Feature Request Megathread

screen with 16:9 ratio

Option to purchase a keyboard with scalloped keys similar to a lenovo ThinkPad.

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My request revolves around my use of Thinkpads in the past. One thing I greatly loved about the Thinkpads is when they were sleeping (suspend or hibernation) there was half moon led on the back of the display that lit. In this way you had a confirmation that sleep or hibernation worked. It also allowed you to come back to the device and see that it was sleeping.

Hibernation was a little different. When hibernating the LED on the back would flash, same as if you were suspending, but once the system power down as a consequence of hibernation the led went out. In this way you weren’t wasting power.

My idea is that we could use the LEDs on the sides of the Framework Laptop to approximate a similar feature for standby or hibernation. When the BIOS detects a power state change that could trigger it. This sort of visual confirmation was an important part of having confidence to stuff your thinkpad in a bag, etc.

Maybe the left LED could be reserved for sleep status confirmations.

Just an idea I had.

4 Likes

I have not seen this requested anywhere before. But, I would like a bezel with an integrated privacy filter. Whether or not it can be “turned on or off” is a nice-to-have, but I would rather just have a permanent privacy filter I can remove by changing the bezel instead of having to implement it in other archaic ways.

I’m bet HP and/or 3M still have that under patent with their “SureView” technology, although I must say I was very underwhelmed by it when I saw it in person.

One thing I did notice is that no matter what port configuration you take, you will always need a USB-C expansion card on the computer to charge it.
So how about one USB-C port on the case of the laptop about here? That could free up one of the slots and line up with the rest of the ports.
image

11 Likes

I would like to request 2 fewer expansion slots!

So why? Expansion slots aren’t space efficient and use extra power. I still want some expansion slots, but I don’t need all the ports to be changeable. In place of the two expansion ports I would like to request an “expansion garage” on each side.

An expansion garage would be a standard size empty space to pass through ports on the motherboard just like the rear I/O panel on an ATX style desktop case. Ex.
atx-case

Reasons for replacing two expansion slots with expansion garages:

  1. More ports can be packed more into the same amount of space.
  2. Built in ports use less power.
  3. Most users would be happy with a similar port layout: 2 usb-c ports, 1-2 usb-a ports, 1 HDMI port, 0-1 sd card slots. Most of these(maybe all?) could fit in the space reclaimed from two expansion slots.
  4. New Motherboards could update the port selection in the future.

But this is the whole point of the framework, the interchangeable ports, I would have bought another laptop with upgradable storage and whatnot but the expansion cards stood out. It is intended to prevent hard port replacements.

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I really like the interchangeable ports, too. :slight_smile: Since getting my laptop I’ve found that I always have usb-c expansion cards in the top left/right slots. At least one is always needed for charging, and I only change out the bottom two slots.

I would trade some flexibility on the top two ports if I could get more ports. I’m imagining having a usb-c plus a usb-a port on one side and a usb-c plus an HDMI port on the other plus still keeping the bottom two expansion slots.

I’m waiting for a WUXGA+ matte screen.
Don’t want to bother with fractionnal scaling !
And matte, because well it’s a (work) tool, not a toy. I need it readable, not shiny :slight_smile:

AMD version without pluton
deeper chassis
matte screen
trackball
built in intel ethernet
more expansion bays
2nd nvme slot
wwan slot

2 Likes

Posting as someone who has been using the Framework for slightly more than a month: I did not expect this coming in, but I find the lack of physical trackpad buttons extremely jarring. That’s pretty much my only gripe with this laptop.

An alternate input cover with trackpad buttons would be a day 1 purchase.

I think I have the solution for you (It might not work as well, but it’s definitely buttons). Use a raised square sticker, half the width. (It sacrifices the trackpad space for a raised bump, in effect uses the touchpad as a button)

Could work, but still does not solve the lack of dedicated right and middle click buttons. While working (mostly programming) that’s just mildly annoying, but I find it impossible to do any casual gaming without an external mouse.

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I’m just gonna add my +1 for a touchscreen upgrade/option.

They have it in their pipeline anyways ‘cause the display connector has the right pins for touch already, but maybe the amount of people asking for it will push the RnD forwards.

It’s just a nice to have though, I’ve always had Surface devices but touchscreen has always just been an extra luxury for me anyways. I’ll be buying the laptop regardless once it becomes available.

(Also, thanks Josh for keeping the forum clean with this megathread)

@Dheera_Venkatraman

Nirav has been quoted saying that more than 4 expansion slots would be too complicated because some features like display (via alt-mode) or power delivery (to and from the laptop) would only be available on some ports instead of all. (It’s also really confusing having some ports available to plug in HDMI or PD and some not) These are purely limitations with the intel chip(set) delivered with the laptop and wouldn’t change with modifying the mainboard.

Also have to factor in physical restraints with two extra expansion slots.

That’s really zero issue for me at all, I can deal with knowing the front 4 have PD and the back 2 do not. This is a laptop for devs after all, and having PD on all ports is not even anywhere on my list of considerations. Having 1 PD on the left and 1 PD on the right is a kind of nice feature but even that isn’t critical for me.

They could always ship it default with the non-PD ports being USB-A modules by default, that would still be immensely useful to have 2 additional USB-A ports. I almost always have a Yubikey and an external mouse connected to my laptop so that’s 2 USB-A ports right there. That way there would be zero confusion unless the user actively swapped out the USB-A modules.

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A dual USB port for data and hopefully USB power, kinda like a USB-C Hub expansion card
Some kind of display input to use framework as a secondary monitor
ARC laptop GPU option
Intel Ethernet daughter board
Upwards firing speakers

2 Likes

CPU:

CPUs without black boxes/backdoors Intel ME, AMD PSP (wish not request!)

Coreboot

Screen:

Matte screen option.

Personally I feel 14" screen is the ideal size for a laptop display (portability vs screen size) but besides that a larger display would actually help with all the following requests.

A higher resolution screen to avoid the need for fractional scaling.

Keyboard:

Dedicated PG UP/DW home end keys, alternatively but less desirable a second fn on the right hand side to allow one handed operation of PG UP/DW home end keys.

Better arrow keys. If we must have half height up/down arrow keys please at least make them curved where they meet each other and the same hight for the other arrow keys.

Greater resolution in backlight control for the keyboard.

A fn lock indicator.

Otherwise the KB feels good to me!

Ports:

I love that I can choose my ports however considering 1 is essentially a mandatory USB-C for power we have a 3 port machine which is a touch limiting… Dual port cards perhaps? I know the limitations but I’m not sure what other options there are.

Fixing the additional power drain issues with the cards that are not type-C.

Battery:

It is EXCELLENT to have a charge limiter I would also love to also be able to slow charge the battery so it doesn’t get so hot during charging.

A greater capacity battery would always be welcomed.

Speakers:

They sound poor to my ears and inferior to much smaller phone speakers having them downwards firing is only making them sound worse.

A bit louder max volume but if it is a choice between better quality and volume then they are loud enough.

3 Likes