Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Framework 16: an exclusive look inside the modular gaming laptop”.
Framework is the modular computer company, it’s the first to actually fulfill the promise of upgradable laptops. It’S shipped three generations of CPU upgrades in three years now it’s promising the Holy Grail, a gaming laptop with a swappable graphics card too, and it’s right here in front of me. This is the framework 16, a machine that lets you replace practically every component with a single included, screwdriver right down to the GPU. Some don’t need a screwdriver at all.
You can swap every report and snap in new keyboards with a fingernail, but why talk when I can just show you framework CEO narav Patel hand delivered this machine to our offices. It’S the first that he says, looks and feels like it should, when the machines ship in Q4 and has given us the green light to show you what it’s made of spoiler alert. It’S made of connectors four layers of them: input modules, the giant expansion Bay, the laptop’s internal components and, finally, the six modular expansion cards that slot into the six USB C boards that hide underneath each has their own special locking, interface or at least numbered screws. To make swapping easier, with one exception, the Patel says will change before launch. It all makes for incredibly easy tear downs and rebuilds.
The system even has a GUI to hold your hand through input, module installation and yet the entire laptop stays under 21 millimeters thick and 5.3 pounds 18 millimeters and 4.6 pounds without the discrete GPU part of that’s thanks to a new magnesium alloy frame. That’S strong enough! You can hold the entire laptop’s weight at a single corner, it doesn’t feel plasticky like some competitors. Mag alloy builds aesthetically and functionally the input. Modules are a joy.
I was grinning ear to ear when Patel showed me how each RGB keyboard and numpad magnetically snaps into place and how each programmable module has a little transparent window on the back to show off its Raspberry Pi chips, while wooden carbon fiber panels won’t be available at Launch I need fine tuning. The orange red color shift looks great Patel, says it’ll color shift all the way to Blue. When it’s final, I should mention a few modular surfaces did slot together a little less than seamlessly on this DVD prototype, though one time the laptop needed a little TLC before the touchpad came back to life at the base component level, every framework laptop 16 comes with An 85 watt hour battery with no glue just three screws to remove an AMD, ryzen, 7 or 9 70 40 series, processor and room for up to 96 gigabytes of RAM. You get two memory slots and two SSD slots with an m.2230 hidden under the m.2280. I’D be slightly concerned about cooling stack drives inside in closed space. The framework CEO says it shouldn’t be an issue in normal use.
How does the laptop 16 keep any of these components? Cool? That’S! Where Frameworks expansion base come in, I’m a little sorry to say, the expansion Bay isn’t something you can hot swap at the coffee shop. It’S an integral part of the system. That needs you to fully power down beforehand, but I am in awe of how framework ties. The whole system, together by default, your AMD Radeon processor, comes with 780m grams, the same you’ll find in the Asus Rog Ally, gaming handheld, but now driving crisp, smooth 2560 by 1600 panel at 165, Hertz with remarkably deep blacks for anything, that’s not OLED, and by default, The expansion base simply houses a pair of Cooler, Master blower fans that pull in air from the top and bottom and exhaust it out the sides. Those aren’t speakers underneath those grates spend 400 extra from Frameworks GPU, and suddenly the fans pulled double duty. They eject hot air out the rear, too cooling an amd’s 7700s discrete graphics chip, that’s twice as powerful as the integrated, graphics and theoretically, nearly twice as powerful as a PS5.
Unfortunately, framework broke the cooling fans on its only GPU module in the United States. So we don’t have a lot of gameplay footage to share. We got maybe a few gorgeous minutes of smooth Elden ring gameplay before the system throttled itself. To avoid overheating, we weren’t able to get it cool enough to try our next title, but I absolutely saw a discreet GPU playing a game on the framework 16, a GPU that I installed myself with my own hands, and it was just as easy as slotting a Desktop graphics card into a full-size PC: this is the framework interposer.
The smallest and most powerful PCI Express, cable. I’Ve ever seen its twin 74 pin connectors, can carry eight PCI Express Lanes, fan signals and well over 100 watts of electricity enough to fully power the 7700s or most any other mobile GPU connecting a GPU is literally just sliding it. In opening this hatch, screwing down the interposer with four screws and two more screws to physically lock the GPU in place, and because all the bulk of the module hangs off the back of the laptop rather than inside framework, believes it can be a future-proof solution. No Matter What GPU makers do next so unlike say, alienware’s ill-fated area 51m buyers won’t be hung out to dry. Today, Patel will only say that Frameworks committed to, and I quote, making sure there are Graphics modules beyond the initial launch.
He won’t say the word Nvidia and he won’t say whether AMD or its Graphics partner tul. She might know from Power. Color are committed to Future cards, but he does say: partners are excited and suggests the company wouldn’t have invested so much time and effort in an upgradable product.
If it wasn’t going to follow through the company’s reputation is riding on it. He agrees if you’re sold you’ll be able to pre-order the framework laptop 16 today, starting at 13.99 for a DIY version or 1699 pre-built, which includes 16 gigabytes of ddr5 RAM 512 gig of solid-state storage, a regular white backlit keyboard and the cost for six USBC expansion Cards modules like HDMI DisplayPort, cost ten dollars more. Here are the new modules available at launch 400 extra by the GPU and 180 watt USBC power adapter, which costs 79 dollars by itself qmk programmable RGB keyboards cost fifty dollars more. Numpads are 19.
The RGB macro pad of 59 and spacers range from 5 for orange and lavender to ten dollars for an awesome, color shift to 39 for a programmable LED Matrix with a built-in Raspberry Pi rp24. I am staggered that the framework 16 even exists, so many modules. So many moving parts so many things that could theoretically go wrong. Giant companies, including Dell Intel and Google a bit big on modular products like this, only to abandon them or kill them before they fulfill their potential.
But framework’s CEO insists. This is happening. It’S developed the expertise to do this right and who am I to argue with a company: that’s actually kept its modular promises so far. If framework pulls this off, it could be the first future-proof gaming laptop fingers crossed so remember when Alienware made this upgradable Graphics promise and broke it.
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