Framework’s Laptop 12 lets me tinker, but I wish it had more power

The Framework Laptop 12 is something of a rare breed: a compact 2-in-1 convertible that you don’t just use, you build. It brings Framework’s vision of a do-it-yourself laptop experience to a machine that’s both less expensive and more flexible than Framework’s other laptops — literally, thanks to its 360-degree hinge, touchscreen, and stylus. Framework originally designed this laptop with students in mind, but the company says, “every adult who tried it wanted one too” during the prototyping process.

As Framework’s first 2-in-1 machine, the Framework Laptop 12 is largely a success! Like all of Framework’s laptops, you may pay more for this type of do-it-yourself experience. But if you’re the kind of person who likes to build and customize your own PC, Framework is hugely interesting in the laptop space.

Framework Laptop 12: Specs

The Framework Laptop 12 is available in two different editions: A pre-built edition that comes ready to use with Windows installed and a DIY Edition that lets you build the machine yourself.

Framework loaned us a DIY Edition for this review, and I put it together myself. It’s an incredibly simple process that just takes a few minutes. Installing Windows (and the drivers the machine requires) takes longer than building this laptop. Assembling the hardware is the easy part!

The Framework Laptop 12 has a variety of different hardware configurations. The DIY Edition starts at $549, but you’ll need to bring your own storage, RAM, power adapter, and operating system — and the ports are extra, too. Still, you could get the base hardware with four USB ports for $593 and bring everything else yourself. The pre-assembled machine comes with Windows already installed and costs $799, which isn’t quite a “budget-priced” 2-in-1 but is arguably at the lower end of a mid-range one.

It’s also worth noting that the base model comes with an Intel Core i3-1315U processor with a total of six cores — two performance cores and four efficiency cores. A step up to an Intel Core i5-1334U processor with a total of ten cores — two performance cores and eight efficiency cores — costs another $150. Both are based on Intel’s 13th-generation Raptor Lake architecture, which means they don’t have neural processing units for AI tasks or the kind of battery life improvements we saw in Intel’s Lunar Lake or even Meteor Lake chips.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-1334U
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 RAM
• Graphics/GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
• NPU: None
• Display: 12.2-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate, touch screen, and stylus support
• Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 2MP camera
• Connectivity: Up to four swappable ports of your choice – USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2), USB-A, HDMI 2.0b, Ethernet, DisplayPort, microSD reader, and SD card reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 50 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 11.29 x 8.42 x 0.72 inches
• Weight: 2.86 pounds
• MSRP: $1,176 as tested

Framework Laptop 12: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Framework offers the Framework Laptop 12 in a variety of two-tone color schemes: Black, Gray, Lavender, Bubblegum, and Sage. Our review unit came in the two-tone Gray color, but the colorful variants look particularly striking.

True to Framework’s DIY ethos, the Laptop 12 is easy to build and exhibits solid build quality. You lift the screen up like you’re opening a normal laptop and discover a plastic tray where the keyboard would be, with the laptop’s internals right below it. You’ll just remove the piece of plastic and insert the storage and RAM. There are no screws to deal with on the inside. The storage and RAM just snap into place. You then place the keyboard tray into position, where it snaps in magnetically.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Finally, it’s just a matter of closing the laptop, flipping it over, and tightening a few screws on the bottom with an included screwdriver. The ports themselves are easy to install and swap as needed — they’re little blocks that plug right into USB-C ports set into the bottom of the laptop.

Assembly was easier than with the last Framework laptop I put together: There was no fiddly cable connection of the touchpad to the motherboard, for example, as on the Framework Laptop 13 I reviewed in 2024. It’s just a quick magnetic snap into place and then tightening a few screws. And opening the laptop up is just as easy — whether you’re starting with a DIY edition or getting a prebuild edition.

The weight of the laptop means that I can’t quite open the lid of the laptop with a single hand, but the 360-degree hinge feels great otherwise. The choice of the material on this laptop is very unusual for a laptop: Framework calls it a “chassis made of overmolded shock-absorbing TPU over plastic with an inner metal structure.” Rather than smooth plastic or metal, like many laptops, the chassis and keyboard tray have more of a matte plastic feel. Framework says it’s hard to break, but I didn’t subject it to any drop tests during the review process! It does seem to pick up fingerprints quite a bit, as you can see in some of the photos I took.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

While this is a DIY build-and-customize-your-own-laptop experience, once the keyboard is popped on magnetically and the screws are tightened, everything feels like a normal laptop. Even the ports have locking switches so they won’t pop out. At 2.86 pounds, it’s not unusually heavy for a 2-in-1 machine, although it may be a tad on the heavier side.

Framework Laptop 12: Keyboard, trackpad, and stylus

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Framework Laptop 12’s full-size keyboard feels pretty good. With 1.5mm of key travel, the action feels responsive. It’s a solid chiclet-style laptop keyboard with good feedback. I could type quickly on it, and it’s also pleasantly quiet — a bonus for classroom or library environments.

Unfortunately, the keyboard has no backlight. This is, of course, an extremely helpful feature in dark or dim lighting. If you can reliably touch type or just plan on using the laptop in good lighting, it’s not a concern. You’ll have to decide whether you need a laptop with a backlit keyboard, but I would’ve liked to see one — at least as an option.

If you’re a Linux user, you’ll appreciate that the “Windows key” on the keyboard doesn’t have a Windows logo. It functions as a Windows key in Windows, but it has the Framework gear logo on it. Also, unlike most modern PC laptops, there’s no Copilot key on the keyboard here.

The trackpad also feels nice and smooth, and the click action feels solid. I like that the click is rather quiet — many laptops have loud, clicky sounds, while this feels like something you could use in a classroom or library without bothering other people.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Framework didn’t have the swanky Framework Laptop 12 Stylus ready for us at review time — Framework says they’ll release it later in 2025 — but they did provide a MPP 2.0-compatible stylus to test the system out. Both the stylus input and the touch screen worked well.

Framework Laptop 12: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Framework Laptop 12 has a 12.2-inch 1920×1200 IPS display. Its 60Hz refresh rate could be higher for a smoother picture, but it’s brighter than the average budget laptop display with over 400 nits of brightness.

The display looks good and sharp — that’s a solid resolution for a 12.2-inch display, and it’s more brightness than a budget laptop’s display would offer. However, this being a 2-in-1 laptop with a touch screen and stylus support, the surface of the screen is rather glossy. That’s a given, and the reasonable amount of brightness helps. However, glossy displays produce more reflections in direct sunlight and other bright areas, so a glossy display isn’t the right fit for everyone.

The Framework 12’s speakers are decent. They’re nowhere near as loud as some other laptop speakers I’ve used, however. Playing Steely Dan’s Aja on Spotify, the audio was clean and clear, but didn’t have the kind of crisp and bright instrument separation you hear on a higher-end pair of headphones. Playing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky to test something modern with more bass, the audio was clear, and there was no distortion, but there wasn’t a lot of bass — and the audio wasn’t quite as punchy as it might be on a laptop with higher-end speakers. These are fine speakers with no problems, but you’ll want a good pair of headphones for the best music or video-streaming experience.

Framework Laptop 12: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Framework Laptop 12 has a 1080p 2MP webcam. On paper, that’s fine but not particularly special — although it is a relief to see that this machine has a 1080p webcam instead of a 720p webcam! In the real world, though, the Framework Laptop 12’s webcam looks pretty good — this is more than good enough for video meetings, and it’s a solid entry for the laptop’s price range.

The microphone was a little quiet out of the box — in other words, after installing Windows 11 and then installing Framework’s driver package myself — but tweaking the settings in the Realtek Audio Console application improved things. It did a good job of canceling background noise and the audio quality was fine.

The Framework Laptop 12 is a rare beast: Above its webcam, you’ll find not just a physical webcam shutter switch but also a physical microphone shutter switch. A physical switch to disconnect the microphone is an important security feature, but it’s extremely rare. Now this is a machine designed with privacy controls in mind.

Unfortunately, there are no biometrics for Windows Hello here: You won’t find a fingerprint reader or an IR camera for facial recognition.

Framework Laptop 12: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Framework Laptop 12 shines when it comes to connectivity — mostly. The base laptop has a combo audio jack on the left side, and that’s it for the base model. Then, there are four places to plug in “ports,” which you can buy from Framework and swap on the fly. That lets you choose which ports you want: USB Type-C, USB Type-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, microSD card, or SD card. You can also buy “ports” that have storage inside them to expand the laptop’s storage.

The machine charges via USB-C, so at least one of those ports must be USB Type-C so that you can plug in a charger. But you can put the USB-C port on either side of the laptop — or on both sides.

That said, there’s a limitation under the hood. Functionally speaking, all of those “ports” are blocks that plug into a USB Type-C port — it’s all USB-C under the hood. These ports are all USB 3.2 Gen 2 under the hood, so there’s no faster USB4, Thunderbolt 4, or even HDMI 2.1 here — just HDMI 2.0b. There’s a good chance that’s fine — just be aware.

This machine also supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The Wi-Fi worked well, but it would’ve been nice to see Wi-Fi 7, of course. Framework is using previous-generation Intel “Raptor Lake” hardware here, and Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t come standard with this Intel hardware.

Framework Laptop 12: Performance

The Framework Laptop 12 can run either Windows or Linux. I installed Windows 11 Home on this machine myself to benchmark its performance with our standard suite of Windows benchmarking tools.

Framework says this machine was designed “to be unusually powerful for its class,” which is why it has a full Core i3 or Core i5 processor rather than a less-expensive, mobile-focused version. In day-to-day desktop use, the Intel Core i5-1334U CPU in this machine handled web browsing in applications like Google Chrome, conversations in workplace tools like Slack, and producing content like this very review in Microsoft Word. The laptop’s keyboard stayed cool and comfortable even when the fan was whirring away and expelling heat from the back of the machine. However, the bottom could get fairly hot under load — that’s the older Raptor Lake hardware in action.

As always, though we ran the Framework Laptop 12 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance.  The Framework Laptop 12 delivered an overall score of 5288 in this benchmark — that’s on the low side compared to other modern laptops, which isn’t a surprise as this is a previous-generation chip.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. The Intel Core i5-1334U in this machine has fewer cores than the CPUs in the other modern PCs we compared it to, so it’s no surprise that the multithreaded score of 2106 is on the low side.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. The Framework Laptop 12 completed the encode process in 2648 seconds, which is just over 44 minutes. That’s a long time, and it confirms that this machine isn’t a speed demon — especially at tasks that benefit from a lot of multithreaded CPU performance.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still worth evaluating GPU performance. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The Framework Laptop 12 produced a score of 1255 in 3DMark Time Spy. That’s very low compared to other modern laptops, which is no surprise — the Intel UHD Graphics here are part of the previous-generation Raptor Lake package here, and integrated GPUs have improved dramatically since then.

Overall, the Framework Laptop 12’s benchmark scores didn’t impress compared to other recent laptops with more modern CPUs. It was still plenty capable of producing solid-day-to-day productivity performance, but it will particularly struggle when it comes to CPU-heavy multithreaded workloads and 3D graphics. Obviously, that’s not what this machine is for — but it’d be nice to have better performance, especially for 3D graphics, with a laptop designed for students.

Framework Laptop 12: Battery life

The Framework Laptop 12 has a 50 Watt-hour battery, which is on the small end for a machine like this one. Additionally, the choice of an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU from the older 13^th generation (“Raptor Lake”) keeps the price down and delivers decent performance, but it suggests this machine will be more power-hungry and get lower battery life than a newer machine with Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware — which is, of course, much more expensive.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled — and the screen set to 250 nits of brightness — until the laptop suspends itself. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.

The Framework Laptop 12 lasted for an average of 688 minutes — that’s nearly eleven and a half hours — in our standard benchmark. While that sounds impressive, real-world battery life will always be less than this, and it’s a low number compared to laptops with more modern power-efficient CPUs. CPU manufacturers have made a lot of progress since Intel first released Raptor Lake in 2022!

For my workload — Google Chrome, Slack, Microsoft Word, OneNote, and similar apps — I got about five hours before I had to plug in the machine. That’s serviceable, but it’s still far below what a machine with Intel Lunar Lake or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus would deliver. A larger battery would make this less of an issue.

Framework Laptop 12: Conclusion

The Framework Laptop 12 is a hard laptop to score. If you want a modular, repairable, customizable 2-in-1 laptop, there’s no other machine like this on the market. This is your dream machine. You’ll find 2-in-1s with more battery life and performance, but you won’t find any you can crack open and make your own like this.

On the other hand, when comparing this to other 2-in-1 machines, if repairability and customization aren’t priorities, this machine is a tougher sell, especially over something with a newer CPU and faster 3D graphics performance.

For a few hundred bucks more, for example, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition delivers much improved battery life, CPU performance, and GPU performance — alongside an NPU for AI tasks — and the main sacrifice is Framework’s repairability and customizability.

Framework’s laptops are amazing. I love that they exist! If it had a slightly newer CPU, it’d be a slam-dunk. As it stands, it’s an excellent (though niche) choice for tinkerers and students who value flexibility over raw performance.