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The Framework Laptop 12 targets students with an affordable, repairable design featuring a touchscreen and optional stylus. While the original model launched early last year, this updated version enters a competitive market where major brands are pushing entry-level laptops. The device uses Intel’s Wildcat Lake processor, which is described as a younger, weaker sibling of Panther Lake. It features a 12.2-inch display with a resolution of 1920×1200 and runs on Fedora 44.

The laptop weighs 2.8 pounds and measures 0.72 inches thick, making it portable but slightly heavier than aluminum competitors like the MacBook Neo or Dell’s XPS 13. It includes four expansion slots for additional ports, though the external finish is plastic coated with thermoplastic polyurethane rather than metal. The Core 7 350 CPU offers six cores and a maximum turbo clock of 4.8 GHz, but it relies on single-channel memory which can limit performance at lower capacities.

In benchmark tests, the Framework Laptop 12 performs in line with expectations for its class. It is slightly ahead of the XPS 13 in single-core speed but trails behind the MacBook Neo’s A18 chip in multi-core tasks. Compared to the more expensive Framework 13 Pro, the Core 7 350 provides comparable single-core performance despite having fewer cores and less cache. Gaming tests on Linux were limited, though Civilization VI ran at 30 frames per second.