Framework delays first 13 Pro laptop shipments by a month

Delay in the start of production of the Framework 13 Pro laptop

While we were preparing the Framework Laptop 13 Pro for mass production, we discovered two issues, one with the new touchpad and one with the custom display. We’ve since found solutions for both. However, to get these updates, we need to delay the start of mass production, which pushes first batch shipments by about a month from late June to late July, with some risk for some units in early August. This will likely push most of the combined shipments from July to August. We plan to adhere to the dates we announced in August, but there is some risk that last August’s batches will move to early September. We do not expect the delayed manufacturing start to further cascade into delays beyond August. We don’t want to delay any product, but we want to make sure the Framework Laptop 13 Pro is as robust and reliable as possible. If the new shipping timing no longer works for you, your pre-order deposit is fully refundable. We’ll continue to keep you updated as we finish validation, begin ramping up production, and begin shipping batches. In the meantime, we will begin shipping new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 motherboards on time to customers who pre-ordered them, as well as begin launching some units that do not have a touchpad or display.

Touch panel production

On the touchpad, our goal from the beginning was to improve the entire user experience. The initial reactions we see from Hands-on testing at our launch event and at Computex It indicates that we get this right. This requires tight integration and frequent iteration across mechanical, electrical, and firmware design. For the firmware in particular, we went through dozens of in-house builds to fine-tune the tactile feel, enforce uniformity, and resolve edge cases in touch and tap behavior. During the development process over the past year, we discovered a range of bugs in the firmware and resolved them to reach full reliability.

Over the past few months, we’ve found some rarely triggered pseudo-bugs on some units that could result in the touchpad resetting itself after repeated tapping. Working with our suppliers Lite-On and Boréas, we found an electrical issue in the PCB design around grounding that we believe was the root cause, and proactively released a new PCB cycle to manufacturing to resolve it. In parallel, we have identified firmware changes that we believe will also mitigate the issue in the original PCB design. When we started the production ramp with the original PCB, we found that modules with firmware changes were still expressing failure mode, at a higher rate than we saw during development runs. For this reason, we are holding production to wait for the new PCB, which will be used for all shipments. We’ve put together the first prototypes of them and decided they solve the problem. We are now completing full validation to ensure there are no further rollbacks (this includes a battery of tests such as a 200,000 click sequence), and are beginning to proactively mass produce production to accelerate the timeline. New units from our touchpad supplier arrive at our final assembly plant in mid-July. We’ve started producing other sub-assemblies in the meantime, so we’ll be able to assemble, test, and get the laptops out quickly.

Production show

Similar to the touchpad issue, when we started mass production of the new display, we found a bug that caused the panel to not be configured on a single unit. Our render resource, CSOT root, caused the issue and found that it was an edge case related to some configuration parameters. We have been working with CSOT on an updated display firmware that is now entering production. We expect the manufacturing and delivery of the updated panels to fit around the touchpad module schedule, so this will not impact our laptop schedule. However, it does affect pre-orders for the new monitor, as shipments now start in July instead of June.

Mainboard shipments

Finally, as mentioned earlier, we will start shipping the new Framework Laptop 13 Pro motherboard with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor on time in June. We generally start shipping pre-orders around the time press reviews for a new product are published, so you can evaluate the review results and decide whether to keep your pre-order. However, full system press reviews of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro will now take place in July. This means that for the motherboard in the meantime, you’ll need to rely on the hands-on literature and videos published so far, along with general reviews of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors.

One of our other updates to the motherboard is to resolve the feedback we received from pre-orders about the availability of LPCAMM2 memory. There are very few retail options for purchasing the LPCAMM2 for use with your motherboard, so if you want to adjust an existing pre-order of the motherboard to include memory, you can Contact our support team And perform the update. Note that if your motherboard is in the June batch, adding the LPCAMM2 to the order now may delay shipping slightly. In the future, we will implement a package that allows Mainboard pre-order customers to select memory alongside their Mainboard pre-order.

We apologize for the delay in production of Framework Laptop 13 Pro. The purpose of Pro is to raise the bar on performance, optimization and durability of Framework Laptop 13, and we want to make sure the final product lives up to that. We’ll continue to keep you updated as we move toward an updated mass production schedule, and we look forward to repairing consumer electronics with you.

Frame team