Kalakshar US

You might know the story by now: Framework makes repairable, modular laptops where you can sub in new components for old or broken ones. It’s been two years since the company debuted an AMD mainboard for the Laptop 13 and so it’s time for the first replacement to arrive. The new model gets AMD’s Ryzen AI 300, a series of power-efficient chips for notebooks that can do all the Copilot+ AI nonsense the industry insists people need and want.

Framework sent me the new AMD mainboard to slot into the existing chassis, along with a new bezel and input cover. Rather than the usual solid colors, the company is now offering translucent plastic versions for all those late ‘90s kids who owned Game Boy Colors. I prefer the tinted translucent version over the clear transparent one, but you can judge for yourself in the pictures.

Mainboard with AMD Ryzen AI 300

Would-be buyers have three options: They can buy a new pre-built laptop with Ryzen AI 300, a DIY edition to assemble or just get the mainboard on its own. Either way, you get the pick of a Ryzen 5 340, Ryzen 7 350 or the flagship Ryzen 9 HX 370 capable of harnessing up to 96GB of RAM. Naturally, the price will start to climb the greater your technological ambitions.

I was supplied with the midrange Ryzen 7 350, which took me about 11 minutes or so to swap into the existing AMD model. It’s amusing to think it took me the better part of an hour the first time I did this but once you’re fluent, it becomes effortless. If you, like me, lost the muscle memory to swap components at the turn of the millennium, don’t feel like this is beyond you.

The Ryzen 7 350’s performance is fine for the sort of tasks you’d expect to do with a 13-inch notebook. I didn’t find there was a clear, epoch-shifting leap between what I got out of this and the 7840U it replaced. If you’re using it for the usual stuff — work, browsing and watching videos — then it’ll handle that all with aplomb.

As usual, the best reason to recommend the AMD model over its Intel equivalent is for its greater strength in gaming. After all, you can easily get 50 to 60 fps in titles like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto V, making this an effective all-rounder.

There are two downsides to Framework’s modular approach, one of which is that the hardware will always look more functional than its rivals. The second, and more critical, is that all of the CPU cooling has to be integrated onto the mainboard itself. Whereas a lot of machines can be designed around thermal management, this one can’t because everything is modular. So the fan on top of the mainboard has to do all of the work with one hand tied behind its back. Consequently both the Intel and AMD versions of Framework’s laptops are noisy in ways more modern machines aren’t.

Framework says it addressed the noise issue by redesigning the heatpipe, improving the fan algorithm and switching to Honeywell’s PTM7958 thermal paste. Sadly, as many hours as the company may have put in here, you’re still going to have to deal with plenty of fan noise and heat under heavy load. And while AMD promised the 300 AI was designed to be more power-efficient, the new processor further dents this thing’s battery life. I didn’t get anything close to a full day on a charge here, but that seems to be the way with so many laptops these days.

Input cover (Second generation)

I’ve always commended Framework for its commitment to improving every hardware component as it goes. This time around, the company worked with manufacturing partner Lite-On to give its keyboard a makeover. It focused on hard-to-spot improvements like printing the caps in a slightly thinner weight, replacing the fingerprint sensor and redesigning the Shift and Enter keys.

Thankfully, what hasn’t changed is the 1.5mm key travel, and founder Nirav Patel told me years ago that he had no interest in trying to fix what wasn’t broken. This means the keyboard itself remains as easy to use as it was before, albeit with a slightly quieter typing action. The keys aren’t as loose in their housing as they were on the older model, which is another sign of higher quality. Users can also pick from keyboards with a dedicated Windows Copilot key or the Framework key, depending on your operating system loyalties.

More importantly, the company addressed feedback that the wide keys would rattle when the speaker played at high volumes. There’s a new scaffold supporting the Shift and spacebar to reduce vibration when the sound gets loud. I think the original problem was overstated, but perhaps my audio picks aren’t as bass-heavy as some other folks. Regardless, the changes here are welcome and when I’ve watched explosion-heavy audio, I found little to no rattle at all.

The compromises

It’s not as simple to swap an Intel mainboard for an AMD one as there are issues with hardware compatibility. Similarly, the AMD boards support different USB standards for different expansion card slots, as you can see in the picture. This is true for AMD boards no matter the manufacturer, but it’s one thing to remember before you make your purchase.

In summary

If you are already inside Framework’s ecosystem then feel free to sleep on this upgrade. Yes, the AI 300 is better than the chip it replaces but not to the extent I’d suggest you shell out several hundred dollars on one. If you aren’t, then you’ll probably be swayed by Framework’s broader pitch rather than this specific update. My suspicion is that the company’s maturing ecosystem is ideally placed to take advantage of the current geopolitical brouhaha. After all, if the cost of every notebook is at risk of leaping through the roof, being able to keep one machine running for longer is compelling. And, if you’re looking to leap in, you should grab one of the discounted Ryzen 7040 machines before they go. After all, if you find the performance a little slow in a few years’ time, you’ll be well-placed to take advantage of the next generation upgrade when it arrives.

I know there are some who feel Framework’s underlying platform is getting a little stale, which I do understand. Tech consumers are constantly clamoring for a newer, flashier doodad, and when the Laptop 13 first launched, it already looked a generation behind rival 13-inch notebooks in the same class. When the Laptop 13 first launched, it already looked a generation behind rival 13-inch notebooks in the same class. Five years down the line, it won’t beat any machines from Dell, Acer or ASUS in look or feel.

But while it may not have the razzle or dazzle, it does have the staying power, and that’s going to be a bigger asset in the next few years. If you’re the sort of person who would buy a Lenovo Thinkpad and run it until it falls apart, then this is a better option. After all, with a Framework, you won’t even have to worry about it falling apart.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/framework-laptop-13-2025-with-amd-ryzen-ai-300-review-the-usual-iterative-upgrade-172031005.html?src=rss 

NVIDIA’s RTX 5060 finally has a release date. When the company announced the budget 50-series graphics cards last month, it gave the higher-end Ti model a firm April 19 launch but limited the base 5060 model to a vague “May” window. On Tuesday, we learned that the card with a $299 MSRP arrives on May 19.

The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 VRAM, 19 TFLOPS Blackwell shader cores, 5th-gen tensor cores with 614 AI TOPS performance and 4th-gen RT (ray tracing) cores that can reach 58 TFLOPS. It also has 3,840 CUDA Cores.

According to NVIDIA’s benchmarks, the RTX 5060 reaches 234 fps in Hogwarts Legacy, 148 fps in Cyberpunk 2077, 220 fps in Avowed and 330 fps in Marvel Rivals. Those numbers are all set for 1080p with maxed-out graphics and 4x frame generation.

Based on today’s prices, those are impressive numbers for a $299 card. But if you can snag one at all, you’ll likely be hard-pressed to find one at that price. For that, you can thank Donald Trump. The Verge notes that retailers jacked up graphics card prices even before his tariffs kicked in. In addition, the US president recently killed the de minimis exemption, which spared goods under $800 from extra taxes. (Remember when he said he would make America affordable again?) So, consider yourself one of the lucky few if you find one on launch day for anything close to $299.

The GeForce RTX 5060 will go on sale on May 19 at noon ET from NVIDIA’s retail partners. In addition to the standalone desktop card, the laptops with the mobile version of the RTX 5060 will launch at the same time, starting at $1,099.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidias-geforce-rtx-5060-gpu-arrives-on-may-19-160939549.html?src=rss 

Recteq makes pellet grills, but those can’t do it all when it comes to backyard cooking. So when the company sought to create an alternative for gas grillers, without making an actual gas grill, it needed to do something radically different.

With its newly launched X-Fire Pro, Recteq may have done that. The company says that its Dual Mode Cooking combines the best of wood pellets and gas, offering a temperature range between 225 and 1,250 degrees Fahrenheit. But it wasn’t just about getting to that high level of heat. For Recteq, harmonizing the dual capabilities with an intuitive design was most important.

“Part of our development process was going after the gas grill market, attracting new users to the pellet grill universe,” Recteq’s VP of products Ben Lesshafft said. “We really felt the best way to do that was to meet them on their turf.”

Gas grills are very easy to use. They feel more familiar to most people because they function a lot like a stove and light with the press of a button. Primarily designed for higher-heat cooking, these are the grills you want for burgers, steaks and other cookout essentials when you don’t want to futz with the extra care and clean up of charcoal. Turn it on, cook your food, turn it off. What’s more, gas grills have multiple burners, which allow backyard cooks to adjust and maintain multiple temperature zones as needed.

With the X-Fire Pro Recteq needed to create a similar two-burner/fire pot setup. Just one of those wouldn’t be enough to adequately cover the 825 square inches of cooking space on such a large grill. That’s especially true when there’s a direct heat option involved. However, the dual fire pots aren’t what’s necessary for the 1,250-degree performance. For that, the company utilizes the fire pots from its Bullseye Deluxe model that’s also capable of 1,000-degree searing.

Lesshafft walked me through how Recteq achieves this, employing a specially designed, “gasification-style” fire pot that ignites the wood gas that’s produced when the pellets burn. With a double-walled construction for this crucial component, something that works similarly to the airflow channels on a Solo Stove fire pit, the company can ignite that wood gas at temperatures above 500-600 degrees for “an accelerated amount of heat.”

Now that Recteq can reach an extreme amount of heat by fully exploiting the pellets, it needs to allow food to come in direct contact with the flames. “That’s the adjustable damper,” Lesshafft said. “You can go fully closed, partially open, almost all the way open and wide open.” The damper and an Adaptive Sear Control feature are only available on the right-side fire pot though.

On the left, there’s a perforated steel deflector covering the heat source. This allows for the hot and cold sides of the grill, or hot and not-so-hot, both of which are common cooking setups for gas grilling. You’ll need higher heat for searing a steak, but more indirect heat for bringing it fully to temperature. Or maybe you have people over who all like their steaks cooked differently. Either way, gas grills allow you to have varied heat zones and so does the X-Fire Pro’s Grill Mode.

Of course, the X-Fire Pro also had to be a pellet grill, and that brings us back to Recteq’s area of expertise. “Nobody with a gas grill brags about pork butt, brisket and ribs,” Lesshafft quipped.

Pellet grills are better at low-and-slow smoking. Sure, you can do baking, roasting and limited searing on most models, but the bread and butter here is smoked meat, seafood and other dishes. Most pellet grills these days offer some form of connectivity — Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or both — so that you can keep tabs on progress without standing outside the entire time. This is typically done with an app that also allows you to to adjust the cooking temperature of the grill, activate certain modes or shut it down from afar.

For Smoke Mode on the X-Fire Pro, only the left fire pot runs. That perforated deflector I mentioned is designed in such a way that the heat is pushed towards the middle of the grill. It’s similar to how an offset smoker (stick burner) works. Even though the active fire pot is on the left side of the cooking chamber, “the temperature balance is remarkably stable,” Lesshafft noted.

To completely synthesize the two types of grills into a single unit, Recteq also had to design controls that would be easy to understand for both gas and pellet grill users. “We wanted to create a lot of things that were familiar to the gas consumer,” he explained. “That’s the knobs on the front, a lot of stainless [steel], and even when you turn it on, that’s the LED rings around the lights.”

There are four knobs in total. The one on the left controls the two grill modes: Smoke and Grill. When you select the latter, all of the LEDs around those knobs light up red. There are two knobs for burner/fire pot control, allowing you to select low, medium, high or maximum. There’s also an Adaptive Sear Control knob which allows you to adjust how much direct flame is coming in contact with your food.

When it’s time for Smoke Mode, turn that far left knob and the X-Fire Pro’s controls transform the machine into a traditional pellet grill. The LEDs around the four center knobs change from red to white, and the controller that’s mounted on the side shelf turns on. Here, you’ll adjust settings for those low-and-slow cooks and monitor temperatures. If you’re unfamiliar with pellet grilling, the controller’s display will help with tips like a reminder to keep the lid closed while smoking.

Most people who’ve cooked with a pellet grill are familiar with using a phone app to track temperatures and access remote controls. Recteq offers that in Smoke Mode on the X-Fire Pro, which means no one will be babysitting a pork shoulder or brisket grillside for 8-12 hours. Like much of the competition, this runs on your home Wi-Fi network.

While the grill is designed to run in two completely separate modes, you can switch between them with ease. If you wanted to reverse sear a steak, for example, you could just smoke it first at 225 and then open the lid and change to Grill Mode. The left fire pot is already going, but this would activate the one on the right for the desired exterior finish. Going from Grill Mode to Smoke Mode “requires a little bit more patience,” Lesshafft said, since the metal chamber has gotten hot and it will take a while for the grill to cool down to the appropriate temperature.

“We really tried to design it with the ultimate amount of versatility,” he said.

And in the end, that appears to be what Recteq did. The company put two separate grills in one machine, catering to backyard cooks who are familiar with each one individually. And in doing so, it built a unique grill that stands out from most of the competition. The X-Fire Pro isn’t a pellet grill with enough searing performance to make it passable, it’s a high-heat beast. It offers a lot more flavor than gas by burning pellets, and it’s much easier to check your fuel levels here than when you’re dealing with a tank.

“We want to deliver what they need [in a gas grill],” Lessshafft concluded. “Should you want to dip your toe in the water of some food you can’t get on a gas grill, this gives you the vehicle to do that too.”

I’ll be putting an X-Fire Pro to the test soon so see if it’s worth the steep $1,550 investment. Yes, you can find a decent gas grill to pair with a solid pellet grill for less than that. But you’d have two cooking appliances on your deck or patio, and you’d still have to contend with the anxiety of propane tank levels before each grilling session. Recteq’s new model should remedy that, and if the performance claims hold up, it will also put a novel piece of grilling gear in your backyard.

Time will tell if Recteq has truly merged the two styles of cooking.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-of-both-worlds-how-recteq-designed-a-pellet-grill-for-gas-grillers-163047921.html?src=rss