Hands-On With the Framework Laptop 12: A Fixable and Fun 2-in-1 for Schools

A laptop made out of hard plastic won’t turn heads in a market dominated with sleek metallic designs. But with its upcoming 12-inch 2-in-1 laptop, Framework Computer isn’t chasing aesthetics—it’s after education buyers.

Framework just introduced the Framework Laptop 12 at a launch event in San Francisco. The company’s first convertible laptop, it’s designed to be low-cost and thoroughly repairable. After some hands-on time with the Laptop 12, I found that’s not the only evidence that Framework built the device with students, and their rough handling, in mind.

Getting a Feel for the Framework Laptop 12

The edu-focus becomes clear the moment you touch the Laptop 12. The PC is fitted in a rigid plastic chassis designed to survive drops and collisions. The whole package feels firm and sturdy, like a single block of tightly compacted components surrounded with shock-absorbing materials. Being smaller than the standard clamshell Framework Laptop 13, the Laptop 12 should feel lighter than that model.

(Credit: Michael Kan)

Another sop to the younger crowd: colors. Framework will sell the Laptop 12 in five hues: purple, pink, green, black, and white. Plus, students won’t miss out on what earned Framework its reputation—port swapping—with the Laptop 12 housing four Expansion Card bays for custom I/O modules first seen on the Framework Laptop 13. Two are on each side. These bays let you change out the type and relative location of the ports on the machine, changing out say, your USB-A for a USB-C or an HDMI-out in a given bay. (More germane, for kids? The bays also make it easy to fix a busted port.)

(Credit: Michael Kan)

Outside of the port-shuffling potential, the Laptop 12 is a basic 2-in-1 that presents few surprises. The 360-degree hinge lets you easily flip the screen to a tablet-first orientation. The panel is a 12.2-inch, 1200p touch screen that works with an optional stylus. That’s an ideal fit for elementary and high-school classroom settings, where almost all issued laptops have touch screens. And 1200p should more than suffice at the relatively small screen size.

What’s Inside the Framework Laptop 12

Framework equips the Laptop 12 with Intel’s 13th Gen Core i3 and i5 CPUs (not the chip maker’s late-model “Lunar Lake” or “Arrow Lake” Core Ultra chips), up to 48GB of DDR5 memory, and as much as 2TB of NVMe solid-state storage. This is certainly not what the entry-level configuration will come with, but all options should include a Wi-Fi 6E radio and your choice between Windows 11 and a Linux distro for the operating system.

(Credit: Michael Kan)

The idea here is to give students just enough power to get through classwork quickly and reliably. For more intense workloads (say, in specialized high-school environments or for demanding college curricula), Framework has its other, bigger Framework Laptop clamshell options. The CEO, Nirav Patel, even half-jokingly mentioned the Laptop 12’s potential appeal to more mature audiences, too.

(Credit: Michael Kan)

The Takeaway: Promising a More Sustainable Laptop for Classrooms

For Framework, the most important aspects of the Framework Laptop 12 are its repairability and its ability to swap in new modules. Through the product, the company wants to help reduce e-waste, which can often accumulate at schools. In introducing the laptop, the company went as far as to say the Framework 12 is its “most repairable” model yet.

(Credit: Michael Kan)

But for now, Framework refrained from giving the press an inside look at the PC. (Usually, we get to see the Framework machines parted out with motherboard, battery, removable bezels, and other components splayed around.) Also, Framework notes that the Laptop 12’s specific configurations are not yet finalized, so we’ll need to wait for more details.

(Credit: Michael Kan)

Pricing remains a mystery, too. Based on my hands-on experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Laptop 12 landed for around $600, or a bit cheaper, as a base-model starting price. In the meantime, the company plans on opening pre-orders for the product in April, with shipments slated for the middle of the year. Come back to PCMag later this year for a full review once we get a Laptop 12 into PC Labs.

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I’ve been working as a journalist for over 15 years—I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.

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