still instantly compatible pinch nan remainder of nan range. You tin return a portion from this caller 13 Pro, and instal it into nan first-generation 13 launched backmost successful 2021 without overmuch fuss.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro is touted arsenic a “ground up redesign” of nan existing 13, taking into relationship feedback from its dedicated and passionate users. That includes a acold bigger battery, caller chassis, caller memory, haptic trackpad and a civilization touch display. It besides comes successful achromatic and, moreover successful nan property images, it’s instantly clear it’s a amended colour for nan company’s austere business design. CEO Nirav Patel smiled knowingly erstwhile I said it’s instantly evocative of a ThinkPad, and I mean that successful nan astir complimentary way.

The biggest alteration has been to boost nan artillery to 74Wh to reside gripes astir longevity. It’s nan 2nd clip Framework has boosted nan compartment size, which started astatine 55Wh and presently runs to 61Wh. To make nan artillery fit, nan bottommost of nan chassis has been redesigned, filling retired nan chamfers coming connected nan existing 13. Framework says nan Pro’s lifespan will deed 20 hours of uptime while streaming Netflix successful 4K, and says it’ll station nan videos to YouTube to beryllium it.

Given nan redesigned little chassis, nan caller artillery is nan 1 portion you can’t simply driblet into an older machine. “You’ll request nan caller bottommost screen to fit,” explained Patel, “but because we’ve besides accrued nan thickness of nan battery, you person to move complete to nan caller input screen that has nan haptic trackpad.” Patel added while you whitethorn request to brace up immoderate parts from upgrades, there’s nary constituent that you can’t retrofit. The caller chassis intends nan speakers are now side-firing, and are now Dolby Atmos-certified.

The bigger artillery is moving successful tandem pinch Intel’s caller Core Ultra Series 3 chips which committedness to beryllium incredibly efficient. Both Intel and Framework are judge nan Panther Lake silicon is going to sip astatine that beefy battery, but pinch capable grunt to play AAA games. Users will get nan prime of a Core Ultra 5, X7 aliases X9, pinch nan committedness each of them will beryllium capable to eat a crippled for illustration Cyberpunk 2077 for breakfast, luncheon and dinner. At nan aforesaid time, nan Pro will besides motorboat pinch an AMD Ryzen AI 300 bid mainboard option, which are nan aforesaid mainboards recovered connected nan 2025 Laptop 13.

The past awesome displacement has been successful nan RAM, going from regular SO-DIMMs to LPCAMM2. The newer hardware creation enables nan usage of LPDDR5X RAM pinch its amended powerfulness ratio and faster representation bandwidth. And it’s not soldered to nan board, truthful you tin adhd successful much astatine immoderate unspecified early date. Which is important if, I dunno, for immoderate logic nan world RAM marketplace abruptly crunches and you request to owe a kidney for a azygous stick.

Naturally, I wanted to cognize really this would effect nan laptop’s thermals, Framework’s anemic spot. Patel said nan mainboard’s cooling has been tweaked (once again), this clip pinch immoderate other thief from Intel. He added nan Pro he was utilizing to tally our telephone hadn’t spun up its fans successful half an hr which, for a Framework, is simply a large deal. As always, I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen nan point successful person.

The Pro is besides a measurement for Patel to hole immoderate of nan compromises nan institution had to make astatine its genesis. “As a startup six years ago, we conscionable didn’t person access,” said Patel, “when we spell to a show vendor [now] and opportunity ‘we want a civilization panel’ they opportunity ‘okay, let’s talk specs’ alternatively than ‘who are you?”’ The 13 Pro ships pinch a 13.5-inch, 3:2, 2,880 x 1,920 touch show pinch a adaptable refresh complaint betwixt 30 and 120Hz. Its backlight pushes each nan measurement to 700nits, it has a 1800:1 opposition ratio and per-unit colour calibration.

I was amazed nan 13 Pro has touch fixed it’s still a 13-inch productivity notebook without a wraparound hinge. “All nan measurement backmost successful 2021, erstwhile we first launched, we were getting asked for touch support,” said Patel. But nan institution was people resistant, assuming touch was an unnecessary summation for a instrumentality of this class. It was only erstwhile building nan Laptop 12 did nan squad find it to beryllium rather useful. “It was a slam dunk. We cognize group want it, we utilized it connected nan 12, we for illustration it and it doesn’t really costs that much. Let’s conscionable adhd it in,” said Patel.

Framework knows touchpads are a anemic spot for Windows laptops erstwhile compared to those made by Apple. Consequently, nan Pro 13 has a haptic touchpad pinch 4 piezo elements that, it’s hoped, will guidelines shoulder-to-shoulder pinch a MacBook Pro. The caller input screen keeps nan came keyboard and fingerprint sensor, wisely not rubbing a characteristic that isn’t surgery and doesn’t request fixing. What is cool, however, is nan much punky grey and achromatic artistic connected nan keyboard that splits nan quality betwixt a ThinkPad and a cyberdeck. “A large portion of this goes backmost to nan thought to build nan eventual developer laptop,” said Patel.

Existing Framework owners whitethorn beryllium concerned astir really this will impact their machine’s longevity. The institution mightiness not for illustration maine saying, but to me, nan Pro sanction is only meaningful if you’re buying a caller instrumentality disconnected nan support pinch nan caller features successful 1 package. There’s thing stopping you from upgrading your existing instrumentality to lucifer nan pro successful 1 go, aliases arsenic your needs evolve. That’s fundamentally nan company’s top strength, since it has committed to bringing each azygous 1 of its existing users along. But doesn’t make for nan splashiest headlines erstwhile it comes to debut a caller product.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro is disposable to pre-order today, pinch nan first shipments owed to commencement successful June. The base-model pre-built Windows strategy will commencement astatine $1,699, while nan DIY exemplary will group you backmost $1,199.