Something to look forward to: In a sea of laptops that are less to upgrade or repair every year, a small company called Framework is trying to create a new niche with a work laptop that offers many customization options and is made in part from recycled aluminum and plastic. This is hoped they decide to make a gaming laptop in the future.
One of the main complaints about laptops introduced in recent years is that manufacturers almost always prioritize thin and light designs over expandability and repairability. Many PC laptops still have replaceable and / or upgradeable components such as RAM and SSD storage, but in the case of MacBook owners, these are all soldered to the logic board, while other things, such as the battery and Touch Bar, are even for repair professionals are troublesome with.
In the smartphone world, consumers are dealing with a similar phenomenon, but there are some companies like Pine64 and Fairphone that are pushing against the grain with repairable, modular, and even eco-friendly designs. This week, a startup called Framework announced a laptop built on similar principles, with components that users can easily replace or upgrade as needed.
The new laptop comes with a 13.5-inch, 3: 2 display with a resolution of 2256 by 1504 pixels and more than 400 nits of brightness. The components are housed in an aluminum chassis that is less than 16mm thick, for a total weight of up to 1.3kg. You can configure it with one of three 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake processors with Xe integrated graphics – i5-1135G7, i7-1165G7 or i7-1185G7 – and up to a Wi-Fi 6E module for wireless connectivity.
The CPU is the only notable part that cannot be replaced as it is designed as a BGA package soldered to the motherboard. However, the Framework team says it will release new motherboards in the future when newer CPUs come out, so theoretically that shouldn’t be that big of a deal. And thanks to the lessons learned with the Alienware Area-51m R1, it’s ultimately up to Intel to make it easier in that department.
You can pair the processor with up to two 32 GB DDR4-3200 RAM modules for a total of 64 GB, and for storage you can configure up to a spacious 4TB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD. The slot supports four-lane PCIe 4.0 drives, so you can install the fastest consumer SSDs.
For connectivity, the Framework team came up with a handy solution for the USB-C transition – the four ports are recessed into the case to allow installation of all the ports you need for your use case through removable modules. Since these connect via USB-C, you can probably lend them to a friend or colleague who needs a USB-A, HDMI, microSD slot, DisplayPort, and even a headphone jack. This system also lets you choose which side those ports are on, which can come in handy more often than you might think.
The screen is also replaceable, as is the magnetically attached bezel with the 1080p webcam and microphone with physical privacy switches for both. The keyboard offers 1.5mm key spacing and you can choose a localized version if needed. All the components in the Framework laptop are powered by a 55 Wh battery that is also user replaceable as it is not glued to the case.
The Framework team plans to offer this laptop with Windows 10 or Linux starting this summer. There is no pricing information yet, but we do know it will also be offered as a “do-it-yourself” kit for those of you who want to assemble the laptop yourself. As for the many user-replaceable parts, these will be available on the Framework marketplace, which is open to third-party component vendors.