Prices as of March 22nd based off my own observations.
System76 (base prices, not including addons)
- Lemur Pro: $1400
- Pangolin: $1300
Purism (base prices, not including shipping and that Purism is a shady company)
- Librem 11: $1000 (a literal tablet)
- Librem 14: $1370
- Librem Key: $60 (A USB)
Tuxedo (base prices, not including shipping costs to burgerland) (based in Germany)
- TUXEDO Aura 14 - Gen3: 840 EUR
- TUXEDO Pulse 14 - Gen3: 1238 EUR
- TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 - Gen8: 1419 EUR
Slimbook (Based in Spain, base prices no shipping or taxes)
- Elemental 14 Intel i5 1235U: 600 EUR
- Excalibur 16 AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS: 1200 EUR
- Executive 14 Intel i7 13700H Black: 1400 EUR
Framework (base prices, but addons usually add $90-150)
- Framework 13 (AMD and Intel): $850
Minifree Ltd (Run by a trans fem in the UK, very cool brand)
- Libreboot 820 (1920x1080 IPS Screen Intel Core i5-5200U, 1 TB SSD): £378.00.
- Libreboot T440p (1920x1080, 4 core, 1 TB SSD): £558.00.
- Libreboot W541, (15.6″, 4-core Intel i7-4800MQ, 1920x1080, 1 TB SSD): £698.00.
Asahi Linux (from Refurbished Apple Store)
- 13.3-inch MacBook Air Apple M1 8gb RAM 256 GB SSD: $760
My current laptop
- Lenovo Yoga 6 2-in-1 AMD 13.3 inch 8 GB RAM (the one with the weird denim texture in the front): $450 from a Best Buy which has a battery life of 7-8 hours.
Note that these are just retail prices, obviously the best way to score good tech is to always buy refurbished laptops from reputable resell sites (used thinkpads rock). I just wanted to point out the absolute state of Linux (TM) laptops. It's pretty disheartening that a lot of Linux laptops are clearly geared towards software engineers who have the money to splurge online.
Until this changes, your best bet is to hunt for windows laptops that are reported to have a good track record with Linux and perform the sorcery there. But that also makes Linux an obscure option for a lot of people. since hardware support is either hit or miss (or distro specific).
Second hand thinkpads stay winning. I think a framework laptop is worth the cost mostly cos of its self service repair and parts supply as well as the upgrade potential.
I think the idea with a framework is you only need to buy one then you're set for a long time unlike most ewaste laptops
Still generates ewaste (whole mobo gets tossed or at best resold, every x years) but, you know, less of it for sure, major step in the right direction
The mobo doesn't have to be since it can run as independently as a PC also. There are enclosures for them so they can be repurposed as a media center or even emulation console or lan party PC. This is like on another level of ewaste reduction that I don't think anything else comes close to.
the main difference is that the mobo size is standardized and the manufacturer is actually promoting those sorts of diy reuse projects, they were always possible with many laptops but basically nobody did them (pessimistically: there's a good chance this will still be the case for the vast majority of old frameworks). Its a good step in the right direction for sure, and I'm thinking of buying one for an org I'm involved with, but its not quite as revolutionary as their marketing makes it out to be
The best laptop I've ever owned was a second hand T480, I love that thing to death. I even got the funky little workstation dock for it, separate removable battery...I'll use that sucker til it falls apart. They just don't make them like they used to.