Is This The End Of Gaming PCs? Framework Lets You Plug A Full-Fat Graphics Card Into A Laptop

Framework held a presentation for Next-Gen, showing off not only a heavily refreshed Laptop 13 Pro, but also a few solutions for owners of the larger 16-inch model. The main attraction was a developer kit that lets you power a full-fledged desktop graphics card straight through the laptop’s expansion port.

Five years after the first version came out, engineers have completely reworked the chassis — it’s now a unibody aluminum build measuring 15.85 mm thick and weighing 1.4 kg. The display is custom-made for the first time: 13.5 inches, a 3:2 aspect ratio, 2880×1920 resolution, a variable refresh rate from 30 to 120 Hz, and an anti-glare coating. Brightness has been bumped to 700 nits, and a touch layer has been added. Inside, you’ve got Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips, all the way up to Core Ultra X9 with B390 graphics. The platform supports PCIe 5.0 for storage and the new LPCAMM2 RAM type in 16, 32, or 64 GB capacities with speeds up to 7467 MT/s. The battery is now larger at 74 Wh (a 22 percent increase over the previous generation), with up to 20 hours of battery life claimed.

The trackpad now features haptic feedback, from the same supplier (LiteOn), and the keyboard keeps its 1.5 mm of travel. For anyone who already owns any previous Laptop 13, a partial upgrade is possible: you can just buy the components you need and install them into your old chassis. However, the new battery requires swapping out the bottom cover and the trackpad assembly due to changes in geometry. Shipments start in June 2026. The DIY edition without RAM or storage will start at $1,199, while pre-built configurations start at $1,499. For the first time, the pre-installed OS options include not only Windows but also Ubuntu. Back in early April, Framework’s CEO explained why AI will leave us without proper PCs.

For the 16-inch model, they showed off the OCuLink Dev Kit — essentially a daughterboard that slots into the modular expansion bay at the back and routes eight PCIe lanes externally via an OCuLink connector. Bandwidth is 128 Gbps in both directions. The kit comes with a docking station that can house a standard desktop graphics card with its own power supply. Performance loss is predictably lower than when using Thunderbolt or USB4. The company deliberately calls it a developer kit, because you’ll have to 3D-print the enclosure for the external GPU yourself or just leave it sitting on your desk as-is.

On top of that, they announced one-piece keyboard and trackpad replacements for the Laptop 16 — the company acknowledged that the seams between modules would sometimes catch users’ arm hair. They also highlighted a 10 Gb Ethernet expansion card developed by a third-party manufacturer, WisdPi, which Framework agreed to sell through its own store. The OCuLink Dev Kit is scheduled for the second half of the year, with no exact release date yet. Framework previously unveiled a powerful mini PC with 128 GB of RAM.

What do you think? Will a relatively affordable way to connect a desktop graphics card to a laptop without a major speed penalty change the way we look at gaming laptops as a whole, or will it remain a niche hobby for enthusiasts? Share your thoughts in the comments.