Framework Laptop 13 Pro LPCAMM2 is much more expensive with seemingly little to gain

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro is now available to pre-order with the latest Intel Core Ultra 3 Panther Lake and AMD Ryzen AI 300 Zen 5 processor options. Users who prioritize CPU performance over GPU performance may want to consider AMD while those who prioritize GPU performance over CPU performance may want to consider Intel. Interestingly, all Intel options ship with newer LPCAMM2 while AMD options are stuck with regular DDR5 SODIMM. Based on our time with the Intel Framework, however, the advantages of LPCAMM2 aren't as wide as we had hoped.

LPCAMM2 in the Intel Framework supports capacities and speeds of up to 64 GB and 7467 MT/s, respectively, compared to 96 GB and 5600 MT/s for the AMD Framework. Configuring with the 64 GB LPCAMM2 module will cost $1600 compared to "only" $810 when configuring with two 32 GB DDR5 SODIMM modules. The performance-per-dollar argument is therefore still much stronger for the AMD configurations.

The space savings and performance uptick with LPCAMM2 are arguably minor at best for most usage scenarios. While LPCAMM2 has a smaller footprint on the motherboard over SODIMM, Framework doesn't even utilize the extra space for additional features. A larger cooling solution, for example, would have arguably improved performance. It's unfortunate that Framework offers no SODIMM options for Intel as skipping LPCAMM2 would have easily saved hundreds of dollars without impacting the user experience.