This is my new favorite laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon it already went up in price by $800

Framework laptops ever travel pinch compromises successful speech for their unsocial DIY premise. Even though you salary other for 1 compared to sleeker options from competitors, it’s easier to excuse insignificant flaws for modular ports, easy repairs, and an awesome scope of upgradeable parts. So what happens erstwhile Framework goes “Pro”? We get a one-of-a-kind jewel among notebooks.

The 13 Pro corrects and improves galore shortcomings of the regular Laptop 13. It has a agleam and crisp touchscreen, the champion haptic trackpad not made by Apple, and an impeccable build and feel. Take each that and wed it to a awesome Intel spot and cutting-edge user-replaceable LPCAMM2 representation — some of which thief to amended equilibrium capacity and extra-long artillery life — and you’ve sewage thing really special.

But what if this each happens successful the throes of RAMageddon, pinch ever-increasing tech prices? Well, it’s now costly arsenic hell, of course. Our higher-end prebuilt reappraisal portion of the Laptop 13 Pro pinch a Windows licence was meant to costs $2,299 erstwhile it arrived astatine my door, but aft fresh representation value increases it’s now a nausea-inducing $3,099.

An $800 value summation earlier reaching a azygous customer. We’ve seen lots of recent sticker shock, but this 1 particularly hurts.

The Laptop 13 Pro is an all-black instrumentality pinch an exquisite matte finish. It really looks achromatic alternatively of immoderate variety of acheronian gray, and it feels rigid and good crafted — acold from the hodgepodge erector group of its bigger cousin, the Laptop 16, aliases the bully but somewhat lower-quality build of the modular Laptop 13. Inside the 13 Pro are caller Intel Panther Lake chips pinch LPCAMM2 RAM, aliases it tin beryllium optioned pinch last-gen AMD processors and slower SODIMM DDR5 memory. Our prebuilt reappraisal portion has a 16-core Intel Core Ultra X7 358H CPU pinch a 12-core Arc B390 integrated GPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and 4 modular USB-C ports. Unlike different Frameworks, each larboard supports Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 2.1, and up to 140W charging truthful you tin freely equine your modular description cards without immoderate restrictions.

Everything present is really good put together. There’s nary flex aliases springiness to the chassis aliases keyboard deck, moreover though everything’s easy disassembled pinch a fistful of elemental screws. The keyboard itself is awesome to type on. It maintains the bully 1.5mm cardinal recreation and tactility of the regular Laptop 13, but feels ever-so-slightly amended acknowledgment to a caller one-piece aluminum frame. The 1080p webcam is simply a holdover from the regular model, maintaining its coagulated capacity — it’s beautiful sharp, if conscionable a touch grainy successful immoderate lighting.

The large upgrades to the 13 Pro’s components are the caller haptic trackpad and touchscreen LCD. This is the champion non-Apple haptic trackpad I’ve ever used. It’s very responsive to “clicks” from area to corner, and it feels and sounds conscionable right. The caller surface is still a 13.5-inch matte-finish 120Hz IPS sheet pinch 2880 x 1920 solution for that fantabulous 3:2 facet ratio, but it’s brighter (700 nits) and touch-enabled. Until now, a touchscreen connected a Framework was only recovered connected the cheaper Laptop 12.

The 13 Pro’s audio comes from a brace of side-firing stereo speakers. The speakers were 1 of the weaker points of the modular Laptop 13, and they’re the 13 Pro’s biggest fault. The side-mounted predisposition creates a mini spot of a soundstage, but wide the speakers sound a small bladed and treble-y pinch minimal bass. When I reviewed the Laptop 13, a savvy commenter pointed maine toward open-source app FxSound to thief pinch its audio woes. FxSound does thief the 13 Pro sound noticeably amended and fuller (with tons of EQ and boost options), but unluckily for Linux users it’s Windows only.

The Intel spot and LPCAMM2 representation wrong do a awesome occupation delivering connected some capacity and exceptional powerfulness efficiency. This newer style of compression-mounted representation is amended for some of those factors, conscionable for illustration LPDDR5X, but without having to beryllium soldered to the main board. The tradeoff for utilizing LPCAMM2 is that it’s newer tech that’s mostly pricier than DDR5 (gulp).

Thanks to this representation and the powerfulness sipping of Intel’s Panther Lake chip, the Laptop 13 Pro is simply a artillery champ. Framework claims it lasts up to 17 hours during progressive web usage, but that’s pinch brightness astatine only 250 nits. Even astatine 80 to 100 percent brightness and keeping complete a twelve Chrome tabs positive Slack and Signal unfastened while occasionally streaming Apple Music, it took maine astir 10.5 hours to spell from afloat charged to 12 percent artillery near successful the tank. Compared to the Laptop 13’s AMD chip, the 13 Pro is outstanding.

Raw capacity from the Ultra X7 358H is bully too. While Framework bills the Laptop 13 Pro arsenic “the MacBook Pro for Linux users,” it still doesn’t rather support up pinch Apple’s overmuch cheaper laptops. (At slightest connected Windows. I’ll person to spot astir testing it connected Linux successful a imaginable follow-up like I did the Framework Desktop.) It’s not near successful the dust, however, particularly successful graphics-heavy tasks for illustration Blender. That’s wherever the 12-core integrated GPU, a awesome betterment complete the regular Framework 13, shines brightest. I was somewhat taken aback by its debased scoring successful the PugetBench trial for Adobe Premiere, and I expected somewhat faster rendering successful our Premiere 4K export trial (see our benchmark array below), but real-world usage hasn’t disappointed.

I was rather happy pinch really the 13 Pro handled Adobe Lightroom Classic. It took conscionable complete 7 minutes to import a paper afloat of astir 2,000 66-megapixel RAW images (93GB of files), and astir that agelong to render each the first previews. It besides performed good erstwhile bouncing astir a ample action of those images and making various edits. I cognize firsthand that moreover a guidelines M5 MacBook Pro is faster astatine this benignant of stuff, but the Framework performed conscionable fine.

While the Framework isn’t built specifically for gaming, moving Windows 11 instantly gives it that spot complete immoderate Mac by default. And the 13 Pro’s potent integrated graphics are conscionable good for 1080p gaming astatine debased to moreover mean settings — typically delivering 50 to 60fps connected titles for illustration Cyberpunk 2077, Battlefield 6, and Helldivers 2 erstwhile utilizing Intel’s XeSS upscaling. It could moreover push to the panel’s afloat 2880 x 1920 solution successful Cyberpunk and usage framework procreation to support 60fps (natively rendering 30fps, which is good for a single-player crippled for illustration that).

This laptop does get basking nether load aliases erstwhile playing demanding games. The chassis is astir the aforesaid thickness arsenic a 14-inch MacBook Pro, though a touch lighter, and it tin consciousness for illustration it’s going to ray your thigh connected occurrence erstwhile nether afloat load. Your fingers thankfully don’t get toasted connected the keyboard successful either the location statement aliases WASD positions, but conscionable beyond that, adjacent the hinge, I measured it concisely hitting 57 degrees Celsius / 135 degrees Fahrenheit. It didn’t enactment that basking for long, but thermals mightiness beryllium a flimsy interest for group looking to activity this laptop difficult for lengthy periods.

As bully arsenic the Laptop 13 Pro is, there’s nary escaping its caller astronomical value and the turmoil surrounding its launch. Framework has raised prices connected each of its devices, and the 13 Pro isn’t being spared moreover earlier its launch. Just past week, Framework bumped immoderate reserved preorders down from 32GB of RAM to 16GB and raised the value of caller preorders by arsenic overmuch arsenic $800. Browsing the Framework subreddit and seeing moreover the brand’s astir hardcore fans saying they’re being priced retired and canceling their orders feels grim. We’re already seeing different tech companies cancel devices aliases springiness up wholly connected immoderate markets because of skyrocketing RAMageddon prices, and the fearfulness is really it mightiness impact the semipermanent viability of niche tech products for illustration Framework’s.

The somewhat bully news is that if existing Framework Laptop 13 owners for illustration what the 13 Pro is offering, they tin bargain galore of those parts a la carte and upgrade to the circumstantial components they attraction astir about — from the Intel mainboard pinch LPCAMM2 to the brighter touchscreen and haptic trackpad. That doesn’t make those upgrades cheap, but it thumps buying a full caller laptop. And frankincense we’ve arrived astatine the full constituent of Framework successful the first place. Non-upgradeable laptops for illustration the MacBook Pro whitethorn beryllium the “better” bargain for capacity per dollar (even aft Apple’s own value increases), but those computers ever stay immoderate configuration you bought connected time one.

It’s difficult not to emotion Framework laptops. (The hardware, specifically. The existent institution is easier to have mixed feelings about.) The 13 Pro is the astir complete Framework laptop yet — the 1 pinch the fewest faults to place successful favour of each its cool and nifty DIY features. It’d beryllium a awesome wide package moreover without upgradeability, those awesome modular ports, and easy repairability. Factor each that successful and it’s 1 of my favourite laptops I’ve ever used. But past I look astatine the price.

Like other caller laptops I’ve reviewed, I’m near wondering what could person been if RAMageddon ne'er happened. While I’d emotion to entertain the dream of the 13 Pro 1 time coming down successful value aft this large wind is weathered, there’s nary safe harbor yet successful sight.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge