The report highlights that unfortunately, a pair of manufacturing issues has delayed first shipments by about a month, pushing delivery out closer to the end of summer. Framework’s Laptop 13 Pro looked and felt fantastic when the publisher showed it off in April.

Industry observers note that some units will now ship in early August. The delay will not affect shipments of Framework’s modular Mainboards, which now include the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processor inside. Problems with the Laptop 13 Pro’s stellar display, one of the things I was most impressed with in our Laptop 13 Pro hands-on time, has pushed the first shipments from late June to late July, Framework said Wednesday.

The report highlights that all Laptop 13 Pro orders are fully refundable, Framework said.

Industry observers note that framework typically issues blog posts explaining its problems (and successes) in sourcing components and shipping products, so this fresh patch isn’t unusual. As unfortunate as the issues are, they haven’t affected pricing — a problem that has plagued the industry with the ongoing shortages of memory and SSD storage. To its credit, Framework has been and continues to be the most open, communicative laptop vendor in the industry, by far.

The report highlights that “We’ve since root caused and found solutions for both of these.”. “As we were preparing Framework Laptop 13 Pro for mass production ramp, we discovered two issues, one on the fresh haptic touchpad and another on the custom display,” Framework said via email to customers who pre-ordered the Framework Laptop 13 Pro.

According to the latest update, unfortunately, errors crept into the process. Framework said that the publisher had been involved in tests of the touchpad throughout the development process, tweaking the haptic feel and the uniformity of the force feedback until it satisfied Framework.

Industry observers note that “Working with our suppliers Lite-On and Boréas, we found an electrical issue in the PCB design around grounding we believed was the root cause, and pre-emptively dropped a fresh PCB spin for fabrication to resolve it. In parallel, we identified firmware changes we believed would also mitigate the issue on the original PCB design.”. “Over the last few months, we found some spurious bugs that triggered rarely on some units that would result in the touchpad resetting itself after repeated clicking,” Framework said.

According to the latest update, they didn’t, and the failures multiplied.

In a fresh development, “We’ve assembled the first samples of these and determined that they do resolve the issue.”. “Because of that, we are holding production to wait for the fresh PCB, which will be used for all shipments,” Framework said.

The report highlights that the publisher said that its supplier, CSOT, unearthed the issue and is releasing revised firmware. Likewise, Framework also discovered a bug where the display would not initialize.

In a fresh development, those will continue to ship on time, though Framework noted that it would be offering the option to add replaceable LPCAMM memory to the Mainboard order. Customers have few options to buy LPCAMM memory at retail, Framework said, so the publisher is offering to take on that burden itself. The two delays will not affect shipments of the Mainboard, basically a modular motherboard that can be used to upgrade older Framework systems.

In a fresh development, but still, there’s a silver lining: If LPCAMM memory is the upgradable memory of the future for laptops, customers are going to want to buy it from somewhere. Framework taking on that burden should ease the minds of its customers. It’s an obvious disappointment to those who hoped to buy (and for us, test) Framework’s most recent Laptop 13 Pro.

The report highlights that he has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Highly adopted Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room. Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology.