Better battery life all the way. I can already set the charge-limit of the battery as I please via the BIOS, so battery life itself is all that’s left.
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Tougher and thicker. I can handle an extra 200-300 grams. I’m not a marmoset.
I do not feel I can take the Framework out on my daily work. On knock and…gone I feel. The hinges and screen flex don’t help either.
Hence why I bought another refurb Dell banger for out on the road. Kind of made the Framework superflous now. Had it 18 months and if it was a car it would have 3000 miles on the clock.
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I’d like to see the option to forgo the battery for more power and / or better cooling.
IMO laptops are about being portable, not being mobile. I rarely see anyone using a laptop on battery power and have never used mine on battery power. I’d rather see a dedicated gpu, even if its not that great, and much better cooling than a battery that doesnt even last that long and limits how much power I can use
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The missing UltraNav is one of the biggest drawbacks for me that almost made me order a Thinkpad instead.
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A touchpad that supports a pen input.
Kinda like a built-in wacom, without the hassle.
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@njf You can change battery limits for windows (kinda). It’s in the bios, spam f2 upon boot or restart and it will be in advanced settings near the bottom I believe.
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I would change the core jack plug for a core USB-C at a convenient location for power adapter.
USB-C port is mandatory for power while many people now use Bluetooth audio devices.
And this USB-C could be used to reload any device when the laptop if off.
Also removable battery, as the old laptops. I used to remove the battery of my laptops, when plugged, to improve computer cooling and battery lifetime.
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If they have an extensive customizable BIOS (such as custom battery charging and ending points, different charging speed/modes), that would be better. I have a quite aggressive “start 50% stop 75%” during the work-from-home period.
They do add a lot of thickness, even though with the introduction of the expansion bay, this is less of an issue. (and actually planned)?
It’s honestly pretty difficult to pick between touch input and a extensive bios.
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This is a fascinating idea… But I wonder, wouldn’t you run into accidental key presses (the inverse of the problem you are trying to solve) with that layout?
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I don’t think so. Most of the spurious touchpad actions I trigger are when I’ve brushed the touchpad so lightly I wasn’t even aware I touched it. There’s certainly never enough force to depress even the spongiest keyboard key.
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I don’t have my FW yet (Batch 1 AMD), but I am very interested in this idea. Depending on how much Z clearance there is in that area (which I imagine must be some, given there needs to be space for the keys and plate), maybe you could fill the entire space above a bottom mount keyboard with a touch sensitive surface!
Imagine that?! Instead of being forced to relocate your hand position to the middle of the laptop, you could just move your wrist up from where it is. It seems like a small thing, but even a small cognitive load reduction like that could have massive long term productivity gain potential.
From a purely cosmetic standpoint, you’d be ridding yourself of those big empty gaps that exist alongside the traditional positioning of the touch pad. Suddenly, those might look like wasted space. And its not as if resting your wrists there is good for your circulation or your comfort.
I believe there is a strong case for this being an ergonomic improvement as well, given that you would not need to reach as far to hit the keys.
All enthusiasm aside, it would probably take some getting used to. Most would probably feel off balance at first, and it might end up looking so strange to the general public that no one would want to give it a chance.
If what you would need to get started isn’t already available, I would bet FW would be happy to oblige. Mod one yourself, get the design down, and start selling them on eBay… That could show FW there’s real interest in the idea.
Who knows, maybe FW could take what they learn from the horizontal input module area in the 16 and use it to create a vertical one in the 13 
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my GPD Win Max have touchpad on top of the keyboard.
I don’t seem to be having difficulty …mmmm.
It’s workable, and indeed I have more trouble with touchpad beneath the keyboard, but personally I think it’s just because how massive modern trackpads are. Especially on older hardware, I never have had a issue.
Windows 10+ also have a built-in trackpad lockout period if you are typing and the touchpad is inactive for a while. This is fine for productivity, but not good for keyboard + touchpad combos.
It would not be a bad idea, especially since they already made the input cover so modular. A redesign however likely will not come for quite some time, just to accommodate all the parts without having them go to waste.
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I haven’t put much thought into the FW13, because I want to buy a FW16. For the 16, I think I would remove 2 of the expansion card slots and replace them with a fixed usb c and usb a port on each side. So a total of 2 usb c, 2 usb a, and 4 expansion cards in the laptop.
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Just out of curiosity, why?
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The keyboard.
I want something similar to my current Thinkpad keyboard with a trackpoint and similar layout.
Here’s what most Thinkpad keyboards (including mine) look like:
Although I’d like for the printsc key (lower right) to be replaced with a programmable key (Framework logo?), the insert key (top right) to be replaced with a printsc key, and the FN and Ctrl keys (lower left) swapped.
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Fn & Ctrl can be swapped in the BIOS on Thinkpads.
And the PrtSc key (or any key really) can be programmable if you try. I changed several keys on my Thinkpad. PrtSc, CapsLock, Fav/F12, Keyboard/F11, BT/F10, Settings/F9, Display/F7, Home, End, Insert. Seriously, how often does one even use CapsLock? I access it with Shift+CapsLock when I need it.
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Oh absolutely, keys can be remapped pretty easily. I actually have made some swaps (I remapped prtsc to trigger PowerToys Run) but I prefer for the markings on the key to match the behavior.
With my upcoming Framework 16 (eagerly waiting for batch 1 here) I’ll remap the Framework key to PowerToys Run. Ideally I’d like one of the keys on the bottom row to trigger it, although none of the bottom row keys I particularly want to remap (Thinkpads squeeze in an extra bottom row key by using narrower but taller arrow keys, whereas Framework has very wide and short arrow keys).
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Are you aware that you can set this in the bios? Regardless of OS.
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The framework charges using usb-c, so you have to have at least one of those, and almost everyone needs usb-a for something(mouse, keyboard, flash drive, etc.). I think it makes sense to replace 2 expansion cards with 4 ports that almost everyone will need at some point. You can still make them repariable and replaceable, you would just have to open the laptop and change it with screws. Honestly, it’s not a major difference, it’s just the only thing I could think of that’s not already in this thread.
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Well now that matte screen and louder speakers are available to me to upgrade to at some point, I guess the major annoyance left is the touchpad. The design (as of my 11th Gen batch 5 IIRC) is not stable in how it mounts to the input deck. Physical clicking works for up to a month after I adjust it, but after that it’s just too loose to register physical clicks, even after quite a few of the “good hard press” reset events people talk about fixing it. Next time I open the machine up, I’m probably going to glue in a shim under the two tabs that are supposed to provide the spring-y feel to stiffen those up.
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