(pensive music)
- Framework is the modular computer company.
It's the first to actually fulfill the promise
of upgradeable 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 port
and snap in new keyboards with a fingernail.
But, why talk when I can just show you?
Framework's CEO Nirav 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 he's given us the green light
to show you what it's made of.
(electronic music)
Spoiler alert, it's made of connectors,
four layers of 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 ports that hide underneath.
Each has their own special locking interface,
or at least numbered screws to make swapping easier.
With one exception
that Patel says will change before launch,
it all makes for incredibly easy teardowns 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 in 5.3 pounds,
18 millimeters in 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 plasticy
like some competitor's 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 7040 Series processor
and room for up to 96 gigabytes of RAM.
You get two memory slots and two SSD slots
with an M.2 2230 hidden under the M.2 2280.
I'd be slightly concerned
about cooling stacked drives in such an enclosed space,
but 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 Framework's Expansion Bays 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 graphics,
the same you'll find in the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld.
But now driving a crisp, smooth 2560x1600 panel
and 165 Hertz
with remarkably deep blacks for anything that's not all lit.
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,
but spend $400 extra from Framework's GPU,
and suddenly the fans pull 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.
It's 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.
(gentle music)
Today, Patel will only say that Framework's 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,
which you 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 upgradeable product
if it wasn't going to follow through.
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 1,399 for a DIY version or 1,699 prebuilt,
which includes 16 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM,
five 12 gig of solid-state storage,
a regular white backlit keyboard,
and the cost for six USB-C expansion cards.
Modules like HDMI display port cost $10 more.
Here are the new modules available at launch.
$400 extra by the GPU and 180-watt USB-C power adapter,
which cost $79 by itself.
QMK programmable RGB keyboards cost $50 more;
numpads are 19; the RGV macropad at 59;
and spacers range from five for orange and lavender,
to $10 for an awesome color shift,
to $39 for a programmable LED matrix
with a built-in Raspberry Pi, RP 24.
I'm 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 upgradeable graphics promise and broke it?
We have video.
Also, it's been a hot minute,
and I do a lot more video
for our TikTok and Instagram channels now.
Check out my series Today I'm Toying With for cool gadgets.