Turning my Framework laptop into a tiny desktop was fun. Now it needs a job.

Enlarge / The Framework Slabtop, as I dub it. Not a NUC, not quite a desktop. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

Many industry pundits were skeptical when the new laptop company Framework announced a repair-friendly, upgrade-ready laptop in 2021. Could you really swap parts between laptops—reasonably thin and lightweight laptops—year over year? Would that even work as a business model?

Framework released the first edition of its machine, and we found that it lived up to its promises. The company followed through with a second-generation laptop, and we reviewed the third iteration as “a box of parts” that upgraded the previous version. The upgrade experiment has been a success. All that’s left are, well, the parts left behind.

It’s 2023, and those who have Framework’s first generation of laptops, containing Intel’s 11th-generation Core processor) might be itching to upgrade, especially with an AMD model around the corner. Or maybe, like me, they find that system’s middling battery life and tricky-to-tame sleep draining (since improved, but not entirely fixed) make for a laptop that doesn’t feel all that portable. Or they’re just ready for something new.