I was bored so I made a rough layout of what a 17" laptop might look like featuring the same main board as the framework laptop, an mxm-b gpu, and a 16:9 screen more suited for a portable workstation or gaming machine.
The daughter board would take the right two usb-4 ports and put them through a plx chip to feed the gpu and expansion slots as well as handle power input as usb-pd isnt quite up to the task once discreet graphics get involved. The gpu would likely have to be accessible via a panel on the bottom for cooling reasons.
I think that a 16 inch model may be the best option because you could keep the same design but stretch it to be a 16:9 version of the frameworks laptop.
My reason for the 16:9 is that it would the same vertical hight but longer horizontal length.
This would also give an option for those who prefer 16:9. I personally like the 3:2 better but on a larger laptop it could get quite tall. So this way there would be two aspect ratio options.
With all the pieces being modular I would think it would be pretty easy to get an empty shell with the 15/17" screen attached and just put all the pieces from the 13" into it. Maybe upgrade to a bigger battery at the same time. That would be pretty cool.
Theoretically the mainboard, wifi, ram, speekers, storage and headphone jack could be the same as the 13" model. This would cut down on manufacturing and waste. Theoretically.
If framework or anyone else was to make something like this they would want something that would be the mvp or minimum viable product. And because the engineering has already been done for some parts of this design it would be more likely to make a profit because it would cut down on development time and cost.
Also, presumably the market for a 17" laptop with a discrete GPU is for editing or gaming, where the 16:9 aspect ratio makes more sense than 3:2 (which is better for text).
A 16 inch is not really a standard, so it would be tougher to source certain parts for it. 17 inch would be the way to go. Most 17 inch laptops use the 16:9 standard anyway for the monitors.
You canât ignore that most people are using 16:9 monitors for content creation and the software is laid out with this in mind with some people even going to ultra wide monitors especially for video editing. Going wide also gives you more room to have a number pad which some people would very much like.
As far as gaming goes, itâs less about screen size and more about the practical limits of being able to put in a discreet gpu and more storage and having ample space for cooling, which tilts things towards larger machines. 13" gaming laptops exist but they all take a good hit to the all important graphical performance.
Granted this layout is very much geared for content consumption as you say, us movie watchers and gamers need repairable laptops too!
Well itâs on the mainboard, I didnât feel like drawing a box for it
For programming, I find that a wide screen is better than a square one as you have more space for multiple windows. Using mouse is not a problem if you use tiling window manager.
Why 15" inch? You have 13" , take a 13" if you need a transportable computer, 17" is for a domestic use, itâs more confortable for the eyes, you can watch a movie, play video games! 13" or 17" your make a real choice
About the 2.5" drive bay though! I would think itâs a bit useless! NVMe Drives are far faster and require less space! Maybe instead put another fan? The GPU will need a lot of cooling.
