Will Framework build an Arm laptop? History suggests yes

Will Framework ever build a laptop based upon a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor? If history holds, then yes… but not now.

At the launch of the Framework Desktop (and the Framework Laptop 12 and updated Laptop 13), I asked Framework chief executive Nirav Patel about the possibility of a Snapdragon X-based Framework Mainboard. After all, performance isn’t just the force driving PCs. Battery life matters more than ever, too.

Patel, unfortunately, was non-committal as the company was only there to talk about what it had just launched. Some products, like the gaming-oriented Framework Laptop 16, didn’t receive any significant updates save for the inclusion of a specialized key.

But Patel did note that Framework was one of the first to market with the DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard, which can be plugged into the mainstream Framework Laptop 13. That’s a deep cut of a processor that certainly is talked about in processor circles, but has made hardly any impact in the PC space (so far). The mainboard features a StarFive JH7110 processor with four SiFive U74 RISC-V cores… and it doesn’t run Windows natively. Of course, Framework has shipped multiple Mainboards and laptops with multiple AMD and Intel CPUs that do.

I speculate that this means yes, Framework is watching the Windows on Arm space, and it’s a good sign that Qualcomm (or maybe Nvidia?) could have something related to Windows on Arm up its sleeve.

Patel didn’t provide any hard answers on the other issue of the moment: tariffs. The Trump administration has pledged to impose tariffs of 25 percent on imported semiconductors, plus additional tariffs on good imported from China. That’s a burden for anyone importing chips, including Mainboards with them soldered on. For a company reliant on multiple modules, would Framework be especially vulnerable?

Tariffs are in a “very dynamic place right now,” Patel said. But Framework was founded in 2020, when the first Trump administration was talking tariffs as well. “Right from the start, we built our supply chain from scratch, knowing that international trade and international logistics was going to continue to get more and more difficult. And so right from the start, we actually established a manufacturing base in Taiwan.”

Compal, the contract manufacturer used by Framework, has a factory in Taiwan, which does assembly.

Patel said that that some of its “modules” might be affected by tariffs. “But you’re not seeing us re-price right now, as some other companies do,” he said, referring to Acer’s plan to raise laptop prices by 10 percent.