Framework Laptop 12 (13th Gen Intel) with Omarchy
Seventeen exact-model owners establish a usable small laptop, while touch, rotation, the on-screen keyboard and post-resume input make the convertible experience conditional.
This page covers the original 2025 model with a Core i3-1315U or Core i5-1334U. The 2026 Core Series 3 version is a separate computer and is not included in these results.
Bottom line
Omarchy runs on both 13th Gen Intel versions of the Framework Laptop 12, and several owners use the machine successfully as a conventional laptop. The convertible hardware is only part of the story: touch and pen can work, but automatic rotation, rotation lock, launching apps, the on-screen keyboard and waking or dismissing the screen saver can still require setup or unfolding the keyboard. Separate input failures after boot or resume keep this from being a low-friction recommendation.
Should you use or buy it?
It is a credible choice if you want a small, repairable laptop and view tablet mode as a feature you are willing to configure. It is a poor fit if you need a polished keyboard-free tablet, a backlit keyboard, biometric login or sustained workstation-class performance. Existing owners should test cold boot, repeated lid-close cycles, the touchpad, touchscreen, pen, rotation and screen-saver dismissal before relying on it away from a keyboard and mouse.
- Screen size
- 12.2 inchesSource
- Dimensions (W × D × H)
- 11.30 × 8.42 × 0.73 inchesFramework lists 287 × 213.88 × 18.45 mm.Source
- Weight
- 2.87 poundsFramework lists 1.3 kg.Source
- Release
- Available June 2025Source
- Launch price
- $549–$799DIY and prebuilt starting pricesFramework Laptop 12 preorder announcement
- Current new price
- $499Original 2025 DIY Edition starting price · observed Sept. 2, 2026Current original-model starting price
Current figures are dated asking prices, not completed sales or appraisals.
Compatibility
- Working reports
- Mixed results
- Evidence, no verdict
- Not applicable
- Fingerprint and biometrics
Before you buy
Match the seller's exact model and configuration to the findings above. Check the return period, condition, included charger and delivered price before ordering.
- Check seller options at frame.work · price source checked Sept. 2, 2026
These are the sources behind the dated asking prices, not a live stock check. Searches and catalogs may include other configurations. We have not tested or endorsed individual listings.
These links are untagged; Omarchy Hardware earns no referral commission from them. How we handle commercial links.
Detailed findings
Install and boot
Owners have installed and run Omarchy on both Core i3 and Core i5 versions. One installer flow displayed an error after the USB drive was removed at the prompt but booted normally after a forced restart. An Arch owner separately lost working Secure Boot and UEFI tooling after a firmware update, then recovered by resetting Secure Boot state and keys.
In practice Installation is demonstrated, but keep the USB installer attached through the final reboot and preserve a recovery path before firmware or Secure Boot changes.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 installer USB behavior, Core i3 Framework Laptop 12 running Omarchy, Fresh-install keyring prompt on Framework Laptop 12, Arch UEFI recovery after firmware update, Framework Laptop 12 Arch installation guide
Desktop and graphics
Direct Omarchy owners reached working Hyprland desktops on both processor options, and an independent test ran eight Linux distributions on the Core i5 model. The retained reports do not identify a model-specific graphics failure.
In practice The integrated graphics path is suitable for the desktop and ordinary applications. This finding does not establish gaming performance or eliminate application-specific Wayland issues.
Sources Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, Core i3 Framework Laptop 12 running Omarchy, Eight-distribution Framework Laptop 12 comparison, Framework Laptop 12 Linux review
Display, touch and pen
Owners report a working internal display, touchscreen and pen, including under Omarchy. Folded use is less settled: rotation needs additional Framework packages and Hyprland configuration, one Arch owner saw tablet-state detection fail after a cold boot, and another reported touch degrading after sleep or stylus use.
In practice Do not read working touch as a complete tablet experience. Test touch, pen, rotation and the return to laptop mode as separate behaviors.
Framework Linux guidance Framework documents accelerometer support from Linux 6.12, required module ordering for the tablet switch and an iio-sensor-proxy regression fixed in version 3.8. Project source
Sources Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, Arch tablet-mode setup and rotation, Arch touch and pen degradation after sleep, Framework Laptop 12 tablet use under Sway, Arch tablet switch after a cold boot, Daily touch use on an Arch Framework Laptop 12, Arch and KDE owner report, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE, Framework Laptop 12 Linux debugging notes
Keyboard, hotkeys and backlight
The keyboard works in normal use, but the original model is not backlit. One CachyOS owner reports intermittent loss of the built-in keyboard after resume, and the openSUSE owner describes occasional missed keystrokes during ordinary typing.
In practice The lack of backlighting is fixed hardware, while missed keys and resume loss are reported behavior. Test both typing feel and several sleep cycles on the exact unit.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, CachyOS keyboard loss after resume, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
Touchpad and pointing
Several owners use the touchpad normally, but exact-model reports describe a cursor pinned in the lower-right corner and a dead-looking pointer after cold boot or hibernation. One Omarchy owner restores the device immediately by unbinding and rebinding the HID interface; reboot also clears the condition.
In practice Keep a keyboard-accessible recovery path. The HID rebind is an owner-confirmed workaround for one exact Omarchy setup, not a proven universal fix.
Sources Omarchy touchpad failure after boot or hibernation, Arch cursor locked in the lower-right corner, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
The Intel AX211 is included in working Omarchy and Arch systems. One month-long openSUSE report found Wi-Fi unstable with one ASUS router and improved when switching routers.
In practice There is no broad evidence of a dead wireless path, but the router-specific failure means Wi-Fi should be tested on the networks that matter before travel or deployment.
Sources Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, Arch and KDE owner report, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE, Framework Laptop 12 specifications
Speakers, microphone and audio
Framework and its Arch installation guide identify the speaker, microphone, Bluetooth-audio and codec packages, but the retained exact-model owner reports do not isolate speaker, microphone or headset performance.
In practice A working desktop does not prove the microphone or headset route. Test playback, recording and the 3.5 mm jack separately.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, Framework Laptop 12 Arch installation guide
Camera
The 1080p camera is supported by the packages in Framework's Arch guide, but none of the retained owner reports documents camera quality or a complete Omarchy video call.
In practice Test the camera and microphone together in the service you actually use, including once after suspend.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, Framework Laptop 12 Arch installation guide
Suspend and resume
Suspend is fast and generally usable in several reports, but failures span different input paths: one openSUSE owner had a complete suspend failure, one CachyOS owner intermittently lost the keyboard after wake, one Arch owner saw touch stop responding and one Omarchy owner saw the touchpad fail after hibernation.
In practice A successful wake is not enough. Confirm keyboard, touchpad, touchscreen, pen, rotation and session locking after several short and overnight cycles.
Sources Omarchy touchpad failure after boot or hibernation, Arch touch and pen degradation after sleep, CachyOS keyboard loss after resume, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
External displays and docks
The four expansion bays advertise DisplayPort Alt Mode, but the retained exact-model reports do not provide a controlled Omarchy monitor or dock result.
In practice Treat USB-C display, HDMI expansion card, dock hotplug and monitor power as unverified until tested with the exact cards and display.
Battery, power and thermals
One Core i3 Arch owner estimated roughly six to eight hours under KDE and longer under a stripped Niri session. A separate Omarchy owner in the same thread estimated about 1% charge loss per hour during suspend. The openSUSE owner called battery life adequate rather than exceptional and recorded several freezes and noticeable fan behavior.
In practice These are useful lived-use boundaries, not comparable benchmarks. Desktop environment, brightness, power profile and workload materially change runtime and responsiveness.
Sources Arch desktop and battery comparison, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE, Framework Laptop 12 Linux review
Daily use
Convertible hardware does not supply a tablet shell
Touch and pen can work; rotation, app launching and the on-screen keyboard need more attention
Owners have built useful folded-mode setups, but the software experience remains assembled from Framework packages, sensor handling, Hyprland rules and separate keyboard or launcher choices. A person who needs a keyboard-free login and polished tablet navigation should expect compromises.
Sources Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, Folded-mode screen-saver dismissal, Arch tablet-mode setup and rotation, Framework Laptop 12 tablet use under Sway, Arch tablet switch after a cold boot, Daily touch use on an Arch Framework Laptop 12, Arch and KDE owner report
Sleep can return an incomplete machine
The screen may wake while one input device does not
The retained failures affect the touchpad, touchscreen and keyboard in different reports. That makes a simple suspend-resume success less informative than checking every input device and the lock state after wake.
Sources Omarchy touchpad failure after boot or hibernation, Arch touch and pen degradation after sleep, CachyOS keyboard loss after resume, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
Small does not mean ultralight
The 12.2-inch chassis weighs 2.87 pounds
The machine is compact, durable and repairable, but its weight is close to some larger thin-and-light laptops. One owner specifically called out the 1.3-kilogram weight as high for the screen size.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE, Framework Laptop 12 Linux review
The 2025 keyboard has permanent omissions
No backlight or biometric reader
Those are specification facts, not Linux bugs. Framework added options to the later Core Series 3 revision, but those changes do not retrofit the original input cover or change this model's compatibility record.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, Framework Laptop 12 Core Series 3 announcement
Performance
Writing, browsing and portable development
A credible fit for ordinary mobile work
The Core i5 model completed a broad Linux benchmark suite, and owners report daily use under Omarchy, Arch and openSUSE. The single memory slot can hold 48GB, but single-channel memory and the low-power processor cap sustained throughput.
Sources Eight-distribution Framework Laptop 12 comparison, Framework Laptop 12 Linux review, Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
Drawing and touch-first work
The digitizer works, while the surrounding shell remains the constraint
Owners report working touch and active pens in Krita and other desktop applications. The limiting evidence concerns rotation, keyboard-free navigation, Firefox touch behavior and input recovery rather than the existence of pen input.
Sources Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12, Framework Laptop 12 tablet use under Sway, Daily touch use on an Arch Framework Laptop 12, One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSE
Sustained compute and graphics
Designed around a 15-watt CPU and integrated graphics
The Core i5 has only two performance cores alongside eight efficiency cores, and the independent Linux review identifies moderately demanding workloads as the main performance compromise. Buy it for size and repairability, not as a compact workstation.
Sources Framework Laptop 12 specifications, Eight-distribution Framework Laptop 12 comparison, Framework Laptop 12 Linux review
Changes over time
-
Owners establish the first practical battery range
An Arch owner estimates six to eight hours under KDE and longer under Niri; an Omarchy owner in the same thread estimates roughly 1% charge loss per suspended hour. Neither is a controlled benchmark.
-
An Omarchy owner wires up automatic rotation
After installing Framework's Arch-side sensor pieces, one owner confirms working display, touch and tablet transforms through a Hyprland script and later a small helper application.
-
Repeated Omarchy installations reach a working system
A Core i5 owner reports four installs across Omarchy 3.0.1 and 3.0.2; the only alarming final-stage error still boots after a forced restart and is avoided when the USB drive remains attached.
-
An Arch owner recovers UEFI after a firmware update
The update invalidates TPM-backed unlock and leaves Secure Boot tooling unable to see UEFI. Resetting Secure Boot state and keys restores the path, though the initiating cause remains uncertain.
-
Touch and tablet state become unreliable after sleep or reboot
One Arch owner loses automatic tablet-mode detection after a cold boot; a second report from the same owner later documents touch and pen degradation over time and after sleep.
Sources Arch tablet-mode setup and rotation, Arch touch and pen degradation after sleep
-
Two Arch owners report a cursor pinned in the lower-right corner
The touchpad forces the pointer back to the corner until reboot or logout, while an external mouse still works. The thread does not establish a root cause.
-
A CachyOS owner loses the keyboard after resume
The exact Core i5 owner reports intermittent built-in keyboard failure after lid-close sleep; another sleep cycle does not restore it, while reboot does.
-
An Omarchy owner recovers the touchpad without rebooting
On Omarchy Quattro, the touchpad intermittently looks dead after cold boot or hibernation. Unbinding and rebinding its HID interface restores pointer movement immediately; the proposed root cause remains unverified.
Sources
Omarchy reports are direct results. Arch, Arch-based and other Linux reports are labeled separately and used only as evidence of hardware or driver behavior that may carry over. Shared-identifier and related-model reports are context and do not enter the exact-model count.
- Framework Laptop 12 specificationsOpen source
Manufacturer specification on Framework · Sept. 2, 2026
Current official page with a separate historical section for the 2025 13th Gen Intel model, including component, physical and $499 current starting-price records.
- Framework Laptop 12 Linux support matrixOpen source
Project documentation on Framework · Sept. 2, 2026
Framework's supported-distribution matrix. Omarchy and Arch are community paths rather than manufacturer-supported distributions.
- Framework Laptop 12 Arch installation guideOpen source
Project documentation on Framework
Framework's community Arch package and setup path for graphics, media, input sensors, sound, Bluetooth, power and camera.
- Framework Laptop 12 Linux debugging notesOpen source
Project documentation on GitHub · Sept. 2, 2026
Framework-maintained sensor, tablet-switch and rotation notes, including Linux and iio-sensor-proxy version boundaries.
- Framework Laptop 12 Core Series 3 announcementOpen source
Manufacturer specification on Framework · Aug. 18, 2026
Official record of the 2026 revision. It defines the generation boundary and does not supply an owner result for the 2025 model.
- Omarchy touchpad failure after boot or hibernationOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Omarchy · Aug. 24, 2026
Exact Core i5 Omarchy Quattro owner confirms the intermittent symptom and a HID rebind workaround; the proposed explanation is explicitly unverified.
- Omarchy rotation on the Framework Laptop 12Open source
Field report on GitHub · Omarchy · Aug. 16, 2025
Direct owner report with working Framework sensor packages and owner-authored Hyprland rotation handling.
- Framework Laptop 12 installer USB behaviorOpen source
Field report on GitHub · Omarchy · Oct. 4, 2025
Direct owner reports four Omarchy installations and a recoverable final-stage error after removing the USB drive at the prompt.
- Core i3 Framework Laptop 12 running OmarchyOpen source
Field report on GitHub · Omarchy · Oct. 19, 2025
Exact Core i3 and 16GB owner reaches a working Omarchy 3.1.0 system; the reported Obsidian theming issue is application-path specific.
- Folded-mode screen-saver dismissalOpen source
Field report on GitHub · Omarchy · Nov. 2, 2025
Direct Framework Laptop 12 owner must unfold the keyboard to dismiss the screen saver and asks for touch or power-button handling.
- Fresh-install keyring prompt on Framework Laptop 12Open source
Field report on GitHub · Omarchy · Oct. 8, 2025
Only the linked comment applies to this model: the owner confirms the keyring prompt on a fresh Framework Laptop 12 installation. The issue body describes a Dell XPS and is not transferred.
- Current Framework Laptop 12 screen-saver input reportOpen source
Related-model field report on GitHub · Aug. 22, 2026
A current Quattro owner reports ignored global input while the screen saver is open. The report was filed after the 2026 revision announcement and omits the CPU, so it is model-family context rather than an exact 2025 count.
- Arch desktop and battery comparisonOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Aug. 11, 2025
Exact Core i3 owner compares KDE and Niri battery estimates. Other comments supply context but do not add owners to this source record.
- Arch cursor locked in the lower-right cornerOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Feb. 22, 2026
Two exact-model Arch owners report the touchpad pinning the pointer after login and recover through reboot or logout.
- Arch tablet-mode setup and rotationOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Dec. 4, 2025
Exact Core i5 Arch owner manually supplies rotation and on-screen-keyboard behavior; a BIOS stylus-mode change coincided with improvement but is not established as the cause.
- Arch touch and pen degradation after sleepOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Dec. 13, 2025
Supplementary exact-model report by an owner already counted in the Arch tablet source; it documents touch and pen degradation rather than adding another owner.
- Arch UEFI recovery after firmware updateOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Oct. 24, 2025
Exact-model Arch owner loses TPM-backed unlock and Secure Boot tooling after an update and confirms a recovery path through Secure Boot state and key resets.
- Framework Laptop 12 tablet use under SwayOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux · Oct. 10, 2025
Exact-model Arch owner reports working rotation, touch and pen under Sway after manual software and configuration work.
- CachyOS keyboard loss after resumeOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch-based · May 9, 2026
Exact Core i5 CachyOS owner reports intermittent built-in keyboard loss after lid-close sleep, recoverable only by reboot in the retained account.
- One month with the Core i5 model on openSUSEOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · other Linux · Sept. 27, 2025
Exact Core i5 owner reports working touch and pen plus Wi-Fi, suspend, keyboard, fan, battery and chassis constraints after one month. This is other Linux evidence, not Arch or Omarchy.
- Arch tablet switch after a cold bootOpen source
Field report on Reddit · Arch Linux · Sept. 19, 2025
Exact-model Arch owner reports tablet-mode switching working initially and failing after a full shutdown and cold boot.
- Daily touch use on an Arch Framework Laptop 12Open source
Field report on Reddit · Arch Linux
Exact-model Arch owner reports a working system but finds desktop Firefox and other applications poorly adapted to touch-first use.
- Arch and KDE owner reportOpen source
Field report on Framework Community · Arch Linux
Exact-model owner reports an excellent Arch and KDE system with working stylus, while automatic on-screen keyboard, rotation and rotation lock remain unfinished.
- Eight-distribution Framework Laptop 12 comparisonOpen source
Original measured review on Phoronix · July 16, 2025
Independent exact Core i5 benchmark comparison across Arch, CachyOS and six other distributions using 16GB single-channel memory and a 1TB SSD.
- Framework Laptop 12 Linux reviewOpen source
Original measured review on Phoronix · June 18, 2025
Independent exact-model Linux testing and measured performance context for the original Core i5 convertible.
- Framework Laptop 12 preorder announcementOpen source
Manufacturer specification on Framework · April 9, 2025
Official U.S. launch prices of $549 for DIY Edition and $799 for a prebuilt configuration, with first shipments scheduled for June 2025.
- First Framework Laptop 12 shipmentsOpen source
Release record on Framework · June 18, 2025
Framework said the first production units would leave its Taiwan warehouse during the week of June 18, 2025.
- Current original-model starting priceOpen source
Dated market snapshot on Framework · Sept. 2, 2026
The live product page lists the 2025 13th Gen Intel DIY Edition separately from the 2026 revision and shows a $499 starting price. This is an asking price, not a completed sale.
- Framework Laptop 12 product imageOpen source
Product photograph on Framework · June 18, 2025
Official exact original-model product image published with the first-shipment update.