But it appears that, tariffs or no, the new Framework Laptop 12 won’t exactly be cheap.
Framework has just opened Laptop 12 pre-orders in the UK, Europe, and Canada starting at €569/£499/$719 CAD. That’s hundreds less than Framework’s other DIY laptops, but a good bit higher than today’s entry-level Windows laptops and Chromebooks even before you consider that price doesn’t include storage, memory, ports, or an operating system. If you want those preinstalled, the machines start at €849, £749, and $1,079 CAD respectively, which is getting closer to what Framework charges for its Laptop 13.
But with the Framework Laptop 12, you’re also paying for a 2-in-1 backflipping touchscreen rather than the latest chips. At £499, it starts with a six-core 13th Gen Intel Core i3-1315U from 2023, with a 10-core i5-1334U available for £150 more. The £749 prebuilt model starts with the same i3 chip, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and you’ll pay £200 more to upgrade to the i5 and 16GB of memory.
While I’m mostly versed in US pricing, my UK colleague Jess Weatherbed assures me that similarly spec’d laptops can be had for anywhere between £400 and £600, and I can see more powerful thin-and-light machines available at the prices that Framework’s asking today. Again, repairability and modularity aren’t free.
While Framework hasn’t yet announced US pricing for the Framework Laptop 12, we can use currency conversion rates to speculate on what they might have cost in the United States if not for Trump’s tariffs. The starting price of $719 CAD is roughly $510 USD and the prebuilt $1,079 CAD price is roughly equivalent to $765 USD as of April 9th.
“We’re also working through the launch plan for US pre-orders of Framework Laptop 12, and we’ll share updates on this soon. We’ve reserved manufacturing capacity to be able to ship US pre-orders alongside the existing pre-order batches.”
Framework isn’t yet selling the color-matched stylus with removable battery it showed off as a companion to this Laptop 12; that will go on sale “soon” and you’ll have to buy it separately. But you can also use any USI 2.0 or MPP 2.0-compatible stylus, the company says, with support for both Windows and Linux.
Speaking of colors, it appears that the prebuilt Laptop 12 will only be available in black for now. You’ll have to choose the mostly preassembled “DIY” version to get cute colors like the mint and pink model.
The first batches of DIY and prebuilt models should ship in June and July, respectively.