Framework Laptop 16: our exclusive hands-on

theverge.com:

Framework CEO Nirav Patel describes it in biblical terms: “So many have tried to capture this holy grail and died along the way.” It’s a very dramatic way to say that his new Laptop 16 lets you replace and eventually upgrade the entire GPU.

But as I shove an AMD Radeon RX 7700S graphics card into the back of his computer and fire up Elden Ring, I have to admit it rings true. I have wanted this for 20 years — and I genuinely wonder if Framework will be the exception to that “died along the way” rule.

The Framework Laptop 16, available for preorder today starting at $1,699 prebuilt, is one of the most exciting notebooks we’ve ever seen. When it ships in Q4, the modular computer company’s first gaming laptop will let you swap practically every component — not just memory and storage, but each and every individual port, the motherboard, the battery, the speakers, you name it.

Heck, Framework’s entire keyboard deck is now composed of Lego-like modular parts that snap and slide into place. Want your keyboard and touchpad aligned right, left, or center? Fancy a splash of color? Need a numpad? How about a matrix of dazzling LEDs? The Framework 16’s modular slats make it possible. Each has a tiny Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip peeking through a window around back to make them that much cooler.

But the pièce de résistance is Framework’s Expansion Bay, which lets you slot a entire discrete mobile GPU into the laptop — or, later this year, a pair of extra SSDs.

We’ve known all this since Framework’s March announcement. But this past week, I got to be the first to take a working GPU-equipped version of the modular computer for a spin. I took the Framework Laptop 16 apart and pieced it back together with my own two hands and the single