3:2 Display and Customizable Bezels

Framework Team Blog
15

I have concerns about the display resolution. At the native 2256×1504 resolution at 13.5", it is in a strange middle ground: too high to realistically be used at 1× scaling, but too low to provide useful real estate at 2× scaling (only 1128×752@2x). Consequently, it seems designed to be used at around 1.25x or 1.5x scaling, which ends up negating some of the benefits of the otherwise high density (often causing visible blurriness if even supported in the operating system).

It really seems like something in the realm of 2880×1920 (1440×960@2x) or 3000×2000 (1500×1000@2x) would be an ideal choice as it would remain high density, but provide a perfect amount of real estate at integer 2x scaling. Alternatively, a lower 1440×960 or 1500×1000 resolution would provide the same comfortable real estate at 1x scaling with the benefit of better battery life, though of course some would question the “low” resolution.

Are there plans to offer alternate display resolutions in the future, whether higher or lower?

As an aside, are there plans for a matte finish option?

13 Likes
16

We chose this resolution as a balance to get pixels that aren’t visible at typical viewing distances while still getting good battery life. I use 1.5x scaling, which results in useful screen real estate, but does depend on good OS and application support for non-integer scaling. In practice, it works well in everything I’ve thrown at it in Win10 and most of what I have tried in Ubuntu 20.04.

We don’t currently have plans for alternate displays, but we’ve designed the display to be easy to replace and the display connector on the mainboard to be able to support a broader range of possible displays. It’s unlikely we would go lower resolution in this form factor, but I agree there could be an interesting case for a display resolution that works at 2x scaling (at the tradeoff of battery life).

16 Likes
17

The aspect ratio is definitely a nice choice to get the most out of a small screen. Also what is the estimated battery life?

2 Likes
18

Interesting, I think it’s actually perfect for 1x. I’m using a Thinkpad Carbon X1 right now which has a 2560x1440 resolution at 14", and that’s working great with Gnome as a DE and 1x scaling. It is very much on the edge, though.

1 Like
19

I’m trying to convince a friend to get this laptop, but one of her biggest worries is about how it looks. Namely, the bezels. She wants it either to either be like the nice aluminum of the rest of the computer, or have the plastic be fully solidly black like her current computer (a Surface Pro). She finds the black bezel too light, and thinks the white one looks plasticky.

Do you guys plan on coming out with an aluminum front bezel instead of just plastic ones? Or does the white one actually look and feel more like the aluminum chassis in person? Or does the black one actually look more black instead of dark grey in person? If all the previous questions are false, does it still look and feel premium?

Additionally, she also feels the black squares on the bezel looks kind of ugly, and I agree. Everything else on this laptop wouldn’t be out of place with other premium laptops, and honestly, the laptop looks better than quite a lot of them. But the fact that the camera and other thing are both squares look very strange. Could future bezels do away with this? Why was this design decision chosen? I’m sure you could get used to it very easily, but it’s just very weird to me.

I think those were her biggest complaints with this laptop. Because otherwise, she thinks it looks a lot nicer than most other laptops, and I agree.

1 Like
20

The black bezel looks fairly dark in person and the bezel overall feels well integrated into the lid assembly. We explored square and circular cover glass for the camera and ambient light sensor, and the square versions looked better.

8 Likes
21

What would be the best way to take advantage of the 2256x1504 resolution in Fedora? I don’t have experience with fractional scaling. Does anyone know if this is accommodated by the UI settings or would something like xrandr be used?

2 Likes
22

Apparently fractional scaling isn’t enabled by default in Fedora 34, but you can enable the setting with:

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"
11 Likes
23

Thanks, Nirav. Can’t wait to try it out in August!

24

Since I switched from macOS to Linux, I’ve secretly been hoping that Fairphone would release a laptop. Then I came across this project, and it felt like a dream come true; it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. A upgradabe/repairable 13-inch laptop that’s powerful enough for my day-to-day work and has a trackpad at the centre of the chassis. Perfect!

Then I had a chat about it in the elementary OS community, and @cassidyjames pointed out that the resolution (2256x1504) may be an issue. At first, I wouldn’t believe him. I figured that some combination of HiDPI scaling and/or font scaling would make it workable. Sadly, after trying many combinations, I think he’s right. The resolution will be a blocking issue. For me, at least, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Currently, I’m using a 13 inch Dell XPS 4K with an external 27 inch 4K monitor. I chose the XPS with a 4K display because that would allow me to work at 2x scaling on both displays, as using different scaling factors doesn’t work well with X.

Let me summarize some possible options.

1. 1128x752@2x
Everything is too large, and there is not enough space to work comfortably on the laptop display. This setting does play nice with the external 4K monitor, though. Using a smaller global font size makes it better on the laptop screen but worse on the external monitor.

2. 2256x1504@1x
Everything is too small on the laptop screen. An external 4K monitor also wouldn’t work, so it should be replaced with something that’s okay at 1x scaling. Like an ultrawide monitor at 3440x1440, for example. Using a larger font size would help the laptop screen, making it worse on the external monitor.

3. Using fractional scaling
Fractional scaling on Linux is not very well supported. Some distros are doing better than others, but there are still many issues. Ubuntu considers it a Beta feature, and by the looks of it, it’s more like Alpha. And with fractional scaling, an external monitor becomes unusable unless it’s a massive 4k monitor.

4. Using a different distro
Choose a distro that’s doing a decent job with fractional scaling. Yes, that’s probably the best option, but also my least favourite one. And while KDE is considered best at it, there are still many problems with scaling in applications.

Cassidy is right to suggest the 2880×1920 (1440×960@2x) or 3000×2000 (1500×1000@2x) resolutions. Having the option to choose a higher DPI screen would be the ideal solution, even at the expense of battery life. And I’d gladly pay a premium for it too.

I may be wrong, but I think Linux users are a substantial part of the target customers for this kind of product. And with the current resolution as the only option, it feels like support for Linux is an afterthought.

Again, I adore this product, I really love it. But unfortunately, the resolution is a massive deal-breaker.

14 Likes
25

Can anyone at Framework say whether alternate bezels or other options which are not currently available will be available prior to ship? My order is in batch2 so I’m wondering whether any options can be modified prior to shipment if they become available.

26

We will most likely not have the alternate bezels in time for Batch 2 shipments, but we should have them available before the end of summer.

27

The ultimate fix for this is OLED screens (already drooling thinking about it).

4 Likes
28

With a bit of skill and some metallic spray paint (ones designed specifically for plastic), one should be able to paint the bezels to look like the rest of the laptop.

3 Likes
29

It’s honestly pretty disappointing to hear that there aren’t any current plans to offer alternative displays, was really hoping for a matte display. seems like a deal-breaker depending on the performance/glare in high-light conditions/outdoors.

3 Likes
30

People have suggested a matte screen protector, put the edges inside the bezel so there are no lifting corners.

1 Like
31

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

32

I’ve used Slackware on the Intel Macbook Pro. Scaling was not a problem. It requires setting 2 or 3 things. I can find a link if you need help.

There is also now Raspberry Pi OS for Intel computers. On the Pi it provides a global scaling feature; I assume it’s the same on Intel.

33

My concern with scaling is not so much on the laptop itself, but the addition of an external monitor. You don’t want a 27" 4K monitor with @1.5x scaling. :smile:

But, yeah, I’d love to get the link if you can find it. Thanks!

1 Like
34

This company has been around for like less than 2 years. I’m sure the display customizations will come. We can’t have everything day 1 :grinning:

14 Likes