When it comes to improving the sustainability of consumer electronics, there’s a growing movement to design devices with a focus on upgradability and repairability that can extend their longevity, instead of just making them easier to recycle after a few years of use.
At one time, nearly every laptop maker was caught up in a race to create ultrathin designs, resulting in hardware that was difficult to upgrade and expensive to repair. But in recent years, several companies have demonstrated that laptops can be designed so that users can upgrade and easily swap out parts as needed.
Innovative companies like Framework have been producing laptops that don’t need to be entirely replaced every few years, and with more success than other companies previously following similar pursuits. In 2021, Dell was sued over its Alienware laptop that promised GPU upgrades, while Intel has abandoned a couple of modular hardware products, including its Compute Cards.
For now, it’s primarily Framework leading the charge, but its success has inspired competitors like Lenovo to follow suit. As more companies dedicate R&D to the cause, Framework may one day no longer be the only brand associated with modular devices.
You can stay on top of all the latest upgradable and easily repairable device news and developments right here.
- Framework couch keyboard, meet Logitech couch keyboard.
Yes, I really did bring my own Logitech K400 to the Framework event to compare with Framework’s new keyboard+touchpad. I also accidentally left the Logitech there and had to go back; my colleague Victoria can confirm! Also in this video: check out what I am now calling Framework’s “anti-dongle.”
- Turns out Framework’s eGPU is even more powerful than I thought.
Framework told PCWorld that its new eGPU kit will include the first OCuLink 8i connector in a laptop — meaning eight lanes and 128Gbps of PCI-Express connectivity, which means it should be even faster than Thunderbolt 5 and shouldn’t bottleneck a GPU as much as the four-lane solutions we’ve tried before.
- And here’s our Framework Laptop 13 Pro video.
If I didn’t already have a perfectly good laptop, I’d be saving up my money for this one. (Saving, not preordering, because I always wait for the reviews.)
Also, we’ve got photos and impressions of Framework’s couch keyboard now.
- We just tried — and tore down — the Framework Laptop 13 Pro.
I just updated my story with some hands-on impressions and a photo gallery; we should have a quick video coming later today too!
Photo by Victoria Barrios / The Verge - Framework’s first laptop sleeve is made of space-age Tyvek.
Don’t call it duct-tape! Tyvek is a plastic that feels (and creases) like paper, similarly made of fibers bonded together. I have a wallet made of the stuff. The bag has dedicated pockets for Framework’s Expansion Cards, screwdriver, and up to a 13-inch laptop. The $39 sleeve comes in silver or black.
1/2A silver bag Image: Framework Framework announces Laptop 13 Pro, ‘the MacBook Pro for Linux users’
Gorilla arm who? Image: FrameworkEvery time we review a Framework laptop, we find familiar pros and cons. They’re truly upgradable, incredibly repairable, but we always wish the battery lasted longer. We always wish the build quality were top notch.
Today, Framework is announcing what could be the answer: the Framework Laptop 13 Pro.
Read Article >Framework’s first eGPUs turn its laptop into a desktop PC
Image: FrameworkRemember when Framework made the first laptop where you can easily upgrade its entire internal video card in three minutes flat? The company’s getting into the external graphics game, too. As promised last August, you’ll be able to turn the Framework Laptop 16’s GPU modules into external ones instead. Or, you can plug in a desktop graphics card (or network card, or other PCIe cards) for more power than most laptops ever dream of having, with eight lanes of PCI-Express bandwidth.
Framework’s calling it the OCuLink Dev Kit, because it uses the OCuLink standard to transmit data between your CPU and the external GPU, and because the company wants you to know this isn’t exactly a consumer friendly product. “It’s not like Thunderbolt where it’s a simple plug-and-play solution,” Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells The Verge. “It’s for that enthusiast or power user.”
Read Article >- Framework is filling the Laptop 16’s literal gaps with one-piece touchpad and keyboard decks.
The Framework Laptop 16 is the most modular laptop ever made — but we’ve never been huge fans of the uneven and occasionally creaky spacers that let you shift the keyboard and touchpad left and right. Here are new one-piece versions. The touchpad might feel nicer now that it’s haptic, too! Waiting to hear the price on these.
1/5First, the new touchpad and the original keyboard. Image: Framework - Framework says new Laptop 13 Pro has more Netflix battery life than an M5 MacBook Pro.
20 hours of 4K Netflix, says CEO Nirav Patel. It’s got a Core Ultra 3 chip, a 22 percent larger and denser battery, a custom 30-120Hz VRR screen and LPCAMM2 compression mounted memory. Full story coming soon.
- Stick a 10Gbps port into your Framework Desktop or Laptop.
It’s even bigger than Framework’s existing 2.5Gbps expansion card, and will definitely stick out the side of your machine. But it’s fast! (Framework gave up on foldable Ethernet ports when it turned out their internals were too chunky, BTW.) The company isn’t yet saying how much it’ll cost.
The WisdPi 10G, designed by a Hong Kong company, will be sold in Framework’s online shop. Image: Framework - Watch Framework launch ‘next gen’ modular gadgets right here at 10:30a PT / 1:30p ET.
We’re here at Framework’s Next Gen event in San Francisco, and you can follow along with the livestream. It’s been teasing a lot of Linux: what do you think we’re about to see?
- Framework gets a handle on it.
The Framework Desktop’s awesome $19 carry handle is just now going on sale, as is the Framework Laptop 12’s $59 stylus, and both systems are “wrapping up” preorders. You can find cheaper USI 2.0 stylii, but these aren’t just color-matched: you can remove and replace their batteries. Other Framework updates here.
Image: Framework - Today I’m toying with 240 watts of true USB-C PD power.
Remember when I upgraded a laptop’s entire GPU in just three minutes and filmed it for you? It wasn’t the only first I filmed that day! Here’s my Today I’m Toying With video hands-on with Framework’s industry-first standards-based 240W USB-C PD charging system. Look ma: no barrel jacks!
Framework actually did it: I upgraded a laptop’s entire GPU in just three minutes
Photo by Sean Hollister / The VergeOn Tuesday, I told you how the modular computer company Framework was finally fulfilling its promise of the “holy grail for gamers” — a laptop with modular, swappable discrete graphics cards so easy to swap, practically anyone can do it at home. The first futureproof gaming laptop, perhaps?
Today, I can confirm the system actually works. I traveled to Framework’s San Francisco offices to be the first journalist to upgrade an entire laptop graphics card, with my own hands, in just three minutes — including the time it took to reboot. I yanked an AMD Radeon RX 7700S video card out of the machine and plugged in a brand-new mobile Nvidia RTX 5070, with just six screws and using the pen-shaped screwdriver that comes included with the machine.
Read Article >- Seeing is believing, so here’s me upgrading a laptop’s video card in under three minutes.
This is the Framework Laptop 16, and the company tells me I’m the first journalist to do this thing: show proof that upgrading a laptop’s GPU can be as easy as upgrading a desktop one. Alienware whiffed on this idea, but Framework is delivering. More on this right here.
- You can now 3D-print your own Framework Laptop 16 full-width palmrest.
The modular PC company didn’t say when it’d upload the promised files; turns out it’s today! Find center, right-align, and left-align options here on GitHub, if you’d rather have a single unbroken palmrest instead of spacers. (But instead of grey, why not try sparkle or wood or marble filament?)
Image: Framework Framework is working on a giant haptic touchpad, Trackpoint nub, and eGPU for its laptops
Image: FrameworkToday, Framework announced the second-gen Framework Laptop 16 with two industry firsts: the first Nvidia laptop graphics card upgrade you can perform at home in just a couple minutes, and the first complete 240W laptop charging solution over a USB-C cable.
But the company’s also revealing some intriguing upgrades that didn’t quite make the cut — including an extra-large haptic touchpad a la Apple’s MacBooks (with no physical click), and the company’s first external graphics module (eGPU).
Read Article >Bye-bye barrel jack: Framework brings 240W USB-C charging to laptops
Image: Framework, Cath Virginia / The VergeFour and a quarter years ago, I told you how a USB-C cable could someday power all but the beefiest gaming laptops. Now, Framework is finally fulfilling the promise of 240 watts through a USB plug. Today, it’s opening preorders for the first standards-compliant 240W USB-C PD power adapter ever sold by a computer company.
Since Framework also has the first laptop that can support 240W USB-C PD, it’s the latest way that Framework, a startup company, is leading the PC industry. It’s the only company that’s ever delivered on the promise of modular, upgradable laptops. Today, it also appears it’ll be the first to deliver “the holy grail” of upgradable laptop graphics cards, letting you swap its existing AMD Radeon RX 7700S for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 — which also goes on preorder today.
Read Article >Framework is now selling the first gaming laptop that lets you easily upgrade its GPU — with Nvidia’s blessing
Image: Framework, Cath Virginia / The VergeFramework CEO Nirav Patel said he would deliver “the holy grail for gamers” with the Framework Laptop 16. In 2023, he suggested it’d be the first consumer notebook to fulfil the promise of modular, upgradable graphics cards like a desktop PC. We at The Verge were skeptical, because the last time we heard someone tell that story, it ended in lawsuits and forced arbitration.
But today, some eighteen months after shipping the Framework Laptop 16, the company has done what no laptop maker has done in modern memory, if ever: it’s created a newer, faster discrete graphics card you can easily swap into its existing laptop.
Read Article >Framework is teasing a ‘big’ update for August 26th — could it be Framework 16?
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeFramework, the modular computer company, just released its first delightful tiny desktop PC, on top of its smallest laptop yet. But it’s already teasing its next big live announcement on YouTube for August 26th at 8am PT / 11am ET, saying it’ll reveal how “something big just got better.”
While that may seem like a vague phrase, it might narrow things down quite a bit! Framework only has one existing “big” product other than the Framework Desktop, the one that mysteriously didn’t get an update at its last event in February.
Read Article >- Framework will open US preorders for Laptop 12 after all: tomorrow, starting at $549.
9AM PT tomorrow, April 10th, and they’ll ship in June, just like the UK/EU/Canada ones that already went on preorder today during the Trump tariff flip-flop kerfuffle.
Framework raised prices and then un-raised them an hour later because of Trump
Image: FrameworkThanks to Framework, one of the most transparent computer companies out there, we now have a sterling example of just how ridiculous President Donald Trump’s tariffs can make life in the year 2025.
Today, the company made all of its computers more expensive. Then, it almost immediately reversed that to bring its computers back to their original prices, in real time, all because Trump posted to social media that he was instituting a tariff pause less than a day after his new tariffs began. Then, Framework clarified that some price increases will still apply on China-made components.
Read Article >- Please bring back swappable laptop batteries.
This is the new Dynabook Portégé Z40L-N, and it’s not quite what I’m asking for — while it does unusually have its own dedicated compartment, this 56Wh battery is more user-serviceable than swappable. Some other laptops offer that too. But what if you could carry a second battery with you, charge it outside of the laptop (maybe integrated USB-C), then toollessly swap at a moment’s notice?
Or are external batteries just better for that now?
The Portege Z40L-N offers a “self-replaceable battery.” Image: Dynabook Mint and pink: a closer look at the backflipping Framework Laptop 12
The Framework Laptop 12. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeThe moment Vjeran and I got to the demo room at Framework’s San Francisco event, we knew right away — the mint and pink version of the Framework Laptop 12 was the one I wanted to touch, the one he wanted to photograph and film.
One of the women standing next to the demo stations thanked us for saying that out loud, because she wasn’t initially sure mint and pink would make the cut! She introduced herself as Esther Yen, the senior industrial designer of this entire laptop — and says they were the colors she had asked for.
Read Article >- Here’s Framework’s first touchscreen laptop.
Can Framework fix budget laptops next? That’s the goal, and Framework CEO Nirav Patel says he’ll be dogfooding it himself, making this 12-inch laptop his daily driver for the foreseeable future. He wouldn’t tell me just how budget it’ll go yet.
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