Feature Request Megathread

Framework Laptop 13
83

Something I would like to see in Framework Laptop 2:

  • some sort of cool way to swap out the battery. I was thinking unlock 2 locks then press it in from the front and it pops out kind of like those fancy drawers you have to push in to open. Like literally those clicky things from IKEA cabinets near the motherboard. Or alternatively just use the battery design from older laptops like the chunky ThinkPads but they are quite low capacity.
  • GLOSSY QD-OLED panel. I prefer matte displays but you can always add a screen protector that makes them matte, you canā€™t make a matte screen glossy. Also QD OLED is so much better than OLED in terms of less burn in, brighter image, better colour accuracy and itā€™s just cooler. Also TouchScreen would be appreciated.
  • Adjustable hinges that can be adjusted with a screwdriver. This means that those weirdos who like to open the laptop with 1 hand will be happy and the rest of us with a reliable hinge will be happy.
  • Of course as the TrackPoint. They are non obtrusive and people barely even know what they do but is an extra feature the community will appreciate I think. Because some people canā€™t live without them.
1 Like
84

That wouldnā€™t be a good idea and would go against the whole modularity of the laptop. Besides, people can make other chargers such as magsafe expansion cards for the laptop. If that non-modular port breaks, then the motherboard will have to be replaced like a stereotypical laptop.

85

Well yes and no. If you are replacing 2 modular ports with lots of built in ports, the battery would be worse as the Serial Bus controller would be under more strain. Also, the whole point of this laptop is not having ports on your laptop that you never use. For example, I rarely use ANY display connectors and I have never used an SD card in the last 5 years. If you want this, just go out and buy a laptop from another company.

1 Like
86

A metal bezel.

I have always really liked how the original MacBook Air looked with its metal bezel around the screen. Would it be an option for Framework to provide a metal option for the bezel on the marketplace at some point down the road?

4 Likes
87

Iā€™d like a kit to recolor the backlighting, if possible. Could be fun, especially with some of the color schemes weā€™re out here tossing on our machines.

1 Like
88

Four ports is very little for me, I have three possible solutions for this.

Adding more slots for expansion cards is the most obvious solution, although it will waste a lot of space, might make sense in a 15 inch version.

Multiple ports per unit, I donā€™t know how practical this is since thereā€™s not a lot of space, iirc from when I looked into this, two type a ports physically wouldnā€™t fit, but there are possibilities, double type c, maybe a type a combined with a headphone jack. although fitting the necessary controllers in there would be tight.

I think the most sensible option is just including some ports, if you include the really essential stuff, it would give you a lot more freedom for what to do with the expansions, the fact there isnā€™t even a type c port built in kinda baffles me, you basically only have three slots free because one of them is forced. If I get one of these Iā€™d get a couple type as, a headphone combo jack, and whoops Iā€™m out of space. No hdmi, no ethernet, no extra type c, no extra storage, itā€™s so limited.
Personally Iā€™d like to see a type c, type a, and a combo headphone jack, I think most people would get use out of those and it would actually give you a lot more freedom for what you want to have, instead of forcing you to compromise.

This is supposed to give more freedom, but with only four ports, I feel I have less freedom than with my 9 year old Acer. Other than type c, it has all the ports I could ever need just there, ready for action. Other than adapting the SD card slot to micro SD, Iā€™ve never had to use a dongle or adapter, and I donā€™t want to buy a brand new laptop just to give that up.

1 Like
90

A USB-C dock might help here. 4 ports are meant for on the go use.

91

Even on the go three ports is nothing, if use one for storage you suddenly only have two ports, only one better than that macbook everyone made fun of a while back.
Iā€™d probably go two type a and headphone jack, so I wouldnā€™t be able to hook up to an external display, no ethernet, no sd cards, no type c if Iā€™m charging.
I really donā€™t want to use dongles and docks, theyā€™re an extra expense, and being who I am, I know Iā€™m going to forget to bring them or lose them at some point and that would really suck

92

Lol, nice pun

Itā€™s really not taht big, 15 inches and a bit thicker than modern laptops but very reasonable.

93

You donā€™t need to put the port in a big chunky module to make it easy to replace, there are other solutions, ports donā€™t break so often that you need to be able to swap them in two seconds. as long as they arenā€™t soldered and have some sort of internal connector that hooks them up to the motherboard, I think itā€™s fine.

1 Like
94

@Henrik_Arnoy It already has a combo headphone jack as a permanent port so that one you donā€™t have to worry about

As for the rest, I disagree about how necessary more ports are and how feasible it is

The number of ports is a hard limitation of Intel (and AMD for that matter). So long as Framework wants all ports to be equally fast then 4 is the most they can do.

I donā€™t really see how more ports are needed for a portable machine. Certainly I would need more for when Iā€™m at a desk but a dock solves that.

2 Likes
95

Previously, I used the Samsung np900x3 series notebooks which was a fantastic product line from them (I used multiple versions through maybe 8 years).

To set the bar as high as possible, Iā€™m comparing my Frame.Work laptop to my NP900X3T.
With itā€™s upgrade-ability and modular setup the Frame.Work has a LOT of advantages, but this is the list that it could be improved on when compared:

  • Magnesium chassis (at least an option if itā€™s expensive to produce). The Frame.work is quite a bit heavier (with a smaller battery)
  • 74Wh battery
  • the Samsung has run WAY cooler. Compared to it the Frame.work is always quite warm, even if itā€™s just idling (exact same linux os, just plugged the ssd over)
    (- battery life comes naturally from the above two)

Misc:

  • An AMD APU would be nice

The Frame.work has MANY advantages, like upgradable memory the support, modularity, and the possibility to upgrade each component in time, etc. I love the product, and plan to keep it for many years!

1 Like
96

@GhostLegion I had forgotten that 3.5mm was included, that does help a lot, Iā€™d get by mostly with those four but itā€™s rough. it also really sucks that I wouldnā€™t be able to use any interesting modules, since all slots would permanently be occupied by boring stuff Iā€™m practically forced to have, Iā€™d never get to properly take advantage of this really cool concept.

One way to get around the limits in bandwidth would be to chuck a usb 2.0 port on there, which would be plenty for something like a mouse but would take very little of the total io bandwidth, could also do a power only type c so you actually have four slots to play with rather than three.

1 Like
97

This would certainly be ideal but it isnā€™t entirely necessary. That is, so long as the battery life is sufficient, which they could improve by using a larger battery capacity.

Would it be better to have a plethora of ports available so you donā€™t have to pick and choose? Undoubtedly yes. Having said that, the expansion ports do make it easy to swap out things as needed.

98

Uhh- 4 ports, unless youā€™re charging in which case itā€™s 3. Also headphone jack is not a expansion card. If youā€™re hooking up a external display and ethernet, that calls for a dock.

2 Likes
99

I would share my ideal laptop with the features below, though it might have some technical challenges.

My use cases: traveling, remote work, work outside such as in a cafe, and restaurant, and Linux development. Host OS: Fedora Linux.
Features: highly portable, lightweight, high CPU, open, stable. long battery life.

  • CPU: AMD 5 or 7 or Intel i7 (I want to run a portable genome sequencing device called ā€œMinION Mk1Bā€ recommending Intel i7 or i9 or AMD 5 or 7. (IT requirements). I also work for mainly around GCC (GNU C Compiler) x86_64.
  • Size: Around 11.8 inches x 7.56 inches (30 cm x 19.2 cm) . This is the same size as my current MacBook Air 11.6-inch and also a similar size to the StarLabs StarLite 11-inch.
  • Display (screen): 11 or 11.6 inch (edited). With Linux tiling window manager i3 and Sway, I am comfortable with a small display.
  • Weight: Ideally less than 1.1kg. Note Macbook Air 11.6-inch: 1.08kg, System76 Lumar Pro: 1.09kg, StarLabs StarLite 11-inch: 0.9kg
  • Battery: around 73Wh. Note System76 Lumar Pro has a battery 73Wh. The company says the battery life is up to 14 hours.
  • BIOS: coreboot
  • Linux friendly, upgradability, and repairability (of course!)

So, my ideal laptop is something like System76 Lumar Pro (better battery, coreboot, Linux friendly, weight) + StarLabs StarLite 11-inch (better size, weight, coreboot, Linux friendly) + Framework Laptop (better repairability, upgradability, community support on the community forum).

1 Like
101

No, I intended the ā€œ11.6ā€ or ā€œ11ā€ inch screen. Of course, a bigger screen is better, keeping the smaller size of the laptop.

102

considering that apple has been selling laptops with two ports for a while and people have been buying them (yes: developers too) i am not quite sure what boring stuff the typical user is forced to have.

i have been using my framework laptop as a daily driver for work, productivity, gaming and other fun, and so far i have used: one usb-c port for charging and docking to an external screen (which is connected to a bunch of other stuff e.g. a usb DAC, keyboard, mouse, etc.). i have also used, twice, a usb-a port, to plug a usb stick. once to install linux and another time to move some models to my 3d printer. if anything i am even annoyed at the fact that i didnā€™t buy four usb-c expansion cards because i would have gladly spared the 0.5W the single usb-a port i have leaks since i never use it. i have a hdmi card and another one i canā€™t remember, both of them are still sealed.

considering that in 2022 i find it hard to believe that people donā€™t have dongles since there is no single laptop on the market that has usb-a, usb-c (both at high speeds), (2.5GB) ethernet, (micro) sd card readers, display port, hdmi, digital and analogue audio outputs, xlr (why not) and whatever else one might like, i have the feeling that this unusual preference, and i say unusual because i am looking at the most sold laptops in the market, it might be due to poor optimisation of desktop setups, since if one has a dock, or even a screen (i donā€™t own a dock) with usb-c input and a few ports on the back, most problems are solved.

p.s.: i have a usb-c dongle with a bunch of ports and i havenā€™t plugged it in yet, in one month of usage.

1 Like
104

@anon81945988 maybe I donā€™t understand what you said, correctly. You meant if we want to keep the size of the laptop (11.8 inches x 7.56 inches (30 cm x 19.2 cm)), the screen size is 14 inches, not 11 or 11.6 inches?

106

If Framework had made something like this, that money (CAD) would have been theirs. Well, till thenā€¦ (removed mentions of brand and models, but if you know, you know)

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In the meantime, waiting for Framework to grow.