Four and a quarter years ago, I told you how a USB-C cable could someday power all but the beefiest gaming laptops. Now, Framework is finally fulfilling the promise of 240 watts through a USB plug. Today, it’s opening preorders for the first standards-compliant 240W USB-C PD power adapter ever sold by a computer company.
Since Framework also has the first laptop that can support 240W USB-C PD, it’s the latest way that Framework, a startup company, is leading the PC industry. It’s the only company that’s ever delivered on the promise of modular, upgradable laptops. Today, it also appears it’ll be the first to deliver “the holy grail” of upgradable laptop graphics cards, letting you swap its existing AMD Radeon RX 7700S for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 — which also goes on preorder today.
While Framework might have the first complete 240W USB-C power solution, it’s not technically the first 240W USB-C charger. We wrote about Delta’s beefy DP-240KB last November, and Ugreen put its multi-port Nexode 500W on sale this summer with a single 240W port in addition to four 100W ones (it tops out at 240W+100W+100W+60W = 500W, in case you’re curious).
But those three chargers are the only brand-name 240W USB-C PD power supplies I’m aware of, and I’ve only spotted a single no-name charger past that. Many companies advertising “240W” chargers are simply referring to a charger that can output 140W over one cable, plus 100W over another; true 48V@5A chargers are brand-new.
Framework will be selling its charger for less than Delta and Ugreen. While the others cost $200 each, Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells us this one will be sold separately for $109, the same price as the 180W USB-C PD charger it originally shipped alongside the Framework Laptop 16. It only offers the one USB-C port, but both the power cable and the USB-C cable are still detachable, and the brick is quite compact — it isn’t that much bigger than the existing 180W charger, just a bit longer.
Framework was actually the first company to ship a 180W PD charger, too, but it wasn’t quite enough to power and charge a fully kitted out Framework Laptop 16 at the same time while playing intensive games. The battery could sometimes drain while you play, and he says that won’t happen if you swap this charger in.
Don’t expect it to give you more performance in games, though, at least not this year: The Framework Laptop 16’s new RTX 5070 graphics card is still rated for only 100W of power, like the AMD Radeon 7700S before it. That’s as much cooling and power as Framework was able to share with the GPU.
You will get an extra 240W capable charge port if you opt for the RTX 5070, though: the video card’s dedicated USB-C port now supports 240W of power and basic USB 2.0 functionality in addition to DisplayPort output, so you can get a single-cable docking solution that way.
