Repairable laptop manufacturer, Framework, has just announced their new Framework Laptop 16, which will support both Ryzen™ AI 300 Series processors and a swappable NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 5070 GPU. With this new iteration, Framework’s modular laptop represents a bold new innovation in the market. By combining upgradability with portability and a high-performance gaming experience, might Framework have set the stage for a new wave of modular gaming tech?
Upgradability meets portability
Framework’s laptop 16 announcement signifies a significant moment in the evolution of gaming tech and a major departure for portable gaming devices. For the longest time, avid gaming enthusiasts have mainly identified as either console players or PC players, with the latter overwhelmingly opting for tower PCs when creating gaming setups. While the market has always offered laptops designed specifically for gaming, some with surprisingly powerful hardware, gaming laptops have always existed in something of a middle ground, not quite satisfying the needs of either group.
Consoles have always offered affordability, long lifecycles, and consistent compatibility for a plug-and-play experience with the latest and most anticipated titles. PCs, on the other hand, offer more technical players the benefits of customization and the ability to continually upgrade to maintain the highest level of performance. A complaint with gaming laptops is that integrated hardware can age out quickly, preventing them from keeping up with new game releases. While gaming laptops can boast impressive specs at times, their limitations have led to them occupying a liminal space in the market, frequently sidelined for other options, with those seeking portable gaming experiences even opting for the convenience of markedly lower-spec handheld consoles. But Framework’s newest innovation could create a whole new demand for gaming laptops.
With its 16-inch screen, top-of-the-line RTX 5070 GPU, and modular graphics card support, Framework’s laptop 16 brings customization to portable gaming in a way that hasn’t existed before, beyond just RAM and storage space. Combined with Framework’s existing innovations, this could allow gamers to periodically swap out GPUs and other components like CPUs, batteries, and Wi-Fi cards, consistently achieve peak performance, making it possible to extend the laptop’s lifecycle and keep pace with graphical developments in the gaming industry. That makes portable gaming computers a fundamentally different and more appealing offering.
Potential for mainstream momentum
The announcement of Framework’s modular laptop could potentially be a catalyst for a significant shift in the gaming space, in consumer tech more generally. Aside from a combination of portability and processing power, this kind of laptop could be, in many ways, exactly what many people are after these days.
There has been a marked shift in consumer behaviour and priorities in recent years. Users are growing frustrated with short lifecycles and planned obsolescence, and are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of their tech, most notably e-waste. This is especially true in the case of Gen Z and millennials, which are key audience demographics for gaming hardware. In fact, in a recent survey, 84% of millennials and 85% of Gen Z reported that sustainability was a key consideration in their consumer behaviour, often prioritized even above pricing.
For modern gamers of a more environmentally conscious persuasion, conventional gaming laptops could not have represented a viable proposition due to the rigidity of their hardware and relatively short window in which they can deliver top-tier performance. But if more manufacturers take the modular approach that Frameworks has, it could bring repairability, upgradability, and most importantly, sustainability into the picture. At a time when the right to repair is at the forefront of minds and gamers are becoming more environmentally conscious, modular laptops could be the next big thing in gaming.
Modularity, review culture, and digital literacy
If modular gaming hardware becomes more mainstream, then consumer behaviour will also experience a shift – not just in terms of what they buy, but the decision-making process that informs their purchases. A slew of new gamers will be using consumer feedback platforms and aggregators like the Best Reviews Guide to compare not just gaming devices, but individual components, from GPUs and CPUs to cooling systems, sound cards, and more, looking to balance performance with value for money.
The laptop market specifically will undergo a sea change, as consumers will begin to possess a level of product literacy that they haven’t had previously. That also means that manufacturers will need to take users’ feedback into greater consideration, and moreover, maintain a presence on review platforms to demonstrate that consumers’ opinions are being seen and internalized into the design process. Modern consumers, as has been well established by now, want transparency, and that’s equally pertinent in the gaming tech space as elsewhere.
With consumers’ expectations and priorities shifting and review culture on the rise, manufacturers that opt for modular development paths will need to take a user-centric approach and utilise online feedback to guide product improvement. If they ensure that devices and components hit the right balance of price, performance, and sustainability, they could well forge a lucrative niche for themselves in the coming years.
Final thoughts
The announcement of Framework’s swappable RTX 5070 laptop GPU isn’t just another product launch – it’s a statement of intent and a challenge to the market. The introduction of upgradability might be what takes high-end gaming laptops into the mainstream, presenting an enormous opportunity to manufacturers. It’s futile to predict at this early stage, but it’s not difficult to see how this could be the beginning of a new era of modularity in gaming tech.
