Some thoughts of directions they could go that would be interesting:
A slightly larger unit with a discrete GPU and high-refresh screen. It wouldn’t have to really be high-end-gaming 4090 class to still take the product line up a notch and make Framework, as a company, interesting to gamers and other people for whom built-in graphics will never really cut it.
As others have mentioned, 13th Gen or up-to-date Ryzen logic boards as options.
A phone or tablet. Tablet would be easier in some ways – people have already done this on their own with Framework parts, I believe. A genuinely user-servicable tablet that was actually usable would be very interesting. (Full Disclosure: tablets are the one department where I remain an Apple fanboy).
Printers are, frankly, boring, so I don’t see that as a likely target. I could see them targeting the desktop market with an official offering that follows what many have done building their own enclosures for Framework components, but that wouldn’t really be next-level.
@Michael_Scot_Shappe Tablet does seem more likely than phone given the size constraints and given the lack of good Android competition. PineTab and PineTab 2 exist but lack the support that paid development can bring (not to demean anyone’s work on the Linux mobile side of things, I think it’s very important work). So a tablet would be next-level in my eyes and would allow FW to get a foot in the door with regards to ARM and RISC development in a lower risk area than their flagship product.
That reminds me of another one I was going to mention: an ARM-based offering in the same form-factor. There are still some limitations in that universe, software-wise, but some people might be willing to make the trade for something that ran a lot cooler and quieter without much sacrifice of speed.
Apple’s leading the way there with the M1/M2 series MacBook Pros. I was skeptical at first, but I had an M1 Max-based MacBook Pro for work for a while, and that thing was a sweeeeeeet mover and stayed ice-cold while doing it.
Love all these guesses. So good. If I were to guess based on nothing cause I haven’t been looking at anything I’d imagine it’s an upgraded intel chip, and possibly an amd option. Maybe they’ll announce third parties being able to sell on the marketplace.
Welp, I’m a little disappointed thus far. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see the upgrades and they will be welcomed by new customers but they are meaningless to me personally. Glad that other users are going to be happy with this stuff.
Ah, spoke too soon. Here is the new product category I was expecting.
OK, the dGPU option is genuinely exciting and new.
Well…this was not what I was expecting but I still give it a 7/10.
Well done Framework. Despite not actually moving into new product categories, the iterations still manage to be new and worth getting excited about. That’s a hard feat to accomplish. I’m quite interested to see and hear more about the dGPU details.
Also, making it possible for me to turn the old battery into a phone bank just converted me from waiting until the current battery dies to an upgrade as soon as it’s available. That is really well done. You know your customer base well.
Will the 13th gen, AMD and or larger 16inch have coreboot? so wish coreboot be there. the new module system is awesome. kinda wish Id be able to use some of them in my 12th gen
