Framework Announces Its Second Gen Lineup

Updated Laptops And An All New Desktop

Framework had an impressive event yesterday where they showed off new 12″ and 13″ laptops as well as an all new mini ITX gaming PC.  The Framework Desktop is a bit of a different beast for Framework, as it doesn’t have the same modular design as their laptops and it comes with a fairly hefty price tag.   The 4.5 litre system comes in four flavours, for $1,099, you get a Ryzen AI Max 385 with the Radeon 8060S integrated GPU and 32GB of RAM.  If you spend $1,599 you can up that to a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip and 64GB of RAM and for $1999 the top of the line Framework Desktop offers 128GB of RAM with the same Ryzen AI Max+ 395.  You can also opt to skip the case, in which case the bast model starts at $799 and goes up from there.

It is worth noting that in all three models the RAM is soldered on and unable to be upgraded.  While that is somewhat upsetting it is for a reason, ensuring the “massive 256GB/s memory bandwidth that Ryzen AI Max delivers” is reachable and sustainable.

As for the laptops, the Framework Laptop 12 is a different beast than the original 13″ model, and it’s modules are not compatible with the larger model.  The laptop is 12.2″, and a 1920×1200 touchscreen, in a convertible chassis reminiscent to the ASUS Yoga.  It supports up to 48GB of DDR5-5200, which may mean a single DDR5 slot, and up to 2GB of NVMe storage.  There is no AMD option, at least for now, the CPU will be a 13th-generation Core i3 or i5.   It is fully modular so you can chose parts and I/O ports as you like.

The new Framework Laptop 13 now comes with Ryzen AI 300-series processors.  They also updated the USB-C from the previous model so that the two rear USB ports support full 40Gbps USB4, the front 10Gbps USB 3.2 and all four ports support display output now instead of just three of them.  The RAM on both the 12″ and 13″ do not seem to be soldered on, so you will sacrifice a bit of bandwidth for the ability to upgrade.