Framework Desktop (2025) Review: Powerful, but perhaps not for everyone

The most obvious question is “Why?”

Framework builds modular, repairable laptops that anyone can take apart and put back together again. It’s a big deal in an era where laptops are regularly sold as a single unit that, should one part break, goes in the trash. Since every part of a Framework machine can be swapped out, you can keep one going for as long as your patience, and the supply of spare parts, allows. Desktops, however, are already modular and repairable — company founder Nirav Patel said “desktop PC ethos was one of the core inspirations for the Framework laptop to begin with.” So, if desktops are already modular and repairable, why do we need one from Framework?

When the Desktop was announced, Patel said the genesis of the product came from seeing a preview of AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. It’s an APU ...