Wanted to share my newest toy with y’all, Framework’s latest 13" laptop with the AMD 7000 CPU. I pre-ordered this back in April and it finally showed up this morning!
Packaging was pretty nice. I ordered the DIY package which included:
- Orange Bezel
- Input Type Cover
- AMD Ryzen 7640U Mainboard
- x2 DDR5-5600 8GB RAM Modules
- Expansion Cards (more on this later)
- Framework screwdriver + pre-order bonus stickers
Unboxed the type cover (right) and the main chassis/motherboard (left). You receive the laptop chassis with the mainboard already installed and the cooling apparatus already mounted. No need for thermal paste or anything like that. The 55Wh battery and the AMD RZ616 network chip are pre-installed as well. QR codes linked to Framework’s documentation for each component are everywhere.
Installed the two DDR5-5600 DIMMs and the Solidigm P44 Pro. I went with the Framework official RAM, but got the Solidigm P44 from Microcenter on sale. Framework uses standard sockets for both of these components.
Cool little detail here, the Framework team put their names on the inside of the I/O port cover.
Attach the input cover to the mainboard with a single ribbon cable after the RAM and Storage have been installed. Magnets around the edge of the case ensure you’ve fitted the input cover properly.
There are captive screws on the underside of the chassis that secure the input cover as well, use the Framework-supplied screwdriver to tighten those. I installed Framework’s party trick next, the expansion cards. I bought two USB-A, one USB-C, one HDMI and one Ethernet card. On these new AMD boards, the rear two expansion ports are USB4, the front two are USB3.2.
Final step is sticker installation! I’ve never actually put stickers on a laptop before. But I’ve also never purchased a laptop for myself. First time for everything.
I haven’t decided what OS I’m gonna go with. Linux is a bit of a challenge right now due to how new this chipset is but I’ll probably end up with a Debian-based distro. Framework officially supports Fedora and Ubuntu.
Overall pretty happy with the hardware so far. It feels really solid, like any other laptop you’d get from Dell or HP.