The Laptop That Costs EUR 110 a Year
A buying guide to the Framework Laptop 13 and 16
Most laptop purchases are priced as a single outlay. They are actually annualised commitments. Pay EUR 1,199 for a MacBook Air M5 today, replace it in five years when the support window closes, pay again: that is EUR 240 a year for the use of a computer. Buy a Framework Laptop 13, keep it for ten years by replacing the components that wear or fall behind, and the same function costs you around EUR 110 a year. The gap is not marginal. It reflects a fundamentally different theory of what a laptop is.
This guide covers the Framework Laptop 13 and Laptop 16, compares them honestly against the MacBook Air M5 and the ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 AMD, and names a clear winner.
What Makes Framework Different
The laptop industry spent the past decade optimising for thinness at the cost of longevity. Batteries are glued in. RAM is soldered to the board. Storage is sometimes proprietary. The result is a machine that cannot be repaired in any meaningful sense, only replaced.
Framework built the opposite. The Framework Laptop 13 earned a perfect 10/10 repairability score from iFixit, the same score the organisation recently awarded the Fairphone 6 (see our companion guide: Fairphone 6: The Phone That Costs Less Per Year). That score reflects real design decisions. The mainboard, battery, display, keyboard, and every port are individually replaceable. Framework sells all of these directly at published prices, with documentation. A replacement battery costs around EUR 29. A display is under EUR 100. If the Ryzen AI 7 processor you buy today feels slow in four years, you can order a new mainboard and install it without replacing the chassis, the screen, or the ports you have configured.
Those ports are the second structural distinction. The Framework 13 has four expansion card slots. You choose what goes in each from a catalogue that includes USB-C, USB-A, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, microSD, SD card, 2.5G Ethernet, and additional SSD storage. If you move from an office that runs HDMI to one that uses DisplayPort, you swap a EUR 30 card rather than carry an adaptor for the life of the machine.
Framework has also committed in writing to maintaining parts availability for the lifetime of each product. Most manufacturers discontinue spare parts within three years of a model’s last sale. Framework has made continued availability a stated business policy, not a warranty clause.
Framework 13 or 16?
The Framework Laptop 13 is the right machine for most readers. It runs AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors (currently the Ryzen AI 5 340, AI 7 350, or AI 9 HX 370), fits in a normal bag, and handles office work, software development, and light creative tasks without complaint. It starts at approximately EUR 999 for the DIY edition, which you assemble in about 20 minutes from documented step-by-step guides, or approximately EUR 1,199 pre-built with Windows 11. Confirm current EU configuration prices at frame.work before ordering.
The Framework Laptop 16 is a larger machine with a modular GPU bay. It currently accepts an AMD Radeon RX 7700S or an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU module, and that module is itself replaceable when a better generation arrives. The 16 starts from approximately EUR 1,287 without a GPU module; a configured setup with discrete graphics runs EUR 1,700 to EUR 2,000 or more. If your work involves video rendering, 3D modelling, or regular gaming, the GPU bay is a genuine long-run argument rather than a gimmick. For everyone else, the size premium adds nothing.
The Honest Comparison
The MacBook Air M5 13-inch starts at EUR 1,199. It is a well-made machine: fast, thermally quiet, and supported by Apple for approximately five years. The performance case for Apple silicon is real, and this guide is not going to pretend otherwise. What is worth naming alongside it is what the machine cannot do. The battery is not user-replaceable. The RAM and storage are soldered. There is no repair path outside AppleCare or a third-party shop that will charge substantial labour. When the battery degrades below acceptable thresholds, you pay a service fee rather than EUR 29 for a part you fit yourself. When the five-year support window closes, you buy a new one. At EUR 240 per year in annualised cost, you are paying a premium for a sealed design that compounds its cost over time.
The ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 AMD occupies a more complicated position. Lenovo maintains a parts portal, publishes service manuals, and the T-series has a long track record in enterprise IT environments. The machine is genuinely more repairable than any sealed consumer laptop. What it lacks is the ecosystem density that Framework has built. Framework’s community marketplace carries second-hand parts, donor units, and upgrade components from a global pool of owners. Lenovo’s parts availability is aimed primarily at fleet IT buyers, and the secondary market for individual T14 components is thinner than Framework’s. The ThinkPad is a reasonable choice if you operate within Lenovo purchasing agreements or have an IT team that knows the platform. For an individual buying a single machine, Framework’s advantage in parts access, community documentation, and design transparency is clear.
The Winner
Buy the Framework Laptop 13. For most readers, the Ryzen AI 7 350 configuration with 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD is the right starting point: enough performance for a full working life, enough storage to be useful, and a platform you can expand or repair as needed. If you require discrete GPU performance for professional work, consider the Framework 16 with the RX 7700S module. If the MacBook Air M5 is the right answer for you, it will be because of Apple ecosystem lock-in, not the hardware economics.
Why This Belongs in a Long-Term Portfolio
The cost of cognitive work is collapsing. Software, legal analysis, written content, and financial modelling are all being produced at a fraction of their previous cost, and the services built around those outputs are contracting accordingly. A sealed laptop participates in that dynamic as a consumable: manufactured cheaply, disposable on a four-year schedule, generating recurring revenue from upgrade cycles you cannot escape.
Physical goods made from labour and bounded materials do not follow the same curve. The aluminium chassis, the precision-machined expansion card system, the carefully sourced display: these cost roughly what they cost to make, and that cost is not falling the way software output is. Framework’s modular architecture makes this visible. You replace the compute logic as it ages while the physical structure of the machine retains its function. You are not buying a consumable in premium packaging. You are buying a platform.
The regulatory tailwind strengthens this. Right-to-repair legislation is advancing across Europe and the United States, and we cover the structural argument in The Right-to-Repair Argument Is Not About the Environment. Framework already meets the direction that regulation is heading. Buying now means your hardware is ahead of a shift that will eventually force the whole category to improve.
A Note on Operating Systems
Framework officially supports Linux on the Laptop 13, with installation guides maintained by both the company and the community for Ubuntu, Fedora, and NixOS, among others. If you are considering moving off Windows or macOS, the Framework 13 is one of the best-tested entry points available. This guide does not make that case in detail. What is worth noting is that the modularity argument extends to your software stack if you want it to. For context on how the Framework 13 fits into a broader set of repairable, privacy-respecting hardware choices, see our hardware privacy stack guide.
Where to Buy
Framework sells direct at frame.work. There is no affiliate programme as of May 2026, so the link is unmonetised. Pre-built units ship with Windows 11; DIY editions arrive without an operating system and take around 20 minutes to assemble from the included guide. Framework does not sell through major retail chains.
Affiliate disclosure: Finite Resources may earn a commission from purchases made through links on this page. Framework Computer does not operate an affiliate programme; the link above is unmonetised.
Products mentioned
| Product | Approx. price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|
| Framework Laptop 13 (Ryzen AI 7 350, 16 GB, 512 GB) | EUR 999-1,199 | frame.work |
| Framework Laptop 16 (no GPU module) | from EUR 1,287 | frame.work |