Come get on the Framework bus with me and bag yourself an 11th Gen 13-incher for just $499

I may be sat in front of my RTX 4090-toting desktop gaming PC, but I felt I had to whip out my Framework 13 laptop to tap out this story about the fact you can now buy one of these outstanding lappies for just $499. That's a great price for one of the best small form factor laptops around right now. There are obvious caveats to that significant discount, but it all plays into the ethos of Framework, and why I'm more than happy to support what it's doing.

There are many reasons why I'm a big fan of what Framework does as a laptop manufacturer. For one, it allows you to carry out complete repairs and upgrades on your own notebook with just a single supplied Torx screwdriver, and for another, it doesn't just bury its last-gen hardware in the likes of Amazon's faintly dodgy, overpriced backroom stores.

One of the benefits of the upgradeability of the Framework 13 system is that it can still sell off its older components, sometimes in bundles like this, for a significant discount and you can be safe in the knowledge that if you want to upgrade down the line the full Framework marketplace is open to you.

The $499 Framework 13 on offer is a «Factory Seconds» laptop using the original Intel-based Core i7-1165G7 mainboards. That's an 11th Gen Tiger Lake chip, with four cores and eight threads, with a 96 EU Iris Xe iGPU inside it. Framework describes what it means by that laptop classification: «Factory Seconds laptops are new systems that use excess parts. Rather than scrapping this material, we combine it with new parts, run it through our normal factory tests, and make the resulting laptops available at greatly reduced prices.»

This cheapest option is classed as a B-stock device, which means the system has an original display (presumably my preferred glossy 2256x1504 panel) but it will have slight cosmetic issues. That could include «fine lines on the surface that are noticeable from a certain angle and/or backlight non-uniformity visible from an angle on a white screen.»