Technology

Framework Laptop 13 Pro Preorders Ship With Less RAM After Cost Surge

Framework is shipping its Laptop 13 Pro preorders with reduced memory after supplier costs more than doubled. Affected customers can cancel for a full refund.

Framework is adjusting memory configurations on some Laptop 13 Pro preorders after its memory supplier quoted prices more than double what it paid for the prior inventory. The new prebuilt starting price is $1,599, up $100 from the original announcement. Customers unhappy with the change can cancel for a full refund. The price pressure reflects the same memory market dynamics that have pushed up costs across the laptop industry, intensified by Framework's reliance on the still-new LPCAMM2 standard. Separately, the company has managed to lower SSD prices on the DIY edition and is warning of an upcoming CPU price increase.

What changed

Framework has begun notifying some Laptop 13 Pro preorder customers that the memory configuration on their order has changed, along with the price. The company says its memory supplier quoted prices that are more than double what it paid for the prior inventory of LPCAMM2 modules, the new replaceable memory standard the laptop uses. Framework has enough modules on hand to cover all preorders, but the mix of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB modules it has in stock does not line up with what customers originally ordered, so some orders are being shifted to a different memory tier.

The company is offering full refunds on deposits for any customer who is unhappy with the new configuration. New orders on the Framework website have also been repriced, with the prebuilt Laptop 13 Pro now starting at 1,599∗∗foranIntelCoreUltra5325with16GBofmemoryand512GBofstorage.Thatis∗∗1,599** for an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. That is **100 more than the initial announcement price.

Why this is happening now

The Laptop 13 Pro is one of the first laptops to use LPCAMM2, a replaceable LPDDR5X memory standard that lets users swap memory modules without soldering. That choice is good for longevity and repairability, but it also means Framework is buying from a thinner supplier base than it would for the older, fully soldered memory it has used in past products. When that supplier raises prices, the company has limited room to substitute.

The wider market context matters too. The AI buildout has driven up demand for high-bandwidth memory and HBM in data centers, and that pressure has spilled over into the consumer and laptop memory market. Several laptop makers have raised prices on configurations in the last quarter, and a few have dropped higher-memory SKUs entirely. Framework's situation is the same dynamic, just visible in a more specific way because the company communicates preorder changes directly to its customers instead of silently through retail channels.

What customers can do

Framework's message to affected preorder customers is straightforward: if the new configuration works, the order proceeds; if it does not, the company will refund the deposit in full. The DIY edition of the laptop is also seeing some pricing movement, but in the other direction. Framework was able to source cheaper PCIe 5.0 SSDs from ADATA, the XPG MARS 970 line, and is using them to upgrade 500GB preorders to 1TB at a lower price, while adding a new 2TB option to the configurator.

The company has also warned that CPU pricing is expected to rise in the coming weeks, which will require another round of price adjustments on new orders. Customers who want to lock in current pricing are being pointed toward placing preorders now, with the standard full-refund-if-you-change-your-mind policy still in effect.

What to watch

The Laptop 13 Pro was originally due to ship in late June, but a pair of manufacturing issues with the haptic touchpad and a custom display panel pushed first deliveries to late July, with some units slipping to early August. The first wave of preorders is going out in the next few weeks, and the response to the memory changes will be a real test of how Framework's transparent-pricing model holds up under genuine cost pressure.

If most customers accept the new configurations, the preorder model keeps working. If a large share asks for refunds, Framework will either have to absorb the higher memory cost or pass it through more aggressively. Either outcome is a useful data point for the rest of the laptop industry, which is dealing with the same memory pricing pressure in less public ways.