Framework's 12th Gen Intel upgrade kit is a welcome first for laptops

pcgamer.com:

Framework, the company that produces a fully modular laptop, has just announced a range of new Alder Lake mainboards for its laptops. This will allow users to upgrade existing 11th Gen laptops to the very latest tech. Alternatively, if you want to get in on the Framework game, then you can buy a whole new laptop built around these new 12th Gen modules. 

Framework isn't the first company to promise upgradeable CPUs—Alienware promised support for the same back in 2019, although never delivered and was sued for it too. With these new mainboards, Framework is delivering.

These new mainboards are built around Intel's 12th Gen Core processors, packing eight Efficient cores and, depending on the model, either four or six Performance cores. With Hyper-Threading, you're looking at up to 20 threads. Three different mainboards are available: i7-1280P, i7-1260P, and i5-1240P. These mainboards support 30W sustained performance with a 60W boost.

The accompanying press shots show the new mainboards with DDR4 memory, although it isn't clear if separate DDR5 mainboards will be available as well.

We first talked about Framework Laptops back in July 2021, and have followed the progress with interest ever since. In case you missed it: Framework laptops offer a fully modular approach to laptop design that supports true upgrading and repair that's far easier than traditional laptops. You can decide what is important to you too—from the core configuration of which CPU through to the ports it has available. 

These laptops are great news for the Right to Repair initiative, as you don't have to throw out a perfectly good laptop in order to keep it up to date. 

We reported last month that Framework is making its own mainboards now, and it has