HOW FRAME WORK PLANS TO BREAK THE CURSE OF UPGRADEABLE LAPTOPS

THIS SMALL STARTUP THINKS IT CAN PULL OFF SOMETHING NO PC MAKER HAS EVER ACHIEVED.

- GORDON MAH UNG

An upgradeable laptop has long been the holy grail of laptop features. And much like the famed grail, it has never been found.

Many have tried and all have failed. The most recent attempt was Alienware’s Area 51m R1 (go.pcworld.com/51r1), which launched with lofty goals but ultimately never offered meaningful upgrades (go.pcworld. com/mnup).

Enter Framework (go.pcworld.com/ fmwk), which pledges to finally bring the Holy Grail home to Camelot with a modular, do-it-yourself, upgradeable laptop. Having borne witness to all of the prior quest failures, we have our doubts. Many of them.

But after talking at length with Framework founder Nirav Patel, we found our hope rekindled. Maybe, just maybe, this time someone will succeed. Patel seems to have answers for most of the problems that brought down everyone else, including TDP limits and consumers simply breaking the things while building them.

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the Framework laptop’s specifications, followed by our Q&A with Patel. It’s insightful.

FRAMEWORK SPECS

CPU: Intel 11th gen

GPU: Iris Xe integrated graphics

RAM: DDR4/3200 in two SO-DIMM slots

Storage: Standard M.2

Battery: 55Whr

Keyboard: 1.5mm travel dome

Webcam: 1080p 60fps

Networking: Wi-Fi 6E

Display: 13.5-inch 3:2 2256x1504 resolution

Availability: Summer 2021

OS: Linux or Windows