Just wondering about this. Is it the same mainboard pretty much except for the change in cpu?
Good question. I assume that the fan will run higher and more often, and the battery will run out quicker.
I think the price difference is mostly due to the CPU, Intel charges a big premium for vPro support.
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@Patrick_Payne That’s the thing, I looked up the MSRP for the CPUs (not perfect I know) and the difference there was only around $150–not $700.
Which is why I was wondering if there’s anything else done to justify the price increase. Changes to the mainboard etc.
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Value added markup?
In other words, maybe nothing different at all.
I remember reading years ago about certain ratings on chips. Batches were tested and then labeled bases on where the failures started occurring.
I think Intel used to do that with Celeron processors. If it failed certain tests, it would just become a “lesser” version: less cache, no FPU. Something like that.
And, IBM used to just have jumpers on modems to go from 1200 to 2400 baud. Same modem, just pay $$$ to have IBM tech move jumper, and double your speed. They did the same things in minis.
Binning is standard practice for chip designers. Yes those two CPUs probably are based on the same die/dies but I don’t think that explains the price differential that @Sxm_63 is referring to since the MSRPs aren’t that different.
If the mainboard is the same, it might be markup for Framework to maintain its profit margins.
I paid the extra $ to be in the 1st batch 
The following article for the Linux guys shows that there’s not much performance to be gained with the 1185G7 over the 1165G7. In fact, the 1165G7 won out on many games.
It would be cool if the extra expense was for thermal cooling. That might help with the thermal throttling on the 1185G7.
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These are good points…
I am seriously thinking on pre-ordering one, but sadly I have no knowledge on much of the difference between both i7 processors… let alone how the battery life goes for each. It would really be nice to know actual numbers 
These are good points…
I am seriously thinking on pre-ordering one, but sadly I have no knowledge on much of the difference between both i7 processors… let alone how the battery life goes for each. It would really be nice to know actual numbers
I do recommend you to go for the i5. Thin laptop like this have difficulty with cooling i7, and as I saw the Framework does not have fancy vapor chamber but classic fan and head pipe design.
I bought a laptop of the same kind of form factor (Thinkpad) with an 11gen i7-1165G7 … If I could go back in time I will definitly pick the i5.
The i7 have more graphical units, 96 vs 80 for the i5, it’s do offer a little bit more juice in light gaming experience, but do consume so much more power (due to the extra Xe units) … it saturate the cooling system, it can’t keep up, make the CPU throttle and be less powerful than its i5 varient in long load.
I’m pretty sure it will be the same for the Framework, so I will say:
If you want better battery life (±20%), better CPU perfs, better cooling go i5.
If you want better GPU, less CPU perfs, lesser cooling go i7.
For the difference about i7-1185G7 and i7-1165G7, there is none regarding performance.
i7-1185G7 is the vPro variant, meaning its support intel remote management functionality, it’s made for entreprise and you probably do not want it in your laptop (remote backdoor 
)
i7-1185G7 also has some fancy extra security features, you probably do not need and never ear about it (as support of total memory encryption, just in case someone want to use azote liquid on your computer to try eavesdrop sensitive data from the physical memory)
The supplementary 0.1Ghz of the i7-1185G7 do not matter, in all case your CPU will never keep its max Turbo Boost for long run, and how high it will reach will depends of the laptop cooling performance.
MSRP for i7-1185G7 and i7-1165G7 are the same, but I far I’ve saw, all laptop manufacturer charge a $300+ for i7-1185G7 instead of i7-1165G7. I don’t really believe they charge it for more profit, except if there is a collision between all of them. Probably they paid it more for it, whatever the MSRP is. But who knowns…
My 2ct.
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Just as a quick reference point, the battery life and temperature should be fairly similar between the different CPU versions. Less memory will actually slightly improve battery life over having more memory though (at the expense of performance if you’re doing memory-heavy work).
CPU performance is fairly similar in normal use between all of the CPU versions, though we would expect 5-10% improvements on some workloads for the i7. GPU is where there are much larger differences. The Performance and Professional Framework Laptops score 65-70% higher in 3DMark than the Base version with 1x8GB and 15-20% higher than the Base version with 2x8GB.
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Thanks you all for explaining into details about the performance on each! 
I appreciate the time taken to explain it. My knowledge is very bare and bones, so it’s pretty good to be a bit knowledgable now.
I see the i7-1185G7 version is $400 expensive than I7-1165G7, does the price make sense?
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You don’t need that top end model, only vpro and a little higher clocks. The i5 is really good anyways.
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I know I5 has the highest PQ ratio in current sales list. Simply curious about the price strategy, if the difference is just CPU model, then it doesn’t fair to the customers who want higher performance.
As with most things top of the pack, sense is relative. I imagine some of the price is to help Framework recover some of their R&D costs. I have no problem with that. Although I wished we could have gotten the 6 core 12 thread version, but my guess is that the thermals didn’t fit the envelope.
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If I had to guess, I would say the pricing strategy is to sell the i7 models with a greater margin so that the i5 base model can be offered more affordably.
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We’re also assuming they have the same chip availability between the i7-1165 G7 and i7-1185G7. Quite possible that their deal with Intel covers much fewer numbers of the higher performance SKU. Supply and demand.
It’s just odd. You’re paying 400 dollars for slightly higher frequency and a slightly better IGPU. ARK lists them as both the same price too, and honestly it’s just weird to even offer it if the price delta is that high.
I guess we’ll have to see how it plays out
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I’m gonna bet it’s the vpro. Corporations will gladly pay through the nose for the ability to spy o… uh, I mean maintain their laptops.
edit: in fairness, a bit of paranoia is justified for many corporations. I recently worked at a company whose info-sec department bragged they repel over 1000 intrusion attempts per day, and I’m sure a laptop in somebody’s home/car/hotel room/Starbucks with direct access to the corporate network terrifies them.