Framework is, if you ask me, making the coolest laptops (and now desktops) on the market. The company is now several generations into its completely modular, upgradeable PC designs, available in 12-, 13-, and 16-inch (with discrete graphics) flavors. Adam got to sit down (stand up?) with Framework CEO Nirav Patel to chat about the company’s latest work.
The Framework 13 is the workhorse of the lineup, its original design, and it’s still cooking. According to Patel, there are several people who are still working with the original chassis running the latest parts, having upgraded their laptops piece by piece. But the most powerful member of the line is the Framework 16, with plenty of room for a discrete graphics card (also replaceable, thanks to its separate module). It now comes in AMD and Nvidia flavors, with the Radeon RX 7700S and the new GeForce RTX 5070, respectively.
Patel says that the 5070 is the “sweet spot” for both performance and the company’s needs for building it into a form factor that can be swapped out. Thermal management and power needs are a prime concern — the latest Framework 16 is one of the first laptops to be powered at 240 watts over USB-C. It’s also getting some interesting new options for that modular, movable keyboard, which is a different part than the one on the Framework 13 and can be augmented with a separate number pad. Framework might also offer modular, single-key keyboard layouts in the future, something similar to custom mechanical keyboards.
Foundry
What’s coming further down the line? Framework will obviously upgrade its motherboard options as new tech becomes available, and Patel says that newer AMD graphics card modules are something they’d like to do. Framework has worked with Intel, AMD, and Nvidia for almost all its products now… what about Qualcomm, making some very interesting moves over on the Arm side of the processor world? “We get asked that a lot,” says Patel, but he was non-committal about any Snapdragon hardware.
PCWorld has reviews for all of Framework’s current devices, including the new Desktop mini-PC and the 12-inch convertible laptop. For more on the latest PC hardware news, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out The Full Nerd podcast every week.
