I’m comparing the Framework 13 vs the Framework 13 Pro. The pro costs only a bit more, and looks to use more power. {Framework offers a 100watt charger, though could I use a 65 watt charger?) What significant differences are there between the two? I am looking at the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 with 32gb RAM. My use case would be a small travel laptop for web browsing, video streaming, possibly light gaming such as Bloons TD 6. In the house it would be a portable that sees usage in the kitchen for pulling up recipes and information. (I have a dedicated gaming desktop and laptop, so I don’t need this to be play high end games) 16gb seems suitable for now, but looking at 32gb to future proof for a few years.
Both the 13 and 13 Pro with Ryzen have the same mainboard. Performance should be the same. Both will use the same amount of power. The advantage of the 100W power supply is that the battery can charge even while you are using the computer under heavy load; if you have the 60W supply the battery will charge very slowly or not at all because all the power is going to running the computer. The Pro can also be ordered with a Panther Lake mainboard, which will have faster graphics and deliver better battery life, but it will use about the same amount of power under load, will take longer to get, and requires more expensive LPCAMM2 memory. (The Panther Lake mainboard also currently has a 64 GB ceiling for RAM; that will increase as larger LPCAMM2 modules become available. The Ryzen mainboard has a 128 GB ceiling, though it’s 96 GB with modules that Framework offers.)
Buying the Pro gets you the new chassis. All parts CNC, larger battery (which should produce about 20% more battery life), side-firing speakers, keyboard with more travel, haptic touchpad, and the new touchscreen with square corners. A better feeling and probably more rugged package; we won’t know for sure about rugged until it’s been in the field for a while. Prebuilt systems include the new 100W power supply rather than the 60W supply that comes with the original 13.
Excellent! Thank you for the information Shirley!