Framework just revealed the new Framework Laptop 16, which brings CPU and GPU upgrades to their popular modular laptop. This is probably one of the most exciting laptop hardware companies around, especially now with modular GPU upgrades possible.
Pre-orders are open now with you being able to configure the new Framework Laptop 16 with the Ryzen AI 7 350 or
Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 along with the new option for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 or AMD Radeon RX 7700S. Pricing starts at £1,499 for the DIY edition and £1,799 for the pre-built version.
From their blog post:
We’ve spent the last two years working with the teams at AMD, NVIDIA, and Compal to not only make a new NVIDIA-powered Graphics Module, but also make it fully backwards compatible with the original Framework Laptop 16. That means any current owner can pick up the new module and get the latest generation of graphics!
They're really beginning to show other hardware vendors how it's done. Enabling you to keep updating your existing hardware, instead of forcing you to buy an entirely new machine.
For the refresh they've also revamped the thermal system, along with upgrading the display to support NVIDIA G-SYNC. The AMD GPU was also refreshed with an updated thermal system. There's more too they also announced a new compact 240W USB-C adapter supporting the USB-PD 3.1 spec.
For the original Framework Laptop 16 they're reducing the price and keeping the Ryzen 7 versions in production as a lower cost option.
I also don't really buy the "not enough space for ram" as the 4GB GDDR7 modules are the same physical size as the 2GB modules. Likely they are just not allowed to put more VRAM in because that's the only way they could get nvidia to allow them to do a custom form factor.
Really hope they get updates out faster for the FW16 in the future as there was clearly a lot of things ready before they announced this update that's 20 months after the last launch. I'm concerned that they are exploding their product stack a little too fast.
Framework is definitely doing good in the world right now, they are very open (for a company) with various things.
Their support is both amazing and lackluster at the same time. Let me explain:
* They provide some support after warranty expired. (e.g. ship PTM pads to fix a thermal issue after warranty expired)
* They ship fixes for design defects. (e.g. keyboard flex, PTM pads)
* They provide a fair amount of technical specs so you can modify/fix things yourself.
* They tend to focus on their products (e.g. firmware updates) in cycles, where you'll get a bunch of attention then nothing for half a year. Rinse and repeat. There has been a case that the latest firmware broke charging in subtle ways that was just left broken for half a year, there have been community fixes and there will still be radio silence about it until they officially look at it again)
* When something is broken in warranty, their triage process is so painful that you feel like it was designed to annoy you into giving up. To be fair, they do eventually follow through, but support is a really frustrating experience. (Being asked to photo the same thing over and over, spending months without your device as you had to ship it to them for repairs, etc...)(but this isn't unique to them, sadly)
To be fair, the support offered is significantly better than MSI/Asus for example, and it's awesome that a smaller manufacturer beats a few tier 1 manufacturers here.
I would recommend them for anyone that wants a Linux-first notebook. My FW16 is significantly more stable than any other notebook in Linux I had since the skylake-era Dell business notebooks. In fact, things I used to chalk up to software bugs in drivers disappeared, which now lets me think they are firmware bugs that just never gets fixed.
Last edited by Stella on 27 Aug 2025 at 10:54 am UTC