Availability in Australia, but at this point I’m desperate and looking at buying it and forwarding it to myself.
My Surface Pro 3 is on its last legs - Bluetooth is straight up gone (I use a BT dongle) and wifi is temperamental at best. The front webcam has never worked thanks to a botched firmware update from Microsoft. The keyboard is peeling off layers like a Shrek. The battery lasts an hour (honestly not too bad considering). The pen doesn’t have BT functionality. The screen is peeling. The fan sounds like a plane at takeoff, much like the PS4 (probably full of dust but can’t clean it out). Overheats and thermal throttles all the time to the point that HD YouTube plays at 10fps with nothing else happening.
It’s time for a Framework, please. I also have disability funding in the process of being approved because I need a device to be able to have my telehealth appointments. Fingers crossed I get approved.
Edit: I forgot that the only USB port is falling out on the inside of the chassis. This means that my DSLR which is currently a glorified webcam often disconnects or experiences audio problems in video calls, sometimes cutting out completely. It also means I can’t use the BT dongle during video calls, so I have no mouse functionality.
Please release in Australia soon Framework!
Wow! My sympathies, I thought my laptop was on its last legs, but this is something. My 2015 13” MBP is failing on me very badly and the repair costs are not worth it.
I was holding back as Framework wasn’t shipping to my location (not really holding back ad being held back).
Finally, but the bullet and bought one through a friend in the UK and waiting for them to now come here.
If I was to buy the framework, it would be to support the company and maybe flex it to fellow nerds that also know what it is.
In terms of the actual product, I really struggle to see the value in it, especially at the price point. I am currently using an x250 from 2015. Obviously, not everyone can do with an old laptop like that, but for me it’s a clear choice. The battery lasts me for about 12 hours while working, it has all the ports I need (minus an hdmi, which i use a dp dongle for). Going from a laptop that consumes about 3.5W while browsing to one that:
takes 1.5 watt just to have an unused hdmi port plugged in
you can’t really just throw in a backpack without worrying
I am unsure about the promises of upgradeability so far.
It just feels like such a massive downgrade that I would struggle to justify it. Framework also prides itself on repairability. However, I dont think that there is anything more repairable about it than any old thinkpad prior to the XX80 series, where some still beat the FW in perfomance if you need a “modern” laptop. Plus, you can get parts much cheaper and have a great selection from multiple vendors.
I am incredibly greatful that framework exists, as there is a lack of current gen products with a promise of repairability, but my next laptop will probably be a cheaper, sturdier and more performant t480 from 2018/19 for less than 500€ or something like an T14. Those are probably even more upgradable than the framework (e.g. heatsinks, dGPU, magnesium case…) Unless aesthetics and an additional 5mm of slimness are that important to you, I feel like it is only the “brand” that would make anyone choose the framework over these.
If I was shopping for a paid for work laptop or had a high income I would buy the framework, but I currently can’t afford paying a 500€ premium for ideological reasons. Plus, I believe a used laptop will always be more sustainable than a new one. Maybe there will be an aftermarket for a potential framework pro in 3-4 years.
EDIT: I agree with the posters above that the lack of customization upon ordering is also a sustainability problem. If I ordered a FW now that is not my dream config due to current availability and then have to throw away a working screen/ keyboard/ mousepad to get the one I would like, I would just not upgrade it
Coreboot
Ability to disable Intel ME/AMD PSP
Qubes support
It would be a massive bonus if you could specify coreboot and which O/S is shipped with the laptop.
Open source everything possible and the community will grow exponentially. This would become the go-to laptop for those who want to step up their security/privacy/tinkering game. I’m asked pretty frequently which computers I recommend in my social circle and this would be it without hesitation.
I just want a real CPU and some interesting expansion cards.
So far there’s been nothing going on with the cards and it seems that there isn’t TB certification still.
I’ll definitely consider it when we can get more than 4 cores and a decent igpu or dedicated option. As of right now there’s not a pressing need to replace my current laptop (ya know, and create ewaste), since going from 4c8t to 4c8t doesn’t feel great, especially when there’s no cool cards to catch my eye.
Basically I want to be able to feel fairly confident I’m getting a solid laptop I can get work done with as opposed to a cool tinkering project that happens to have an ideological objective I align with.
I’d love for there to be a centralized changelog document for the hardware revisions where we can keep up to date with what fixes have been made based on feedback/issues since release.
But mostly the pre-built options don’t fit my needs very well and don’t want a DIY (I’ve been thru that in the desktop world and had hassles with defective components and Windows setup getting confused by the bios and/or hardware combination). Would prefer a system built and tested before shipping.
If I were DIY-ing I’d go for large storage and medium-low CPU. If standard I’d get the high-end and add 1TB card, MicroSD card or external thumb drives…
How about offering build-to-order? Some extra cost would be ok, especially with complete and documented testing.
Mainly that there’s no Norwegian keyboard available. Other than that, I have two laptops that work fine, but their age is starting to show. I’d sell both of them and get a framework laptop in a jiffy if other language keyboards became available.
Still gathering information; I’m moving pretty soon so I’ll need to know how long it’ll take to arrive in order to figure out whether to send it to my current or new address. In addition I like to know typical points of failure for laptops since I’ve had some kinda weird things happen in the past.
In addition to what other users have said, I would love to see an option for “dud” expansion cards – something that would cover the large holes that the expansion card slots leave if left unplugged, but don’t draw power like the memory sticks or other cards do. I’ll probably only be using one USB-C port and nothing else day-to-day, and maybe occasionally plugging in that extra memory drive when I need it, so being able to maximize efficient power usage while minimizing the amount of large chunks of my laptop being missing would be nice :]
quite simple: a 17" body. although it being a 3:2 screen 16" would be acceptable, but it still has to fit a full keyboard (including num-pad and preferably full height arrow keys)
Being that big, I do assume more than 4 expansion slots would be possible and wired Ethernet should fit easily.
It has to combat the connectivity of my gen 1 i7 XPS 17 (Dell):
2x USB-A
1x USB-A/eSata combi
1x fire-wire
1x Ethernet (rj-45)
1x HDMI
1x DisplayPort
1x VGA
3x audio (mic, headphone/line-out)
1x ExpressCard slot
1x full-size SD-card slot
1x dvd ±RW slot (space better used for a spare battery though)
1x Barrel-plug POWER
During its lifetime I used about every slot/connector. Including the EC slot to put an additional 2 USB 3.0 ports on it for high-speed data transfers. (other USB-A ports are 2.1 iirc)
so with only 4 ports and one fixed 3.5mm mic/hp-combi-plug they would be full in a base setup, without any spare room to plug in anything extra:
1x USB-C for charger
1x USB-A for mouse (no wireless mouse allowed)
1x USB-A/C for a RJ-45 network ‘dongle’ (no wireless ehternet allowed)
1x DP/HDMI for a secondary monitor (bare minimum)
no room left for the required RSA key-fob, no free room for a thumb-drive or sd-card reader or any other quickly switching media or temporary devices like a usb conference speaker-phone.
So I need at minimum 2 more ports to be barely workable.
With the key-fob needing to be plugged in and having at least one port free for sw
The #1 thing to me would be a larger screen (15.5 min, 17 best)
My 6 year old Lenovo ideapad 700 is about to die, I managed to expand it’s life for maybe another year, but I would have bought a framework if a larger screen was available.
I’m a developer, so I would love something that was more of a workhorse.
Features I’d like
More ports, I’d like 2 USBC, 1 USB3, 2 HDMI, 1 Ethernet
Faster processor, I prefer AMD over Intel
Dvorak keyboard, extra-duper-double-take-my-money points if the layout is the same as my typematrix 2030
Ship with ubuntu (I’d probably still install from scratch, but that at least would mean that it was fully tested with linux)
I would rather keep the 4 TB ports that can do anything… but since I use a dock (only 1 cable for everything) I guess thats a different use case. The only time I use the other ports is when I am on site testing something and there is an adapter for everything I test in my
Intel consumer CPUs have been PCIE starved since Haswell in an attempt to get people who care to pay vastly more for the enthusiast models. Ivy Bridge had 44 lanes, subsequent consumer models have barely enough to run a gpu at full tilt and nothing else. AMD missed a trick because if consumer Ryzen had 36 or 48 PCIE lanes Intel’s CPU division would be howling from the pits of irrelevant oblivion already.
