Review: Framework’s next-gen Laptop follows through on its upgradeable promises

It is one factor to say you are making a totally user-serviceable, upgradeable laptop computer. It is one other factor to truly observe via with it.

The unique Framework Laptop computer we reviewed final 12 months did a lot of issues proper. It is simple to open and work on, the ports will be swapped out to fit your wants, and it is sturdy and well-built sufficient to face as much as conventional, less-upgradeable-and-repairable ultrabooks like Dell’s XPS 13 or Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

However making “one surprisingly good laptop computer” is not the identical as making a laptop computer ecosystem with upgradeable, interchangeable, user-serviceable elements. To do this, you want to sustain with new element releases. You have to tackle the shortcomings of your authentic design (and even launch new revisions) with out ending assist for or breaking compatibility with earlier variations of your design. And your small, unbiased firm must live on so it will possibly preserve getting all that work performed, 12 months after 12 months, for just a few years.

I can not say what the subsequent 12 months or two will carry, however I can say that the second-generation Framework Laptop computer remains to be doing nearly every thing proper. It is a evenly revised model of the unique chassis designed round a Twelfth-generation Intel Core CPU relatively than an Eleventh-gen model, and the motherboard exists as a drop-in improve for anybody who has already purchased a Framework Laptop computer.

The Framework Laptop computer does have issues, particularly in terms of battery life. However total, it is a thoughtfully designed pc that treats do-it-yourselfers and PC builders like adults who could make their very own choices. There nonetheless is not one other laptop computer fairly prefer it.