Feature Request Megathread

I have my device in hand for a week now, and I totally understand the comments / requests for a fn-lock indicator. This is far and away the most obvious design flaw in an otherwise awesome product. Probably too late to change the keyboard design now, but a gen 2 keyboard would be good to fix this. Also, exposing the fn-lock status through the EC so that we can have an onscreen indicator of it would also be very helpful!

New features I would like to see, in rough order from easiest to hardest in my not so EE qualified estimation:

Battery partial state of charge target (with easy “Charge to full now this one time” userland API)

BIOS programmable TDP/clock hard clamp when on battery (i.e. keep TDP low enough that fan won’t ever come on)

Vesa mount mainboard holder chassis

Matte screen

Touch screen

Brighter screen (500 or more cd/m2 for sunlight legibility)

360 degree hinge or double hinge

Hinge mod to ensure fan cooling air exit has a clear path regardless of lid open, closed, or angle.

Speaker delete + increased battery size kit

Input deck with blank and completely open keyboard area, for DIY hacking in other keyboard form factors.

Tablet form factor chassis (a la surface pro or Lenovo Miix), with improved passive cooling

Wireless charging in and out

HDMI / DP alt mode IN + software to display this input in a window + USB HID back channel mouse input, keyboard input, etc

Input deck to wireless+wired in a separate detachable housing conversion kit (i.e. turn it into a “type cover” for the tablet chassis)

Mokibo style keyboard / touchpad hybrid

All the fast charging standards, USD-PD 3.1, EPR, PPS, QC1/2/3/4/5, compatibility for power in and out (note: F.w did well to think about this and even allow trickle charge from 5V, but making sure the F.w can take max power from whatever USB it happens to be connected to would be even better)

Removable GPU mobile dock that plugs into expansion bay(s) but still exposes USB-C to the coast. Could expand F.w footprint laterally, longitudinally, or my favorite would be to expand it vertically and add additional cooling fans for both the GPU and to force more air into the F.w itself for better high load performance.

Projector chassis and components (to put obsolete main boards into for a second life as media consumption machines)

Mainboard as wireless router kit (with expansion “cards” acting as upgradable wifi radios, with RP-SMA antenna connections)

RISC-V processors, but only if there’s native or second chip support for TB3/4/5…

And finally, folding chassis and screen (a la Lenovo X1 Fold), but not until flexible display tech matures quite a bit.

9 Likes

My top “wishlist” items include:
Touchscreen (please do keep the 13.5" screen size as an option, for a compact, travel friendly laptop)
Matte screen
AMD Ryzen options
Dedicated GPU (and for it to be modular/socketed, to enable upgrades)
Adding a 2nd screen module (similar to Asus Duo laptops?)… with options for LED or colour electronic paper display (DES - Display Electronic Slurry) touchscreens?
Option to buy it with Linux (or rather no OS included) instead of Window$? I don’t want to pay for win 10 if I’m not going to use it!
Additional battery module.

4 Likes

Have you looked at the DIY edition? That’s exactly how it’s done.

Unfortunately with the way Microsoft bribes licenses its OEM installs, Windows is included at very low cost/free with the prebuilts.

4 Likes

Oh, I didn’t realise that was the case with the DIY edition… thanks for the info :smiley:

I don’t know why Micro$oft is allowed to get away with that…

1 Like
  • Ryzen APU
  • 15"/16" chassis
  • Touchscreen
  • Cherry Ultra Low Profile switches
  • 75% TKL Keyboard layout
  • Keyboard Well section of the chassis being made removable, so alternate keyboard layouts could be put in (like Ansi / ISO / Ortho)
  • Sensel trackpad option
12 Likes
  • Larger screen, Matte with a higher refresh rate (144 Hz)
  • Have a screen resolution that’s supported on other OS distributions
  • 2-Button Touchpad
  • Manual kill switch for WiFi & BlueTooth
  • Module Expansion card: Ethernet
9 Likes
  • BPA-free housing and keyboard
  • A module card for WiFi/BlueTooth
  • Coreboot
  • A secondary NVMe slot
5 Likes

Coreboot/libreboot support

A 16:9 or 16:10 model

An amd or arm model

Matte/nonreflective screen

Support for more io(like larger io modules on later models, etc)

less muddy speakers

Touchscreen

Cellular support

Bpa free housing

Bigger battery(99w is the max on a plane, the framework has ~43w)

5 Likes

Matte Screen (If possible touch display would be a cherry on top.)
option for the bezel and the keyboard color at check out. (at least for D.I.Y.)
These are only 2 things that stopping me from getting one right now.

2 Likes

Ability to limit the battery to 80% charge in the bios.

13 Likes

Docking station that plugs into two side ports at the same time.

Ortholinear keyboard. The current key switches are actually quite nice, and the backlighting is great, but non-staggered columns would be even better!

2 Likes
  • larger battery, or batter expansion packs
  • Pre installed Linux with fine tuned power configs (or a git repo some where)
  • BPA-free housing and keyboard
  • Matte screen
  • AMD Ryzen
  • 500+ Nit screen
  • trackpoint
  • cheaper main board options (I would love to recommend Framework to friends and family, but it needs to be in the $500 range)

It would also be very handy if I could configure a system and be able to share a link to the given config with friends and family so they can just add to cart and pay.

2 Likes

How about a disposable skins that rests on top of the keyboard and palmrest? Be great to keep your laptop clean and free of any junk from getting in. Also good to prevent wear and tear. I cannot tell you how many of my keys or touchpad has gotten worn out.

2 Likes

Bios update that let’s the LEDs show a sleep state.
Use the accelerometer plus LED to show battery status if laptop is wiggled or moved in a specific way Red=below 20%
Yellow= 20% to 70%
Green= above 70%

2 Likes

@will2 The framework has a ~55 Wh battery I think, not 43. More would be nice of course, but the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is quite close at ~57Wh.

I will absolutely buy an option that has a good touchscreen with pen support! (Preferably Surface pen support.) I would also like to see a dedicated GPU but would settle for now for a touchscreen option cause I want to support this vision.

4 Likes

I’ll vote for:
Custom AMD SoC (for alternative mainboard replacement down the line)
Matte Screen Option
Touch Screen Option
Pen Support
Bios that can be updated in Bios

2 Likes

Maybe there is no big support for that, but I would like “premium” input covers. I don’t have a framework yet, but I own an acer swift 3. I don’t like the metallic look and the cold feeling when resting my hands on the device. In contrast, I like the black xps input covers in terms of look and feel.

So carbon fibre and those niche materials?

2 Likes

Personally, I don’t really care about the material itself. It can be some kind of plastic/rubber. But because I Interact 100 % of the time with the keyboard and the “surrounding material”, I would like it to be non reflective and nice to the touch. This is not the case for me with the acer swift 3 (I realize it costs at least half of what an XPS costs). Since the framework looks similar to the acer, I expect it to feel similar.