“Reviews of the original Framework Laptop 13 were a little skeptical; my colleague Monica repeatedly pointed out that an upgradable laptop’s value “hinges on future support.” But in 2022, her headline was “promises kept.” And this year, as Framework shipped its third set of CPU upgrades for the Framework 13 while simultaneously improving battery life, she called the 2023 revisions “a DIY dream come true.””
Framework seems to be a pretty awesome company. So happy to see them delivering on their word.
This seems really cool. I’m not in the market for a laptop right now but I’ll be looking at this when I am.
I’m actually upset that there is a laptop with this much modularity and there are no god damn physical mouse buttons in sight. Good lord. Fake buttons suck.
Look at this guy here, trying to do actual work with a trackpad. Just use it to click the next YouTube video like everyone else does during work hours.
I know you’re being sarcastic, but I want to share that my daily machine is a Lenovo P50 with six individual mouse buttons. Six! I use them all, and have remapped the upper left and right click to be back and forward. These navigation buttons work in my browser, file manager, and more.
I would have expected this laptop of all laptops to have options for buttons. I don’t mind the Apple touchpads, but I greatly mind how anti-consumer Apple is and don’t want to fund their lawyers and patents. It seems like every other vendor is attempting to mimic Apple, but are doing a terrible job at it.
In the article it mentioned that Framework isn’t against third party mods like a swappable battery where the gpu slot goes. With this in mind, I’m sure there will be third party options with different mouse pads that actually have buttons.
Unless there physically isn’t enough space.
I guess I might as well hijack the thread and ask: are there any good options left for proper buttons besides Thinkpads?
I’m so excited for the 16" version. Upgradeable GPU in a laptop? Everything else also being upgradeable? Gonna buy one as soon as I can afford it, which is going to take a while.
I haven’t researched laptop prices in ages so I’m not sure what things go for these days. They mention in the article that this laptop will be expensive, but I didn’t get a feel for how expensive. What’s the premium for a laptop like this when comparing roughly apples to apples?
I love the idea of this, like most tech people will, but I also think the premium is going to kill them. At some point all the connectors and covers and the logistics are going to be tough to justify versus just a regular machine. Most people don’t upgrade their desktops, which are infinitely and easily upgradable, so doing so on a mobile device is going to be a tough sell (since there always be a price premium). It’s a noble idea that on the surface sounds awesome, but I think these guys will have a hard time. For example, it’s silly to have to “upgrade” your laptop with a couple of extra ports when for literally just pennies, the OEM laptop maker could just add them to all their laptops. Mass production is incredible at driving costs down.
I wish them luck, but I think beyond a base of hardcore nerds, average users will never understand this product.
Framork’s prices are totally reasonable and competitive today. And then if you factor in the savings of not replacing perfectly good parts just because you want to upgrade the processor or replace the battery, you end up saving a lot of money.
Right to repair, minimizing e-waste, and servicability are not exclusive traits of “hardcore nerds”.
The number of average people who would be willing to upgrade anything on their computers is tiny. Again, I personally am all for these devices, but as I mentioned even on a desktop PC, where upgradability has been cheap and easy as hell since essentially the beginning, few regular folks do it. Tech people are going to think this company and it’s products are a slam dunk, but I think in the regular marketplace they will see a lot of people scratching their heads asking “now why would I want to do that?”.
