Why I Decided on the Framework 13 for My Next Laptop

12 Apr 2025 | ~5 minute read

I've mentioned the Framework 13 a few times recently, and I ended up buying one. But a few people have messaged me wanting to know why I chose it. So, here's why...

I've had my trusty M1 Macbook Air for a few years now and I really, really love it, but it's the base model with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage and it's starting to creek.

The performance is still excellent, generally, but I'm constantly battling with storage space on it, and I can't upgrade the thing as everything is soldered onto the main board.

So I decided -- earlier than I expected, I grant you -- to start looking for a replacement. Good laptops can be crazy expensive, so before I started looking, I decided to set myself a budget of £1,500. Which is 50% more than what I paid for my M1 Air. That's a reasonable budget, I think.

My first thought was to just replace the M1 Air with an M4 Air, but with more RAM and storage, or maybe even an M4 Pro. But then Apple started doing some things that didn't sit very well with me, such as:

• Apple CEO, Tim Cook donated $1,000,000 to Donald fucking Trump.
• The UK Government asked for a backdoor into Apple's iCloud encryption. Instead of telling them to fuck right off, they just turned it off for us UK folk!
• The eWaste of it all - I can't upgrade anything on this thing.

I'm not trying to virtue signal here. I'm not saying you should boycott Apple. All I'm saying is that these decisions don't sit right with me. If you choose to continue to use Apple products, more power to you.

I still have an iPhone and iPad; I'll probably switch to something else when they die, but the storage issue on my M1 Air is what's forcing things here. Otherwise I'd keep it.

Broadening my search

All this prompted me to broaden my search. And so, after a couple of months of looking around, I created a shortlist of laptops:

• Dell XPS 13
• Framework 13
• M4 Macbook Air
• M4 Macbook Pro

At this point I didn't want to discount the Apple devices because they're just so bloody good. So I left them in the running, despite my concerns with Apple. I went ahead and configured the laptops to a specification I would be happy with, and was around the £1,500 mark. Here's what I came up with:

If you're thinking about getting a Framework, buy your own RAM and NVMe. It's a lot cheaper. 64GB RAM and 2TB NVMe from Framework is £569, but I paid just £270 from Amazon for the exact same hardware.

I was surprised by how expensive the XPS was. Fifteen hundred quid and it only has a 1080p screen, 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. If I had upped the spec to something similar to the Framework 13, it was way over £2,000.

So the Dell was out.

The M4 Pro was also out. I've already filled the 256GB of storage on my M1 Air, so I want something with more space, especially since I can't upgrade the Mac - I don't want to be in the same position in another 4 years.

OK, so that left me with the Framework and the M4 Air. I don't game, except for the occasional flurry on Minecraft with the kids, and I don't do anything that requires a shit tonne of CPU power, so although the M4 is undoubtedly better performing than the Ryzen 7(even though CPU Benchmark says different), I don't need that much power.

What I need is good performance, space to grow (in terms of storage and RAM), longevity, and the ability to upgrade the bloody thing in the future. All of which (and more) I can do with the Framework.

If in a couple years I want a more powerful CPU, I can upgrade the entire main board and CPU. Framework even offer a caddy that you can put the old board in, so I could give that to one of the kids as their computer.

But there's one issue...

What OS will I run?

I really like MacOS and have gotten use to it over the last few years. I love that it works well (once you become familiar with its quirks) and gets out of your way.

Windows 11 isn't great as it's full of bloatware, ads and all sort of other privacy eroding shenanigans. I use it on my work laptop though, and day-to-day, it's generally okay.

That leaves Linux. But I left the Linux ecosystem a few years ago because of my many frustrations with having to piss around constantly fixing things. I have less spare time than I did then, so I'm not sure if Linux is going to fly, either.

So the plan is to try Fedora 41 for a little while and see how I get on with that. I'd like to try Ubuntu too, but I'd have to get rid of those shitty Snaps and replace them with Flatpaks. Easy enough to do, but like I said, I don't want to be messing around too much with the OS.

If neither of those distros work out for me, I'm going to just dump Windows 11 on there and be done with it.

Please don't email me recommending your Linux distro of choice. I have no time (or inclination) for distro hopping. If these 2 options don't work for me, I'm just gonna move on.

I'm really excited to receive my new Framework 13; hopefully it will be delivered next week. I'll be sure to write about my thoughts on it once I've had some time behind its keyboard.

Until then, if you're one of the many Framework owners in my circles, then please feel free to reach out and let me know your thoughts, good or bad, of your Framework device - I'd love to hear them.

• Opinion
• Technology

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