As somebody who has been following the development of framework products for a while now, the Framework 13 Pro is basically everything I want in a laptop. Its manufactured from premium materials, fully linux compatible and provides amazing repairability and upgradability (as is typical for framework).
The only bottleneck for me, as of right now, is the price. With the new board, LPCAMM2 memory, etc. the system is about 2000€, which is a lot more than I’m able to afford for a laptop. My question is whether there is a way to enjoy the premium build and battery life with a different mainboard configuration. Note that it is fine to me to sacrifice performance, as I own a powerful desktop PC. What I want in a laptop is for it to be reliable, enjoyable to use and I want to be able to use it for a proper while. I was looking into devices like the new MacBook Neo, but am very appalled by MacOS and much prefer Linux.
Thank y’all in advance, I am very grateful for any reply
The chassis without screen or mainboard allready costs more than a neo. With current ram prices lpcamm isn’t actually that much more expensive than sodimms, this would have looked much more extreme before the rampocalypse.
If performance isn’t that much of a concern a used high end busyness laptop like a thinkpad, latitude or elitebook might also be an option, a lot of them are almost as modular as a framework.
I feel you with the price to entry. I got luck with purchasing a second hand FW12 for dirt cheap.
Have you considered maybe picking up a used FW13 and slowly upgrading it to a FW13 Pro as funding becomes available, and parts become less expensive. That is one of the nice things about the FW design philosophy you can upgrade piece meal over time, and parts you don’t need can be resold in the FW marketplace.
As someone with an first gen framework 13, bought new as factory second from framework, I’m planing to upgrade to the pro chassi, as the current chassi is very soft. You could pick up an 11th gen intel device and buy the bottom upgrade kit, or go even cheaper and only buy the new input cover.
11th gen intel laptop directly from frame work:
the pro input cover, that I belive will make the biggest* difference:
Compatibility guide, that claim they will work together:
edit *for the build quality; I saw you also asked about battery life, that is mush harsher, as a newer cpu will always be more power efficient.
I was also looking into the MacBook Neo - I used to love chromebooks (I would set up linux on them and ssh into my more powerful servers) but they couldn’t handle zoom. I also have had a longstanding beef with Apple products and Mac OS. I bought a MacBook Neo and it blew me away. Something about the way it handles video encoding means it never gets warm, even when I’m using zoom or playing games on GeForce Now. The battery basically lasts forever, the display is great, and it’s completely silent, and at a fraction of the cost of the Framework 13 Pro. I’m slowly getting used to MacOS. All the finder shortcuts are annoying (e.g. enter key doesn’t open a folder), and I don’t like the remapping of ctrl C and ctrl V and the lack of a “cut” button, but I believe most of that has configurable workarounds, and I’m mostly just ssh’ing into servers. The stuff I do locally on the ARM chip works like a dream.
Also, if you really want Linux, something called the “Chuwi Unibook” just popped up in my google news feed - apparently it’s $449, has a 15-20 hour battery life, Intel processors, ships with Windows, and is thought to be compatible with Linux (but untested as of now). I wonder if the 8 GB of RAM is upgradeable…
The Neo really is an incredible deal, considering its high quality manufacturing and excellent efficiency. As a second computer that mainly needs to be portable (which is what I am looking for), it would truly be ideal if it weren’t for MacOS :')
I know of a Linux project designed for Apple silicon, but its designed for the M line of chips, and iirc those have a different architecture from the A-something chip that the Neo is equipped with. Moreover, Linux on Mac is a very niche usecase, even for Linux standards, so there’d likely be plenty of maintenance and troubleshooting work, which I dont really want to put up with (especially because I need the laptop primarily for uni).
I’m really unsure whether I’d grow used to MacOS though; the keyboard layout is weird and so many things are entirely different than on Ubuntu and Windows, and idk if I want to adjust to yet another platform..
My current game plan is to eventually purchase the pro chassis on the framework site and monitor the community market and other second-hand retailing platforms for a good Mainboard deal and then get the according RAM and ssd someplace else — that is, if I find a good deal. Otherwise, I’ll probably get the Neo or a decently portable ThinkPad..
We just bought a neo today - my wife is going to use it as her second computer she takes to craft shows and such. I get her old computer a m1 macbook air that I’m going to see if I can create a decent agent platform with. It’ll get nix, alfred, and some nice terminal tools. Agents will hopefully help me turn off the walled garden. I’ve been a long time mac user, but over the years any real work I need I use Linux. I’d like to see what I can do when I’m not restricted.
