When you buy a laptop, the end-game is to use it for at least 4-5 years till it becomes old tech, and then you ditch the old laptop and upgrade to something new. However, theres a major flaw with this concept. The only thing that ages in a laptop is a motherboard and its components. The screen doesnt age, nor does the keyboard, nor do the I/O ports. However, we discard a laptop in its entirety when the CPU becomes laggy. Thats like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, resulting in us ditching some extremely capable components just because one part of the laptop is outdated. Sounds ridiculous, doesnt it?Laptops, sadly, arent designed to be upgraded. Theyre made to be slim, and fairly set in their ways. Components arent designed for modularity in most laptops, although companies like Framework and now Compal are changing this narrative. Meet the Adapt X, a laptop concept from Compal that garnered the iF Design Award this year. With an entirely modular architecture, the Adapt X does two clever things firstly, it separates the screen, keyboard, and ports into its individual parts for easy upgrading, but secondly, it also separates them in a way that turns a laptop into a makeshift desktop. Undock the keyboard and the screen itself has a kickstand, allowing you to really make the most of your laptop while working in a flexible setup. Sounds incredibly clever, and I cant help but wonder why nobody ever thought of this before.Designer: CompalThis approach gives the Adapt X a kind of laptop shell with desktop behavior. Want to replace your display? Pop off the screen. Battery acting up? Slide it out. Need more USB-C ports today and an HDMI tomorrow? Hot-swap the entire side panel. Theres a brutal honesty to iteach piece is responsible for its own job, no hidden dependencies, no soldered-on surprises. And somehow, despite all the moving parts, the final product doesnt look like a Frankenstein experiment. It looks intentional. Clean. Almost minimal.While Compal hasnt published full technical specs, whats known so far leans heavily on sustainability and upgradability. The chassis is built from recycled materialsan increasingly common move among OEMs, but one that feels more genuine here because of the design philosophy backing it. Youre not being handed a recycled plastic laptop thatll die in four years. Youre being handed a laptop that wants to live longer than your next phone contract. And if it doesnt, you can surgically remove the weak link and keep going.Of course, its still a concept. Compal is an ODM, not a consumer brand, which means the Adapt X probably wont hit store shelves with its name on it. Instead, this is a proof-of-concept to tempt the Dells and Lenovos of the world into licensing the design. Its a soft nudge to the industry: stop building disposable rectangles. Start thinking like builders again.What sets Adapt X apart from Frameworks platformbeyond the magnetic designis how it compartmentalizes the laptop experience. Framework offers modularity within a conventional shell. Compals take goes a step further by treating the laptop as a desktop in disguise. Every part is a first-class citizen. Youre not upgrading in the laptop. Youre upgrading the laptop.Theres still friction, of course. ODMs like Compal rarely bring products directly to market. That job falls to the Dells, the HPs, the Lenovosbrands that could easily water this down or ignore it entirely. But if even one of them sees the potential here, we might finally break out of the annual laptop refresh cycle thats been clogging landfills and wallets alike. Those are real concerns, given that nobody really jumped on past culture-shifting trends like folding displays or expanding displays (something that Compal even demonstrated at MWC this year). But Adapt X isnt pretending to solve the whole puzzleits just putting the pieces on the table in a different arrangement.If were lucky, someone will pick them up. Maybe even build something lasting. Because for all our talk of sustainability and user rights, most laptops still die too young and too sealed shut. The Adapt X doesnt solve that with a marketing slogan. It solves it with magnets, modules, and a quiet confidence that computers should be made to evolve, not expire.The post Compals New Framework-Style Laptop Lets You Swap Parts Like LEGO Bricks first appeared on Yanko Design.