Shut the front door. Framework is cutting prices on its laptop SSDs. In fact, it will be supplying some 1 TB drives at lower cost than an existing 500 GB option and some existing pre-orders that haven't shipped are included in the price drop. So, has the worm finally turned on the AI-driven memory and storage shortage?
Unfortunately, that is probably a stretch. These price cuts only apply very narrowly and specifically to optional PCIe Gen 5 SSDs.
"We finally have some good news for you, around the pricing on PCIe Gen 5 SSDs for Framework Laptop 13 Pro. We were able to qualify and source a new SSD from our partner ADATA, the XPG MARS 970, that offers better performance, efficiency, and long term reliability, and comes in at substantially lower cost than the SSD option we had previously qualified," Framework's head honcho Nirav Patel said in the company's latest blog post.
Framework says the price change will even be passed on to some existing pre-orders. "Since we haven’t started shipping Framework Laptop 13 Pro pre-orders yet, we’ll be switching over all existing pre-orders that had chosen the previous Gen 5 SSD options and reduced the price on those orders as well," Patel said.
Perhaps the most surprising element is that Framework will actually be supplying 1 TB PCIe Gen 5 drives for less money than the 500 GB drive it was previously offering.
"This new SSD comes in 1 TB and 2 TB options, and the 1 TB lands at a lower price than the 500GB SSD we had previously qualified, so we will also switch 500 GB orders to the 1 TB drive at the lower price," Patel explained.
For the record, you're looking at $299 for the 1 TB version of the ADATA XPG MARS 970 when ordering a Framework Laptop 13 Pro. The 2 TB iteration of the same drive is $659.
The ADATA XPG MARS 970 doesn't appear to be available to buy separately from the usual online retailers, so direct price comparisons are tricky. Certainly, there are cheaper Gen 5 drives available. But they may not be comparable in terms of spec or performance.
Anywho, all this probably says more about the efforts Framework makes in terms of its component sourcing than any broader trend. But it does show that if you shop around a bit, you can take at least some of the sting out of these silly prices.
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