Community Survey : Framework Laptop 13 New Features Thread

Framework Laptop 13
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1) TB5 Functionality. Certification would be nice, but functionality with full support is essential.

2) Reliably Achieve >12hr battery life on Win11 & Linux with median level CPU performance

3) Higher Performing Cooling Solution (or at least quieter fans)

4) GPU Adjustable BAR Support

5) Color LED indicator above each Module Slot (i.e. Red–>TB/USB-C, Green–>HDMI, Blue–>DP, Yellow–>USB-A, None–>Empty) help users know how system is configured & find port location in low-light situations.

6) New Module: Occulink

7) Battery Charge Level LED Indicator (like on Dell XPS; press a small button & 1–5 LED’s light to show level of battery charge even when system is off/sleep/hibernating)

New Module: 2x USB-C (two USB-C connectors on a single Module. If necessary, one could be power+data & the other data only)

New Module: Data Acquisition (1–8 analog input signal sampling, 10–16bits at 10–500MHz)

  • with open source software driver & utility (user created digitizing oscilloscope front-end, audio digitizer, etc.)

New Module: Digital Source (1–4 analog output channels, 10–16bits at 10–500MHz bandwidth)

  • with open source software driver & utility

System Monitor Tool: power, thermal, Port Bandwidth, etc. Provide Framework community with a standard way of collecting & sharing system information.

2 Likes
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My current and and previous laptops have all had touchscreen 360 hinge and I may have used the tough screen %2 of the time I have owed both laptops combined (10 years)

So for me I would much rather prefer an OLED display rather than touchscreen. but if both is an option i’d take it too since its nice to have.

I’m still waiting to receive my first framework 13 (batch 5 HX370) so I haven’t tried the toughpad. But, for sure a Haptic toughpad would be nice to have

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  • LPCAMM Memory (better performance and battery life)
  • Aluminium Unibody options (rectangular with round corners like MacBookPro, compatible with current motherboards)
  • Haptic Touchpad

Don’t care about OLED, I prefer IPS LCD for better reading experience.
Don’t care about touch screen. I prefer mouse/touchpad.

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Haptic touchpad
I’ll happily take that as a compromise to physical buttons + trackpoint.

Color case
I’d like more color choice for the top, button and input cover. I don’t mind if the case isn’t in aluminium.

Better standalone support
For the future board generations, I wish you could find a way to make it possible to connect extensions. For example, a mini pci-e similar to the Raspberry Pi 5 that lets you connect a daughter board. This way we could more easily repurpose the old board in a homeserver, NAS, router, etc.

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My list:

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

An egpu “backpack” under the bottom deck. In my head this would grab the expansion module slots on at least one side to pass power, TB, etc down to the graphics card. Backpack would have an additional 4+ expansion module slots, beefy cooling for itself plus extra fan actively pushing air into the mainboard above, and maybe USB-C EPR power in + passthrough up to the mainboard. Make it hot detachable and double as a desk “docking station” when not otherwise in use?

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

Improved cooling airflow path to help cool the battery more, increase time the CPU can stay in turbo, and cut noise all at once would be a trifecta. Maybe optional taller or flip out under deck feet to get the laptop up off of surfaces too?

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

360 degree hinge for upper lid + touch/stylus durable matte display. Preference for the type that does a complete flip entirely above the input deck, not one that wraps the screen around the under side of the lower deck.

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

An expansion card that moved the USB-C away from the middle and to one edge and added a programmable haptic touch button might be useful. Maybe make this expansion card reversible vertically so it could be “forward” on either the left or right side of the laptop.

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

Move the power button away from where my right hand wants to grab the lower deck with my right hand? About once a month I barely hit the power button with my thumb while carrying the laptop and accidentally cause a power off.

A function lock indicator on the keyboard.

Maybe better EC register, API, and/or utilities to pass the current USB-C volts and amps to userspace.

A raspberry pi compatible 40 pin GPIO array?

Core boot or equivalent open source BIOS.

Oh and did I mention, A function lock indicator on the keyboard?

3 Likes
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If you add this, PLEASE keep the “regular” trackpads available as an option; I hate the way the haptic touchpad feels on macs and would not want to use it on a regular basis. It will never be as satisfying as a physical click.

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No need for a function lock indicator on the keyboard. You hate it, you don’t want it. Duly noted.

5 Likes
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The undersized up and down arrow keys are my largest gripe on the 13, if a new keyboard and top plate would solve that I’d be a very happy camper.

Second place: only having 4 ports is difficult, especially after switching to a little dac for headphones. Quite jealous of the replaceable daughter boards built into the 12 that I believe I saw.

1 Like
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Not sure if these are feature ideas:

1. Optional replacement bottom cover with monsterous battery - Something that will give 24-36 hours of continuous use. Battery can either replace the primary 61Wh cell or be in addition to it; the mainboard would be installed this super thick base or design an “accessory” base that snugs up against the existing base and plugs in to one of the expansion slots.

2. Diagnostics Expansion Card - Has the pins connected to connect to serial console to see what is going on with the EC and possibly talk to it. As an added feature could be sold with a USBC to matrix LCD display showing the current codes of the system for troubleshooting. ( I know I would buy one just to see the little codes show up on the display or be able to see the EC console output for my own curiousity)

3. Header on the mainboard to talk to the flash chip; could also sell a breakout cable that plugs into said header for those wanting to talk directly to the BIOS chip.

4. Removable expansion card bluetooth mouse - It slides in when not in use and can be pulled out and slid around a smooth surface. Having a capacitive top area that recognizes a single finger tab as a left click and two fingers as a right click. Two fingers and dragging the “mouse” acting as the scroll function. Bonus points if it is rechargable over USBC.

2 Likes
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Well, if you’re going to ask

~ Features that shouldn’t require a shell redesign ~
• Touch screen, matte option if possible.
I have matte touch on my 15" Thinkpad, and it’s quite nice, even if I don’t use it that often.
• Haptic touchpad.
Touchpads suck. Please make them suck less.
• Side firing speakers. And equalizer settings included in your driver bundle to make them sound better, like people have been doing.
• Whenever LPCAMM comes, use the space gained for a wwan/ssd slot. With antenna option for LTE. Perhaps using an adapter if they don’t make an M.2 connector which accepts the keying for both.

This please. Repairable is the goal, right? Give us headers to recover from bad flashes without needing fiddly expensive chip clips, which are extra hard to get with the tariffs now. The smallest headers you can find is fine, hell, even just PCB test pads that we can press a pogo pin jig against. Anything is better than a chip clip on a no-lead chip as the only option.

~ Whenever you refresh the FWL13 shell ~
• 360 hinge.
• An option for TPU/rubber corner bumpers. Removable if possible!
• Kensington lock slot.
• Better arrow keys. With PgUp/PgDn like Thinkpads.

Picture

Inverted-T 3/4 height keys arrow keys, with PgUp/PgDn. 1/2 height is just too cramped.

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This is really interesting. Maybe not worth the costs, but I’d love to see it.

Would love this! If you could bring back batteries that can just be pull out by pressing a latch on the bottom. Maybe for a hypothetical Framework 14/15"?

~ New expansion cards ~
• A USB-A card with two programable buttons, one on either side of the port.
This can serve as volume buttons for people. USB-A since adding it to USB-C while keeping full port capabilities would be more complicated.
• Kensington lock slot in a USB-C expansion card.
No, really. The way the expansion card rails and latch are designed, you could block the card’s removal when a Kensington lock is in the hole. The act of inserting a Kensington lock into the hole could cause pins to extend into where the card latch needs to move to, in order to release the card.

1 Like
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For (2), we already have it. Look for EC CCD (closed case debug)

I used it to test and debug my changes to the EC firmware to fix battery charge/discharge cycles.

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Where can I buy it?

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I got mine from here:

All his designs are in github, so you can make your own if you wish.

1 Like
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In order of most to least urgent:

Improved software/firmware support

The state of the software support is, for lack of a better word, laughable. Users across all of your products are stuck waiting multiple years for updates that may (or more often may not) fix their problems. The debacle that has been the 7040 series BIOS updates, plus the crazy issues with the EC firmware simply should not happen if you’re going to pump resources into launching two new products this year.

Pointing Stick

I miss my ThinkPad’s TrackPoint every day. I have the trackpad with a passion. It is, by far, my least favorite thing about this and any laptop. It’s a terrible hinderace to my productivity, and I would happily pay up to $200 for an input cover that had a pointing stick and did not have a trackpad. Trackpads are really hard to use on planes as well, because they require your arm to move so much.

Rigidity

A more rigid bottom cover. I am a bit concerned with how much my machine flexes when I pick it up. A more rigid bottom cover would also solve the issue of trackpad clicking when you pick up the machine. (As has been discussed in previous threads)

Battery

Hand-in-hand with a more rigid chassis, probably also means more room for a bigger battery. A 99WHr battery would be awesome in a little machine like this. For me, weight and thickness are not a concern, it’s mainly footprint.

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Wasn’t possible until very recently

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So it is now?

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Maybe if the screen was a bit deeper/thicker one could put more electronics in there.
How about a battery the size of the screen?
How about an extra mainboard behind the screen. Twice as much CPU power.
How about like a FW 13, but with a bigger screen, say 16 Inches!!!
How about many more expansion slot cards around the back of the screen, put pointing in, so you can connect items to them, but they are all hidden on the desk behind the screen so you don’t see any cables while working. It will look pretty ugly while closed, but pretty OK when being used.

The FW laptop, LUDICROUS MODE !!!

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nah, I don’t think you did…
but, yes, that does sound useful
as for the power button, that would be the reason that one of the very first setting I changed on every laptop I have ever owned is the power setting that controls what the power button does…I set it to ‘nothing’ within 10 minutes of the first boot, because otherwise I’d have unplanned shutdowns about five times a day…and it doesn’t matter where the button is…though I will note this one is particularly bad placement.

as for my own list:
1.) physical buttons for the touchpad. at least two, preferably more. touchpad/trackpoint/trackball, hell, give me keys on the keyboard I can use as left/right mouse buttons…don’t care in the slightest, I want the damn buttons. moving the cursor isn’t the problem here.
2.) touchscreen.
3.) 360 hinge…only useful with a touchscreen.
also, I will note on those two, I’m perfectly ok with the 12" screen on a FW13 if you need the extra space to make it work…even better would be if it was hot-swappable, I suppose if you trade the cable that connects the screen for POGO pins like you did with the FW12’s keyboard it might work, but that probably requires space you don’t have on the 13" panel, a complete redesign of the chassis, and a half-dozen other problems I’ve thought of in the time it took to write this…probably not worth the time it’d take to develop it.
4.) nothing specific, but wanted to add my support for optional add-ons that add weight to the laptop, I like that this thing is 1.3kg, but being able to choose to haul around a 30kg monster that has, for example, a battery that will last for six months of heavy use(just to go completely over the top :stuck_out_tongue: ) well…sometimes it’d be nice to have the choice. extra batteries, protective cases, not-so-external hard drives…these are all things I would, in the right circumstances, choose to accept the extra weight for.

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I’d love to be able to run QMK on the Framework 13 (like 16 can).

Furthermore I really, really, really want to be able to arrange the keys for a more ergonomical keyboard layout.

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For those who weren’t around when this post went around…I give one of the gems of this forum

3 Likes