Qubes OS will ship pre-installed on Purism’s security-focused Librem 13 laptop

Does this laptop include the (hardware?) modifications required to protect from Intel Management Engine or not? That would be something novel that might justify the higher price.

The CPU is fused to allow running unsigned binaries, but they’re "still working on" creating FOSS firmware for the chip. They’ve done some good breakdown and analysis of the different pieces, but nothing concrete has shipped so far. https://puri.sm/posts/bios-freedom-status/

Until Purism has actually shipped a working alternative to the management engine firmware, their laptop is hardly any better than most commercial components. If you buy the laptop, you're purchasing hope.

You would be better off getting a Libreboot. http://minifree.org/product/libreboot-x200/

Part of the point is to run Qubes though, and I and others already discussed why this is not a good idea if you want to run Qubes in another thread below. Not to mention hardware kill switches too.