We're happy to share that Framework Laptop 16's are now in customer hands. It's been an excellent journey over the last two years designing and building an ultra-upgradeable, high-performance machine, and we're excited to see the early feedback. As always with Framework products, the first shipment is just the beginning, and we're looking forward to continuing to deliver on longevity, upgradeability, and repairability as we go. We've seen more press reviews go live as well, including by far the most thorough one, a deep dive from Jarrod's Tech that includes both a broad range of benchmarks and subjective evaluation of the overall experience. Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are still open as we continue to manufacture our way through the pre-order batches. Most of our factory capacity, which we doubled last year, is now allocated to getting you Framework Laptop 16's as quickly as we can.

We recently uploaded the first set of developer documentation around Framework Laptop 16 internals on GitHub, adding to the existing material we have for the Expansion Bay and Input Module systems. The new release includes drawings and connector part numbers for the Mainboard to enable re-use. We'll continue to build out this documentation over time, like we have for Framework Laptop 13.

The first press reviews of Framework Laptop 16 are now live. Check out some of the early feedback. This is the largest batch of review units we've ever shipped, and we expect more reviews to trickle in over the next week. For context on our press units, many companies ramp into production, manufacture a large quantity to fill retail channels, and cherry pick some golden units from that as review samples. For us, because we're entirely direct to consumer, our ramp is extremely fast, and units go to customers' hands immediately. That means to get press units out weeks ahead of time to provide a sufficiently long review period, we send out production-intent qualification units. The "intent" part of that is that these are usually functionally identical to what ships to consumers.

With Framework Laptop 16 though, the product is complex enough that we identified issues during manufacturing qualification that we've since fixed. Changes and improvements we've made on all customer systems include resolving some instances of audible electrical noise in the Mainboard and the Graphics Module, reducing sliding friction on the Touchpad Module, optimizing the thermal resistance of the CPU heatsink, making improvements to the liquid metal application process, fixing a couple of instances where a firmware bug could result in a blue screen on Windows, resolving an issue where the left or right speaker channel could be attenuated in Windows, improving the fan control algorithm on the Graphics Module, and a number of smaller fit and finish refinements related to the Bezel and Input Modules. In retrospect, we would have loved to get these improvements into the units we sent to reviewers, but it's most important that our customers have a system that works smoothly.

The Ryzen 7040 Series processor in Framework Laptop 16 is capable of running at a sustained 45 W TDP (Thermal Design Power) and we put together an excellent thermal solution to ensure it can do that while keeping CPU temperature, touch temperatures, and fan noise to a minimum. That 45 watts of CPU power needs to be efficiently conducted into the vapor chamber, heatpipes, and fins to be carried away through airflow from the fans.

Since neither the CPU die nor the vapor chamber surface are perfectly flat, a thermal interface material is needed to fill in gaps to avoid comparatively insulative air taking up that space. Traditionally, most computers use a thermal grease that has thermally conductive particles suspended in silicone. This works reasonably well, but the silicone itself isn't especially thermally conductive, and the paste can pump out or dry out over time, making it less effective.

This is likely our last Framework Laptop 16 Deep Dive before we start shipping, and those of you who ordered one can dive deep on your own. We began mass production of Mainboards last week, which we'll hold onto as we resolve the last few remaining open items to begin full system manufacturing. You may be thinking, do we really need a deep dive on connectors? The answer is a resounding "Yes!"—as connectors are surprisingly among the most complex and critical parts of building a product that is slim, durable, high performance, and easy to repair. Connectors are the electrical and mechanical interfaces between modules in the system.

They are what actually makes the product modular! Each connector needs to be easy to engage, hard to accidentally disengage during vibration or drop, robust across repeated re-connections, thin enough to fit within a tiny space, electrically sound from a signal integrity and power perspective, readily manufacturable, and cheap. Our most complicated connectors are made up of dozens of tiny formed metal parts in plastic or metal shells. Given the complexity, our preference is always to find well-proven off-the-shelf connectors. However, occasionally we run into unique interconnect scenarios that don't match anything out there. In these instances, we're forced to customize our own solutions. With Framework Laptop 16, we developed two of these to enable our new module ecosystems.

We're excited to share that Framework Laptop 16 made it into TIME's Best Inventions of 2023! This is our second product winning this award, with the original Framework Laptop making it onto the cover in 2021. Dave2D also got an early hands-on with a DVT2 engineering sample over the weekend and was surprised by the refinement of the design. This was a random development unit, and the final product has further improvement on mechanical fit and finish.

We know that the many of you who have placed pre-orders are eager to get your hands on the product. We're coming up to the end of the DVT2 phase, which is the final engineering phase of our product development process. The Framework engineering and supply chain teams are heads down now on engineering validation, completing firmware development, and readying manufacturing. This is by far the most complex product we've built, both from a design and an operational perspective, and we're putting everything we have into getting it right. We've made dozens of small mechanical and electrical changes over the last couple of months, and we'll be sharing some highlights on these over the coming weeks along with more detail on the schedule for mass production.

We're extreme optimists by the nature of our mission, but the response to the Framework Laptop 16 pre-order launch last week was beyond anything we could have imagined. We expected to sell the first five batches over the course of a few months. Instead, we sold through them in 12 hours. The currently open pre-order batch will ship in Q1 2024, and we're working with our suppliers to ensure we have the production capacity to avoid pre-order timing going deeper into 2024. AMD was also able to provide more game codes for Starfield Premium Edition to let us continue offering it for additional pre-orders that include a Radeon RX 7700S (while quantities last).

A couple of great write-ups and videos went live alongside the launch. First, Sean Hollister at The Verge shared his detailed thoughts from an exclusive hands-on with a pre-production Framework Laptop 16, stating "I am staggered that Framework 16 even exists". AMD also prepared a video featuring Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions & Marketing, explaining how we partnered to make it exist! Watch this featurette below.

We're excited to share that Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are now open, with configurations powered by the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs and AMD Radeon GPUs. This is truly a notebook like no other: thin and refined, while empowering you with desktop PC-level customization, repairability, and upgradability, including a fully reconfigurable input deck and modular discrete graphics. Prices start at $1399 USD for DIY Edition and $1699 USD for pre-built systems with Ryzen 7 7840HS, and adding an AMD Radeon RX 7700S Graphics Module brings starting prices to $1799 and $2099 USD.

Pre-orders that include a Graphics Module with an eligible AMD Radeon GPU will receive a free download code for one of the biggest games of the year: Starfield Premium Edition. Quantities are limited, and we'll be sending out the code prior to the game's early access launch.

We know that out of our Framework Laptop 16 Deep Dive series, this is some of the information you're most eager to hear. We read every Framework Laptop review, browse the Community and subreddit, and run regular post-purchase feedback surveys to learn what you want, and we use that to inform how we build products. Some of the most frequent asks on the Framework Laptop 13 were around improving speaker loudness and extending battery life, both of which we've delivered on this year. With the increased space we have inside the Framework Laptop 16, we advanced these areas even further, with a new high capacity 85Wh battery and excellent quad speakers powered by a smart amp.

We custom designed both the battery pack and cell, working with ATL, one of the biggest battery makers in the world and the maker of the 55Wh and 61Wh packs for Framework Laptop 13. The pack has a 4S1P architecture, meaning there are four lithium ion cells placed in series to reach the 15.48 V nominal pack voltage. A major improvement we've made based on feedback from the Framework Laptop 13 is on the battery connector. A connector on a short cable was one of the more finicky parts to handle, so we've switched to an integrated blade-type connector that makes battery swaps much easier. Finally, we've made sure that the battery has a long usage lifetime, supporting 80% capacity typically after 1,000 cycles.

In keeping with Framework's philosophy, the Framework Laptop 16 has socketed memory and storage, making it easy for you to choose what you need on day one and upgrade to more any time later. Our pre-built configurations have set combinations of memory and storage, while on DIY Edition, you can choose any of the modules we offer in the Marketplace or bring your own if you prefer. We've taken both memory and storage to the next level on Framework Laptop 16. For memory, we've created new semi-custom Framework-branded DDR5-5600 modules. For storage, we have two M.2 slots, as well as the ability to add two more in the Expansion Bay for colossal storage capacity.

One core challenge we aimed to solve for memory on the Framework Laptop 16 was being able to offer the same modules for pre-built systems, DIY Edition, and the Framework Marketplace. Historically, we needed to source separate "OEM" modules from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron for use in our factory, and "Retail" modules from Crucial to offer in DIY Edition and the Marketplace. Instead, we worked with memory maker ADATA to create custom-label modules that we can use across all areas. Currently, we're leveraging SK Hynix DDR5-5600 memory chips for these modules, but may use other chips that meet the performance bar in the future as well.

The Framework Laptop 16 is extremely rigid and durable, while also being surprisingly light and thin through use of a combination of magnesium alloy and machined aluminium parts for the enclosure. The laptop is under 18 mm thick, which is unusually slim for a 16" high-performance, upgradeable system. If you choose to add discrete graphics using a Graphics Module, the back section of the laptop extends to just under 21 mm thick, enabling much higher thermal capacity for the GPU. This is a substantially more mechanically complex product than the Framework Laptop 13, with a larger screen size, higher performance parameters, and two new module systems with the Input Modules and Expansion Bay. With all of that, we've still achieved a clean, minimal industrial design, with no externally visible fasteners.

We've done this through careful design work, architecting the system to be made of two core mechanical parts: a molded magnesium alloy Bottom Cover and a CNC aluminium Top Cover. Both of these are items we make in collaboration with one of the most advanced enclosure manufacturers in the world, Catcher Technology. We fabricate the parts at Catcher's massive, highly-automated facility in Tainan, Taiwan, where there are vast fields of molding and milling machines.

We're excited to share our next major product category, a high-performance 16" notebook, the Framework Laptop 16. Not only does the Framework Laptop 16 carry forward all of the same design philosophy around upgrade, repair, and customization from the Framework Laptop 13 at a substantially higher performance point, but it also brings in two new module ecosystems: a fully reconfigurable input deck and modular, upgradeable graphics.

This enables an incredible range of use cases and deep personalization for gamers, creators, engineers, and more. We'll be sharing full specifications, pricing, and availability when we open pre-orders on the Framework Laptop 16 this spring, ahead of shipments in late 2023. What we're releasing today is a preview to let developers get started with our open source design documentation.