Framework Laptop 13 Pro

I would rather have a Framework 13 Pro where I could choose 4 ports of my choosing and swap them out at will. (That’s my current machine, sold my M2 MacBook Pro for it). I would rather have a ThinkPad X9 15p Aura Edition, which has 3x thunderbolt, SD Card, HDMI, and USB-A, all at the same time with no dongle.

My M2 Pro rarely spins up the fan. Usually when it does, it takes me a while to notice. When I do, sometimes I need to stay quiet for a second to even locate where the low purr comes from. Then I usually smile a little and think “hey, the fan is on!” and forget about it again. In fairness, my Franework 13 Pro is the same, only it gets less hot than the MacBook.

Thats why i love my Framework 13 pro - amaziong build quality and linux support out of the box. Havent touched my M2 macbook in several weeks.

(Lenovo) Thinkpads, specifically many of the X, T and P products, are best in class. All the Linux things just work at this point, and have for the last 5-10 years. Some products ship with Fedora or Ubuntu. Those lines have the highest end individual products with the best build quality, and user-serviceable/replaceable components. Other Lenovo laptops are either less good or much less good/absolute crap. I have several Framework laptops, to be supportive of alternative supply chains. They are great with Linux compatibility, all the things work, but in terms of build, they are much less mature from a long term maturity and tolerances perspective. The new 13 Pro is probably a pretty solid machine, though. I occasionally have to work on Dells or HPs for clients, and just don't like the keyboards or the fit/finish. I had a couple of earlier system 76 machines, they did not last and the keyboards also were not comparable to a Thinkpad.

I was lucky enough to be at the event and I can say the 13 Pro feels great in the hand. Overall chassis stiffness, typing (I guess due to the increased chassis stiffness), and the new touchpad all feel premium. Between that and the battery life, I think this really has a chance to win over a lot more current MBP users. FYI, the existing Framework 13 Intel motherboards do support Thunderbolt 4: https://knowledgebase.frame.work/usb-port-definition-matrix-... There's an additional, optional retimer update that's officially Thunderbolt certified, but I haven't bothered with that because my Thunderbolt dock was already working: https://knowledgebase.frame.work/en_us/framework-laptop-bios...

I'm probably the millionth person to parrot this to you but my goodness you are a hero if you can tolerate the Intel Mac experience in 2026. I thought my Intel Mac from that era was incredibly weird. Little firmware-ish things were so glitchy and sluggish. At some point the wake from sleep/lid open just took forever in ways that didn't happen on older Intel Mac models (or maybe I was going crazy). I just had this strange feeling that Apple was knowingly half-hearting their Intel drivers and products as a whole as they were putting more energy into developing Apple Silicon. Dude, you owe it to yourself to just grab a used M2 MacBook Air or something along those lines. Treat yourself. You'll be kicking yourself for not doing so sooner. (Don't get a MacBook Neo, too many compromises including poor battery life, a used Air is much better, and if you use more than one external monitor use caution on what model/CPU you choose). Sure, a laptop should last longer than 7 years, but this is one of those "Apple yeets out a new architecture" exceptions like the PowerPC to Intel transition. Better to accept it and move on. 7 years is still a solid run. You've only got ~2 more years left until you start losing security updates anyway. The other machine I highly recommend is Linux/Framework 13 Pro with the Intel Core Ultra Series 3, although that's a whole different price class, and obviously not everyone can make that move in terms of software compatibility.

I'm waiting on my 13 Pro. I need a new laptop, and the big advantage here is that I can more easily upgrade ram when (hopefully not if!) prices return to more reasonable levels. So I can be a bit more modest for now, knowing that when it comes time to upgrade, it'll be a lot cheaper than buying a whole new machine. Seems like the best option to me!

I really hope for competition’s sake that Microsoft makes some reforms and cleans up Windows. Because us nerds like to say “the software is awful,” but really, the bones of Windows are not awful at all. It generally works well, it just takes a lot of work to get all of the BS out of your way. If you’re looking for open source friendly, just buy a Framework 13 Pro and be done with it. By the way, the other news from Computex is Dell and HP’s Macbook Neo competition, and they really look legit. So, Apple is waking up the PC industry a bit, showing them that they are endangered. Hopefully Microsoft gets the memo.

Repair cost is worth noting too. If your keyboard breaks: Macbook Pro - You pay for a new topcase assembly Framework Pro - You pay a new keyboard

This always seems to come up in discussions about Framework. The extra cost is more than made up in not having to buy a full new computer every few years, and in being able to swap out the keyboard for $40 if it breaks.

It's kind of mind boggling to me that they have a tight chassis, AND it meets their buildable/ugpradeable/repairable goals, AND their backwards compatibility is reaching back five years now. I think a number of people would have expected these to eventually require a trade-off. Especially coming from pc-building land, where we see new non-backwards-compatible CPU and RAM sockets every 6 or so years. There's a version of this where Frame.work said, "Design tradeoffs mean the 13 Pro is a new platform that is largely not backwards compatible, but don't worry, the 13 series will still get 5+ years of support and parts" and everyone goes "Aw, well, I guess that's reasonable." I really want to emphasize that it's looking like Framework is creating a laptop with _better_ backwards compatibility and build-ability than a desktop PC. All this is to say that this is very very impressive!

This looks suspiciously like something I could buy : a lightweight well made Linux laptop, with long battery life. I currently use a MacBook and won’t get near a windows machine. Two questions 1/ will there be a 15 inches version ? ( I’m not getting any younger I like bigger screens ) 2/ software-wise how reliable are the suspend/resume and all the laptop features ? I’ve been using Linux for about 30y and to me this is typically the bits that usually fail. To put it differently, how confident are you that things will work properly out of the box ? Other than that , I love what you’re doing, please continue.

I was sure they’d deliver Panther Lake but didn’t think it would have LPCAMM. I thought they’d either solder the memory or skip out on delivering the good integrated graphics from the X SKUs. I’m stunned in a good way. This is a MacBook Pro killer for the nerdier end of Apple’s market. The fact that you mostly can pick and choose your upgrades to Pro is really cool, too. The mid-tier X7 board sold alone seems like a great value and it would be a pretty solid uplift to the old system.

Yeah, really impressive to see that you can take a 13 and turn it into a 13 pro with just a few new parts. I've just ordered my own 13 pro. I've been waiting for a laptop and this ticks all the boxes. I'd previously ordered a new dell xps laptop and ultimately returned it because the keyboard was busted. I would have kept it if I could have swapped the keyboard for a new one. The use of LPCAMM is also really nice. I've hoped to see this standard start taking flight and I'm happy to grab a product with it included.