We built a non-boring computer: the Framework Laptop 12.

So we did it, and the team that we put on this is absolutely incredible. We put Esther, our industrial designer, Travis Mechanical, Anthony Electrical, Daniel, firmware and software, our TPM Pinky, and our GSM Steve. So absolutely a killer team, working for the last two years really on making this thing as awesome as it could be. And that is actually what brought us to Framework Laptop 12. And just as a very brief high-level overview, this is a 12.2 inch 360 convertible tablet that has stylus support. And it comes in a range of super interesting, cool colorways. And one of my favorite parts of this actually is that our industrial designer, Esther, has a daughter who she kind of kept in the design loop throughout the entire iteration process on this. So observing how she used her computers, and then basically just throwing out different ideas and different iterations and seeing how she reacted to them. And so it led this really interesting dynamic where throughout the entire thought process and development process of this, we had our end user not just in mind, but like physically giving us feedback on what we were building. So it just ended up with something super cool. And obviously one thing that is very obvious as you look at this product is that it is extremely colorful. It actually didn't start out this colorful. So early on in the process, we actually planned to do multiple colorways to begin with. And so Esther, as she was doing her design iteration, rendered a bunch of different colorways for us to actually down-select between. But when we saw all those colorways laid out and saw them together, we realized that like, no, actually we need to just build all of them because we know that everyone's going to have their favorite personal color selection to go with. This is actually the one I'm personally going to be using. I actually really love our bubblegum colorway. I think it's just super cool and super unique. And really, computers should be more fun than they are. They can be more fun than they are today. And we decided to really hook into that opportunity. As we started building this thing and getting our hands on it, we actually kind of revisited the age range that we were going for. Originally, we were really targeting that core age 11 through 18 audience. But as we got our hands on these things and started showing them to folks around the Framework team, started showing them to key partners, literally every adult we talked to said, I want one too. And so actually what we're seeing and what we believe we're going to see is that a lot of you out there who are outside of that range, including myself personally, we're going to end up using these things. And actually, it ends up that using Framework Laptop 12 along with a Framework desktop ends up being this pretty interesting combination. That super powerful little workstation gaming rig at home and then this fun little throw-it-around 12-inch laptop to go with ends up being a lot of fun. Let's walk through some of the specs. So this has a 12.2 inch 1920 by 1200, so 16 by 10 aspect ratio touchscreen. It's actually really bright, so we customized this display working with our display supplier to boost up the brightness to be much brighter than you typically see from an entry-level or lower cost laptop. It has Intel 13th Gen, which we've actually shipped before in Framework Laptop 13. We shipped that a couple of years ago. It actually is a pretty powerful processor, both the CPU and the GPU capabilities. And being able to bring that processor into the Framework Laptop 12 let us reach a price point where we really just can't bring a Framework Laptop 13. But at the same time, as we look at other lower cost computers, especially aimed at younger audiences, we see they're usually using these super low-end small core processors. And so we decided that instead of doing that, we'd be able to deliver a much better experience by still using the high-end premium processor lineup from Intel, but going backwards a generation to be able to hit the price point that we needed to hit. So we think that ended up being this really good balance in the product. Of course, it's got socketed memory, so you can put in up to 32 gigs of DDR5. It also, of course, has socketed storage, so you can put in up to a two terabyte M.2 2230 SSD. And like every product we build, it is super easy to customize, upgrade, repair, and replace any part of. And we include a screwdriver in the box like we do with all of our products. Just like the Framework Laptop 13, the Framework Laptop 12 has four expansion card slots, so you can actually choose the ports that you want and swap them out at any time. And with Framework Laptop 12, we've actually introduced new expansion card colors to match the colorways of the products. We thought that we didn't want to have a situation where you have mismatched colors or you're forced to anyway, but if you want to, you can. And with these four expansion card slots, all four of them support USB 3.2 and DisplayPort output. And of course, you can put in an HDMI expansion card to get HDMI as well. And all four slots also support power input. And so early on, we actually went back in history and dug up a bunch of different examples of interesting hinge architectures and interesting convertible architectures. So we looked at detachables, we looked at pivot hinges, we looked at some really, really wild stuff like this Vadim Clio that I think was on, not this specific one, but this product was on the Space Shuttle at some point, with this very, very unique path to converting between a laptop and a tablet. And we actually even looked at going very, very deep into the framework philosophy of modularization and building a design that could be disassembled into separate modules and reconfigured into different modes like a tablet and a laptop, kind of like how Framework Laptop 16 is deeply modular. And what we arrived at in the end, actually, is that the right answer for this product was going as simple as we possibly could. And so we actually focused primarily, really, as we looked at how people were using their computers on making the laptop experience as good and as robust as it could possibly be. So when you're using it as a laptop, it does look and feel and behave like a normal clamshell laptop. And so the priority was really, let's make sure that this core use case is as good as it can be. And obviously, it is a touchscreen, so you can tap it and draw on it as you need to. And then keeping tablet mode, not something that you would pick up and carry it around necessarily with, although you could do that, but really focus more on the application, note-taking, and drawing use case of being able to flip it into tablet mode, put it on a surface, and take notes. And as we did that, we were able to come up with this really minimal, lightweight, and really importantly, incredibly robust design. And so as you look at this product, one thing to note is that those colorways are actually not just for fun, this two-tone design. This is actually because we have PCABS plastic with TPU rubber overmolded with metal inner structure inside of it. And as a result of that, this thing ends up being simultaneously really light and really, really durable. So this is our most durable product, and we're confident that you're going to be able to use this thing for many, many years. But obviously, equally importantly, we designed it to be extremely easy to repair, too. So we can just flip it over and open this thing up. Just like every framework laptop, we really focused on design for repairability. And especially with Framework Laptop 12, we actually took in all of the lessons from Framework Laptop 13 and Framework Laptop 16 to make sure that, especially for the audiences that we're targeting with this product, that this would be as easy to repair as it possibly could be. So for one thing, of course, all the fasteners are captive. There's no loose fasteners as you're doing common repairs where you would need to keep track of those and remember which one goes where. They actually just stay attached in the system, which makes it just super, super easy. And then as you flip this over to get inside, one really cool thing to call out is that there's actually no cable connecting the input cover to the insides of the system. So we actually took in some of the design work that we did on Framework Laptop 16 and made a pogo pin connection between the input cover and the rest of the system, which is both super robust and also really easy to open up and close without having to worry about handling cables and cycling connectors. So this is something we're really proud of when it comes to design for repairability. And then obviously, just like all of our products, once you get inside, it's all very simple. It's just a single layer. Nothing's covering anything else. And all the parts have labels and QR codes. And so you can scan the QR codes and it'll take you right into our website to get guides and replacement parts. And everything you see here, every part is easily replaceable. So the main board's replaceable, the battery is replaceable, the speakers, the memory and storage, the Wi-Fi. And we actually designed a system to be able to replace the SSD tool list as well. So you can actually just pop that in and click that into place, just like how you can replace the memory tool list. And that's something that the team worked on that is just a super cool design feature. And then one other thing is that, of course, this is a tablet and touchscreen. And that means that you do have a bonded touchscreen with cover glass. And so in most laptops, that means that to replace a broken screen, you end up needing to replace essentially half the laptop, the entire top lid assembly. And we decided, obviously, we don't want that to be the case. We want to make sure that you can replace the display if you do ever manage to break it or in the future, if there is a need to upgrade it. And so we designed the display module to be easily replaceable as well. These fasteners here are not captive fasteners just for space limitations. But hopefully, this is not something that you would need to do very often. So you just take off that cap, you slide down the display, and then the display comes up and you can disconnect the cables here and be able to replace that display super easily.