Framework doubles the price of the RAM for the Laptop 13 Pro overnight and warns of a financial risk

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Framework doubles the price of the RAM for the Laptop 13 Pro overnight and warns of a financial risk
Illustration : Momiji Shirogane

Framework, beloved by pro-repairability users, nearly doubled the RAM prices of the Laptop 13 Pro without notice. The CEO justifies the decision by a surge in supplier costs that, according to him, puts the company at "financial risk." Decoding an adjustment that hits both the wallet and the initial promise of the product.

Notebookcheck reports on July 24, 2026, that Framework has nearly doubled the prices of the RAM offered with the Laptop 13 Pro - an adjustment made overnight on the configurator. Specifically, the LPCAMM2 32 GB module goes to $800 and the 64 GB to $1,600. CEO Nirav Patel justifies the decision internally and publicly by the "brutal" rise in memory supply costs, even going so far as to talk about a "financial risk" for the company if the prices were not passed on.

Design / Product Context

The Laptop 13 Pro is the high-end line of Framework's 13-inch range, positioned on the recent AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra series 2. Like all Framework laptops, it is sold either assembled or as a DIY kit, with user-replaceable memory and storage modules - a central argument of the product since 2021.

An important technical point: the Laptop 13 Pro uses the LPCAMM2 (Low-Power Compression Attached Memory Module 2) format, a modular memory standard designed for mobile that advantageously replaces SO-DIMM DDR5 in terms of space and energy efficiency. Framework is one of the first major adopters. But LPCAMM2 is still a niche for suppliers - far fewer sources than standard SO-DIMM - which mechanically aggravates exposure to the slightest supply shock.

It is precisely this configurability that makes the announcement sensitive: historically, when Framework upgrades were found a bit expensive, the barebones config was taken and the RAM was purchased from Kingston, Crucial, or Corsair. This option still exists in LPCAMM2, but with a much more restricted third-party catalog than on SO-DIMM. The increase does not come from Framework - it comes from the memory market, and it particularly affects niche formats.

Market Context: DRAM Crisis

The memory sector has been experiencing a well-documented supply tension for several months by major suppliers and specialized press (SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron redirecting their capacities towards HBM for AI, to the detriment of consumer DDR5). Notebookcheck notes that several manufacturers - including Razer with the Blade 18 2026 mentioned in our previous alerts - have already passed on these increases without necessarily communicating clearly.

Nirav Patel's message is more honest than average: rather than quietly absorbing the increase by cutting the margin (which Framework probably cannot afford to do at its scale), the CEO announces it, explains the mechanism, and explicitly talks about financial survival.

What This Means for the Buyer

Here is the pricing grid as of July 24, 2026:

LPCAMM2 ModuleNew Price (24/07/2026)
32 GB$800
64 GB$1,600

Which, in practice, gives:

  • A ratio of $25 / GB - considerably above the consumer DDR5 SO-DIMM market at the same time.
  • The config with assembled RAM comes out at a price now almost double on this specific component compared to Framework's prices at the beginning of 2026.
  • The barebones + third-party LPCAMM2 config remains the logical way out - provided you can find stock, which is not guaranteed on this still young format.
  • Framework's DIY argument becomes, paradoxically, even more relevant than before: it is the use case where the user can decide, if they have the patience to look for a compatible LPCAMM2 module from Crucial, Kingston, or Micron.

Verdict

For us, this episode says two things. First, the 2026 DRAM crisis is real and spares no one - even the most DIY-friendly players cannot claim to absorb a double-digit increase on a component that weighs heavily in the BOM. Secondly, the transparency shown by Framework stands out from the discretion of competitors. We prefer a CEO who explains and documents rather than a +40% adjustment at the cash register without a word.

That said, the initial promise of the product - to be competitive at purchase thanks to modularity - fades when critical components double. Framework can't do much directly, but we'll have to watch if the brand keeps its price-sensitive user base, or if it definitively shifts to a premium positioning. The LPCAMM2 bet (a format of the future but dependent on a narrow supplier base) takes, in the meantime, the full brunt of the storm.

Article produced by artificial intelligence, reviewed under human editorial control.

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Sora TakamuraHardware tester
Hardware tester, obsessed with specs, benches, and Japanese curiosities.
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