Framework Is Working On A Giant Haptic Touchpad, Trackpoint Nub, And Egpu For Its Laptops

Today, Framework announced nan second-gen Framework Laptop 16 pinch 2 manufacture firsts: nan first Nvidia graphics paper upgrade you tin execute astatine location successful conscionable a mates minutes, and nan first complete 240W laptop charging solution complete a USB-C cable.

But nan company’s also revealing immoderate intriguing upgrades that didn’t rather make nan trim — including an extra-large haptic touchpad a la Apple’s MacBooks, and nan company’s first external graphics module (eGPU).

Not everything successful nan video beneath is really coming to market, and immoderate of it won’t beryllium aimed astatine mundane consumers. Framework CEO Nirav Patel says he’s moving to bring nan fan-favorite ThinkPad Trackpoint nub to its keyboards, but keeps failing because nan squad can’t find a short capable nub that it doesn’t flick into nan Laptop 16’s screen.

But he says a wide haptic touchpad is genuinely successful development, 1 that won’t request nan Framework Laptop 16’s modular spacers to springiness you a full-width palmrest. And if your main interest is conscionable removing those spacers (I occasionally recovered nan uneven aboveground annoying in my review), Framework says it’ll merchandise 3D files truthful you tin people your ain full-width palmrest for nan existing touchpad, successful immoderate colour you like.

Here’s a look astatine that 3D-printed one:

Framework besides says an eGPU is really successful improvement that uses nan Framework Laptop 16’s GPU modules, but not arsenic a user product. Patel says that would make it excessively costly to fulfill nan team’s main goal: “We want to make judge location is simply a pathway to reuse graphics modules coming retired of nan Framework Laptop 16, truthful they’re not sitting successful a drawer aliases worse going retired into a landfill somewhere.”

So it won’t look for illustration nan prototype you spot below, but alternatively thing targeted astatine makers, he says — possibly we’ll person to 3D people nan lawsuit for that 1 ourselves arsenic well.

Patel besides says Framework’s One Key Modules for building your ain civilization keyboards are still successful improvement — “we’re moving difficult to bring up nan manufacturing output truthful we tin make it disposable astatine a reasonable price” — and expects he’ll beryllium capable to connection 64GB RAM modules earlier long. A transparent bezel for nan Framework Laptop 16 didn’t make nan trim because it turned retired excessively brittle, though nan team’s still looking for polycarbonate aliases resin blends that’d activity better.

As for why it’s shipping a caller Nvidia RTX 5070 graphics module pinch conscionable 8GB of RAM, Patel says successful a Q&A that’s really overmuch is disposable pinch a mobile 5070, and that’s really overmuch could fresh into nan existent design, which only has abstraction for 4 representation packages connected nan front.

While they could person gone pinch a much powerful GPU, “we’d person to turn nan thickness of nan graphics module by putting them connected some sides of nan board,” which would summation nan thickness of nan graphics bay, which would summation nan thickness of nan laptop, among different adjustments.

“For this generation, 5070 8GB is it,” says Patel.