Framework Laptop 13 Pro Vs. Macbook Neo: These Windows Rivals Are More Similar Than Expected

Framework and Kerry Wan/ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Laptop 13 Pro is Framework's latest modular laptop.
• Some consumers are seeking alternatives to Windows.
• The 13 Pro and nan MacBook Neo differ, but location is overlap.

An replacement to banal Windows PCs

"Of each nan PC brands retired there, we're astir apt nan slightest impacted," he said. "We launched nan [Framework] 12 a twelvemonth agone successful consequence to nan sub-$1,000 market, which is beautiful dismal."  

Framework

He's not wrong. Framework's full modus operandi is to connection an replacement to stock Windows PCs, some astatine nan little and higher ends. In that sense, Framework is not really a portion of nan merchandise demographic that nan Neo has successful its crosshairs; it's really moving toward nan aforesaid extremity arsenic Apple. 

Budget PCs, successful particular, person offered consumers excessively small for excessively long, resting connected their laurels pinch dingy displays, plasticky builds, and excessive bloatware, while upselling Microsoft 365 and potentially soon subscriptions to nan Windows OS itself. Now, consumers are progressively looking toward alternatives. 

Also: After utilizing MacBook Neo, it's clear Windows needs to rethink its PC strategy (and fast)

"This manufacture wants you to ain thing and beryllium happy," Patel said successful nan Laptop 13 Pro's livestream. "We're fighting for a early wherever you tin ain everything for free." By "free," he intends a starting value of $1,199 for nan DIY type of nan Laptop 13 Pro pinch your ain OS (including Linux), a laptop that's forward- and backward-compatible, wholly modular, and profoundly customizable. 

MacBook Neo successful silver. 

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

This attack is not conscionable theoretical. Patel really reviewed nan MacBook Neo himself, taking it isolated side-by-side pinch nan caller Laptop 13 Pro to comparison nan 2 laptops' easiness of entree and repairability. It's nary astonishment that nan Framework was afloat disassembled agelong earlier nan Neo's mainboard was remotely accessible. However, it should beryllium noted that nan Neo is Apple's "most repairable laptop successful 14 years," as iFixit dubbed it. 

I person not yet gone hands-on pinch Framework's Laptop 13 Pro, but I've seen backstage demos, and truthful far, it looks for illustration a triumph for consumers seeking a modular, repairable laptop that doesn't consciousness for illustration it was slapped together pinch random parts and mismatched screws. I reviewed Framework's 12- and 16-inch laptops past year, and they're fantastic. 

But their modular creation creates beingness inconsistencies, and nan 85Wh artillery successful nan 16-inch didn't moreover past nan full workday for me.

Also: The lawsuit for buying a MacBook Neo correct now - particularly for students

I wasn't nan only 1 to make these critiques. Patel placed customer feedback astatine nan halfway of nan 13 Pro's creation approach, resulting successful a svelte, three-pound chassis, a single-plate bottommost screen pinch a haptic touchpad, a civilization LCD display, and a marathon battery, acknowledgment successful portion to its Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors.

If this laptop is to beryllium nan "ultimate portable developer and powerfulness personification machine", it needs to look and consciousness nan part. Apple nailed this attack pinch nan Neo, and it looks for illustration Framework whitethorn person done nan same. 

These companies whitethorn beryllium walking connected different sides of nan road, but Framework's Laptop 13 Pro and nan MacBook Neo whitethorn person much successful communal than nan Windows PCs that are successful their crosshairs.