Nirav mentioned numerous times, how energy efficient the AMD APUs are, so why are the stuffing intel ones in the Framework 12?
The only logical answer I could fathom would be the price tag… or does anyone have another idea?
Too bad, I would have been interested if they’d offer an AMD version…
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it is almost certainly price. They are “good enough” for what is expected of them without being Celeron bad kinda thing I expect.
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And there’s no more “Macbook electric shock” when connected to a ungrounded power supply
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At the in-person event, I think I heard one of the engineers refer to it as a Sunflower (which, apparently, was the internal codename?). The world needs to know this. It is such a fitting name.
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I have to say, it felt heavier than I expected just from the looks. Not too heavy, just heavier. Probably about the same as the 13, maybe 100 grams lighter.
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I would’ve happily, happily, happily gone with two fewer expansion cards to get dual-channel RAM and a cheaper-per-GB SSD. Having two fully functional USB-C DP/PD Thunderbolt ports on one side instead of two expansion cards is an “escalator is temporarily stairs”-level nothingburger.
I have a feeling the shallower depth (the screen is both smaller and I think a wider 16:10 instead of 3:2) was a significant factor, for the board’s features, the battery, and the other components toward the front. They’re already downgrading the potential battery life by locking into Intel mainboards; reducing the physical battery size on top of that would make this even less attractive.
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Two other things on the 12:
- Will the 12’s mainboard work with or be adaptable to the 13’s laptop chassis or standalone cases designed for the 13’s mainboards, as a potential upgrade path for people who buy and then grow out of it, or who want to repurpose a 12’s mainboard in an existing Framework case?
I seriously doubt it—at this rate I expect there to be some fundamental physical incompatibility or incompatible eDP or display driver—but I feel like I have to ask to find out because I haven’t found any mention of it.
- Depending on the 12’s display components, I’m tempted to put a bounty out for a printable or millable 12" chassis that fits the 12’s display, input, and other components, but also fits and can use the 13’s mainboard and a compatible battery.
I’m quite serious about not caring at all about expansion cards if they end up being the only real compromise toward a 12" 7040- or AI-series laptop that’s both repairable and performant.
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No AMD? Feel like a 6-core Zen 5 Ryzen 5 would have been a really good option in one of these. Heck even Zen 4, which would be quite cheap.
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Notice that the battery voltage keeps getting higher and higher, this time the max voltage is 4.48V per cell.
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Yeah, one of the things I liked about the 13 and 16 was that they used the same motherboard. Having fewer specialty parts makes it easier for them and for the consumers to do upgrades and repairs.
The 13 and the 16 use different motherboards.
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I’m looking forward to this. I have a 13" laptop and various other vendor Chrome touchscreen laptops that are all a kludge to try and run other OS.
At last I should be able to swap between Linux (daily driver), ChromeOS and WIndows in their own partition or physical disks. I’d like to see space to fit say a Raspberry Pi CM5 or other SBC.
I’d like Framework to consider a modular phone something like Project Ara / Fairphone.
I can imagine a world where instead of Apple or Google I have all Framework devices and be able to swap between Android, Kali or other Phone OS.
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I’m optimistic about these, just want some details as they come. Weight, dimensions (can guestimate based on card size) etc.
Talking with some of my tech friends in the AV world they would love something to program with on site, and gather customer signatures with vs the heftier machines they currently have (surfaces)
I’m definitely a bit torn - on the one hand, this looks nice and I really want the pen screen for drawing on the go. On the other, I can’t really justify getting rid of my perfectly good 13 to get an less capable machine. Still, glad to see a budget-oriented option for Framework - price has always been the biggest asterisk when recommending it to other people, hoping to see this launch for sub $500.
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What kind of pen protocol is the framework using?
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I know nothing about pen protocols, but here is what I can tell you from practical experience: it is definitely active, i.e. the OS can detect you hovering it over the screen, and it requires a battery (that different-coloured top part of the pen is a removable battery, and if you pull it out and put back in, the pen stops working – ask me how I know). It is also not Bluetooth or anything that requires pairing, i.e. the same pen works with any laptop straight away, without any setup/connection process. Hopefully, this narrows the possible set of protocols down.
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I think their last few products have used flower-based codenames, so this fits.
This is strange. When you hinted about introducing a convertible, I was sure it would just reuse the existing 13 motherboards. It would have made so much sense. Given how many existing users were dying for a touchscreen option, who could just get a new chassis and drop in their existing motherboards, for which they paid significant money. I would’ve paid handsomely to just get a convertible chassis for my existing AMD motherboard with 96 GB RAM.
This creates a sort of strange fragmentation. Also, as I mentioned previously, the mid-range convertible market is already quite full, with good models from HP, Lenovo and so on. What is really missing is a powerful convertible. Today, most convertibles just go to 32GB RAM and a U-series Intel (with very few very expensive 64GB options). It’s nice that you are going to 48GB (and maybe even 64GB if the new 64G modules work here?) but it’s still quite restrictive.
Unification also help reuse and waste reduction, as there are many more ways in which people can use and reuse their existing and extra components. Just purely mathematically, more intercompatible components allow people to (re)combine them in more ways, giving them more options.
Is the 12in really so much smaller/lighter to justify an incompatible system? (Is I think the smaller size is really kind of the only significant benefit that you could get out of this choice.) And as other people hinted here, even if you though a smaller form factor was needed in the market, maybe a less bad compromise would be to reuse the 13 mainboard form factor and just have 2 expansion cards on one side and 2 raw USB-C port on the other (if worried about durability, there could be just a minimum-lenght C-C gizmo that could be replaced).
IF this was only about making it cheaper, you definitely could have made a cheaper 13-compatible mainboard and chassis.
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This product I’m super interested in. Maybe I’m shooting to the moon, but here some must have in my opinion:
- screen should at least be 2560x
- the touchscreen should be usable: meaning that if I lay my hand on a part of it to write with a digital pen, the hand should be detected and not considered as an input
- daily usablity. I bought only one 2-in-1, and personally I do not care about “how powerful”, but “how usable”. Drivers support should be paramount to grant smoothness of operations
- good speakers that work great in all configurations
- lightweight as much as possible
Then… Why Intel? I had terrible experience with the last 2 laptops that were bought for me with Intel. I mean, probably arm would be better.
Additionally, maybe it is too futuristic and not usable, but would be possible to have an e-ink display on top (the other side of the screen)? It would be good to read documents and if it accepted digital pen input would be even better
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If its not Wacom EMR, or there’s no option for it, gonna be sad and will have to wait for another release (someday, if ever).
Would be really amazing if this had EMR (likely not- as someone here pointed out, that it looks like active pen), as there’s so little choice for a repairable laptop with EMR tech (more like- no choice, unless you are okay with integrated graphics and an older machine)
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