Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U review: So much better than the Intel version

Users have been clamoring for an AMD version of the DIY-friendly Framework Laptop ever since its introduction in 2021. With Ryzen CPUs becoming increasingly competitive against Intel every year, now would be as good of a time as ever to launch the first AMD Framework Laptop.
Our review unit is an upper-end configuration with the Ryzen 7 7840U for just under $1500 USD while lower-end options are available with the Ryzen 5 7640U. The Framework Laptop 13.5 is one of the first in the market to ship with the Ryzen 7 7840U.
We recommend checking out our existing reviews and videos on the Framework Laptop for more details on its physical features since the design remains unchanged.
Competitors to the Framework Laptop 13.5 include other flagship subnotebooks like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3, HP Dragonfly G4, Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320, or the Asus ZenBook S13.
More Framework reviews:
Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! Wanted:
- News Writer (Romania based)
Details here
Potential Competitors in Comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87.5 % v7 (old) | 10 / 2023 | Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U R7 7840U, Radeon 780M | 1.3 kg | 15.85 mm | 13.50" | 2256x1504 | |
85.4 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2021 | Framework Laptop 13.5 i7-1165G7, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.3 kg | 15.85 mm | 13.50" | 2256x1504 | |
89.5 % v7 (old) | 08 / 2023 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 989 g | 14.8 mm | 13.00" | 2160x1350 | |
91.9 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | HP Dragonfly G4 i7-1365U, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.1 kg | 16.3 mm | 13.50" | 1920x1280 | |
87.4 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.3 kg | 15.3 mm | 13.40" | 3456x2160 | |
85.4 % v7 (old) | 05 / 2023 | Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 i7-1355U, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1 kg | 11.8 mm | 13.30" | 2880x1800 |
Case
Connectivity
While all four USB-C ports are still present, the details are complicated since Thunderbolt support is more nebulous amongst AMD PCs. Only the two rear ports support USB4 while the lower left port is USB-C 3.2 only and the lower right port is USB-C 3.2 with DisplayPort. We can confirm this ourselves as our external monitor would work on just three of the four USB-C ports. Charging can otherwise be done on any of the four ports.
Thunderbolt devices are supported on the rear two USB-C ports.
Communication
The AMD model ships with a MediaTek RZ616 for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support in lieu of the common Intel AX210 or AX211. Transfer rates are excellent nonetheless, but they could have been a bit steadier.
Networking | |
iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 | |
iperf3 receive AX12 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 | |
iperf3 transmit AXE11000 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
iperf3 receive AXE11000 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
iperf3 transmit AXE11000 6GHz | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
iperf3 receive AXE11000 6GHz | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P |
Webcam

Maintenance
The Framework is very user-friendly when it comes to repairability and upgrades as detailed in our existing review.
Accessories And Warranty
The AMD version utilizes the same port expansion cards as on the Intel version including the revised HDMI and DP cards. Note that no expansion cards are included for free and it's highly recommended to have at least one or two with each laptop purchase.
The standard one-year limited warranty applies if purchased in the US.
Display
The 2256 x 1504 BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41 IPS display has not changed since the original 2021 Framework Laptop. Framework has yet to offer other display options with newer or better technologies like OLED, mini-LED, >60 Hz refresh rates, or faster response times.
|
Brightness Distribution: 89 %
Center on Battery: 436 cd/m²
Contrast: 1211:1 (Black: 0.36 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 1.81 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.9, calibrated: 0.45
ΔE Greyscale 2.9 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
71.1% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
99.1% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
69% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.27
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41, IPS, 2256x1504, 13.5" | Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41, IPS, 2256x1504, 13.5" | Framework Laptop 13.5 12th Gen Intel BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41, IPS, 2256x1504, 13.5" | Framework Laptop 13.5 BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41, IPS, 2256x1504, 13.5" | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 MND007ZA1-3, IPS, 2160x1350, 13" | HP Dragonfly G4 Chi Mei CMN13C0, IPS, 1920x1280, 13.5" | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Display | -1% | 0% | -0% | -1% | -1% | |
Display P3 Coverage | 69 | 68.9 0% | 69.9 1% | 69 0% | 68.5 -1% | 68.4 -1% |
sRGB Coverage | 99.1 | 97.5 -2% | 99.4 0% | 99.3 0% | 99.5 0% | 98.3 -1% |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 71.1 | 71.1 0% | 71.1 0% | 70.3 -1% | 69.7 -2% | 70.4 -1% |
Response Times | -8% | 22% | -12% | 20% | 2% | |
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 50.4 ? | 54.9 ? -9% | 34.7 ? 31% | 55.6 ? -10% | 39.9 ? 21% | 48.8 ? 3% |
Response Time Black / White * | 31.5 ? | 33.5 ? -6% | 27.5 ? 13% | 36 ? -14% | 25.8 ? 18% | 31.3 ? 1% |
PWM Frequency | ||||||
Screen | -37% | -21% | -28% | 13% | 0% | |
Brightness middle | 436 | 503 15% | 449.6 3% | 449 3% | 461.2 6% | 408.8 -6% |
Brightness | 416 | 472 13% | 431 4% | 435 5% | 428 3% | 399 -4% |
Brightness Distribution | 89 | 87 -2% | 90 1% | 93 4% | 86 -3% | 90 1% |
Black Level * | 0.36 | 0.36 -0% | 0.31 14% | 0.39 -8% | 0.29 19% | 0.32 11% |
Contrast | 1211 | 1397 15% | 1450 20% | 1151 -5% | 1590 31% | 1278 6% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 1.81 | 3.38 -87% | 2.76 -52% | 2.34 -29% | 1.79 1% | 2.02 -12% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 4.73 | 7.08 -50% | 7.96 -68% | 7.07 -49% | 3.3 30% | 3.84 19% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 0.45 | 1.21 -169% | 0.58 -29% | 0.96 -113% | 0.47 -4% | 0.61 -36% |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.9 | 4.8 -66% | 5.2 -79% | 4.7 -62% | 1.8 38% | 2.3 21% |
Gamma | 2.27 97% | 2.13 103% | 2.23 99% | 2.29 96% | 2.24 98% | 2.2 100% |
CCT | 6784 96% | 6235 104% | 6475 100% | 6760 96% | 6588 99% | 6203 105% |
Total Average (Program / Settings) | -15% /
-25% | 0% /
-10% | -13% /
-20% | 11% /
11% | 0% /
0% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
---|---|---|
31.5 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 17.7 ms rise | |
↘ 13.8 ms fall | ||
The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 84 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (20.9 ms). | ||
↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
50.4 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 23.8 ms rise | |
↘ 26.6 ms fall | ||
The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 86 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (32.7 ms). |
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
Screen flickering / PWM not detected | |||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8627 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. |
Performance
Testing Conditions
We set Windows to Performance mode prior to running the benchmarks below. Framework includes no pre-installed control center-type software for adjusting any specialized features, but we recommend installing AMD Adrenalin for better control over the integrated GPU.
Processor
After the disappointing Zen 3 Ryzen 7 7730U, we're finally starting to see more laptops sporting the Zen 4 Ryzen 7 7840U become available. This long-awaited U-series CPU is neck-to-neck with the H-series Core i7-12700H while requiring just a fraction of the power. It also marginally outperforms the 13th gen Core i7-1370P as found on the Intel-based Framework Laptop in multi-threaded workloads.
Nonetheless, single-thread performance is about 15 percent slower than the Core i7-1370P to be more in line with an Intel 12th gen CPU like the Core i7-1260P. This deficit shouldn't be a huge surprise given that AMD CPUs are usually slightly behind in this regard.
We have yet to test a Ryzen 5 7640U laptop in-house and so we cannot say for certain how much of a performance loss is expected when downgrading from our Ryzen 7 7840U to the Ryzen 5 7640U as of this writing.
Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
CrossMark: Overall | Productivity | Creativity | Responsiveness
PCMark 10 / Score | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (5866 - 7157, n=10) | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
PCMark 10 / Essentials | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (9068 - 11081, n=10) |
PCMark 10 / Productivity | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (7323 - 10099, n=10) | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
PCMark 10 / Digital Content Creation | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (7204 - 8987, n=10) | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
CrossMark / Overall | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (1256 - 1804, n=10) |
CrossMark / Productivity | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (1261 - 1798, n=10) |
CrossMark / Creativity | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (1251 - 1835, n=10) |
CrossMark / Responsiveness | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, AMD Radeon 780M (1082 - 1775, n=10) |
PCMark 10 Score | 7157 points | |
Help |
AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (43255 - 70532, n=11) | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (37399 - 61602, n=10) | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (49426 - 92289, n=12) | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
Average AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (90 - 137.2, n=11) | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 |
* ... smaller is better
DPC Latency
LatencyMon reveals only slight DPC issues when opening multiple tabs of our homepage. 4K video playback at 60 FPS is imperfect with 6 dropped frames recorded during a one-minute period. AMD systems like the Legion Slim 5 14 or Aokzoe A1 seem to be exhibiting more issues related to frame skips than Intel as of late.
DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1360P | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 | |
Asus ZenBook S13 OLED UX5304 | |
HP Dragonfly G4 | |
Framework Laptop 13.5 Ryzen 7 7840U |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
Framework offers only Western Digital drives likely due to an exclusivity deal with the SSD maker. Of course, users can easily install their own drives instead of desired.
* ... smaller is better
Disk Throttling: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
GPU Performance
Last year's Radeon 680M was already faster than any integrated solution from Intel and this year's Radeon 780M cements AMD's lead even further. Raw graphics performance is 30 to 50 percent faster than the Iris Xe 96 EUs in the recent 13th gen Intel version of the Framework Laptop 13.5. The performance advantages become more pronounced for DX12-enabled applications.
Power Profile | Graphics Score | Physics Score | Combined Score |
Performance Mode | 7455 | 24735 | 2646 |
Balanced Mode | 7426 (-0%) | 24403 (-1%) | 2646 (-0%) |
Battery Power | 6591 (-12%) | 24183 (-2%) | 2223 (-16%) |