As a guy that fixes these things I’d settle for just more robust panels. Nothing more dull than a cracked screen.
Any suggestions on that? I genuinely can’t think of a way to create more robust panels except by using gorilla glass or using some sort of protective case like an otterbox
Dunno. I leave tech folks to sort that out. I just know they break too damn easy for the average clumsy user. Better surrounds wouldn’t hurt for a start.
People can carry a few extra grams. Not all of us are feeble.
Not sure there would be much point. What I’ve noticed after a short time with mine is there is a lot of ghosting / trails on moving images even compared to my slow Dell U3014 IPS display. Upping refresh wouldn’t improve the image.
My main interest is for the smoothness and, technically, blur would actually help in that regard.
(see also: AV enthusiasts complaining about “stutter” with 24fps content on OLED TVs due to the insanely-quick pixel response time, especially on the 2018 and older models due to a lack of quality black-frame insertion, and no I don’t mean telecine judder either as all OLED TVs handle 24Hz input without issue (as long as you didn’t use BFI which didn’t even exist before the 2018 models) as that was something solved before OLED TVs were generally available)
For a similar reason, I’m a bit OCD about making the refresh rate a multiple of video frame rates and sometimes there’s a lower limit on displays - for example I find that 48Hz (for 24fps) is much more hit-and-miss than 50Hz (for 25fps and 50fps), so one sometimes needs to use 72Hz anyway.
…also my desktop is a dual-monitor setup with an LCD and CRT monitor so, if I really wanted motion clarity, I wouldn’t even bother with using an LCD (especially since I’m also a junkie regarding black levels and static contrast ratios which is another strength that OLED has over LCD).
There’s another hinge style that could accomplish a lot of the same goals: the middle-lid hinge, like this:
That’s an Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel pictured above but the more well-known machine with this is the Microsoft Surface Studio. I’m using a Sony Vaio Flip from 2013 that had this factor and really liked it. The hinge has lasted me over 8 years without issues.
(Unfortunately the glass screen broke in a stupid, tragic accident recently unrelated to the frame and when it comes to finding replacement parts, let’s just say Sony ain’t no Framework).
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I like this design tremendously
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I used to spend a lot of time on airliners in my former life. As in “I still have half a million frequent flier miles in my account from actually flying” a lot. That’s probably one of the worst case scenarios for productivity for a hundred reasons. I remember seeing a row with one giant ipad pro, one middle hinge laptop (couldn’t tell the brand or model), and a conventional hinge laptop in the window seat. Guess who was most comfortably getting work done on the cramped little tray table thing? Yep, the guy with the middle seat with the middle hinge thing. Sure he couldn’t see his hands under the screen, but a good touch typist shouldn’t need to anyway, right?
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I’ve been that guy in the middle! When I bought the machine I figured it was the way of the future and am still a little surprised that it hasn’t at least kept parity with the 360-hinge style. Another advantage is that if you’re plugged into things on a desk you can flip to tablet mode for a quick signature or drawing without tangling up your cables.
To me the current screen is perfect. If anything, I would love to see touch screen and anti glare coating.
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this actually reminds me of an extremely extremely old toy
It’s a writing pad with a magnetic pen. You can write whatever you want on it, and it will stay there until you clear the drawings with a wiper
In that case the pen attracts the magnetic stuff, which then go to the top of the sheet and the wiper pulls them low
That is “magnetic-ink” before electronics were a thing. fancy.
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etch-a-sketch, aka ‘management laptops’
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I believe Xavier was referring to a “Magna Doodle” rather than an etch-a-sketch.
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The current screen resolution is perfectly adequate; in fact it may be a little too high resolution. 2256x1504 @ 13.5" is ~202 DPI. There’s a point of diminishing returns where “more pixels =/= more better” and it’s getting close to that point. This is especially true if the operating system doesn’t natively support floating-point scaling i.e. it can only render the screen at 1x/2x, because something like 175% is processed as “0.75” internally and integer scaling can only use whole numbers. Windows 10 is/was notorious for its terrible resolution scaling system, let’s not make the situation worse simply because “imma want more screen resolution”.
Something like 90Hz or 120Hz refresh would be nice–assuming the pixel response time is as low as possible–but I’d honestly prefer a wider color gamut (something like 95%+ coverage DCI-P3 color space) and maybe support for something like HDR 400+. Knowing how expensive factory-calibrated studio monitors are, this is probably a tall ask and there should be optional packages for “High Refresh Rate”, “High Color Accuracy”, or “Both”. That would definitely make the Framework a compelling option for people who would ordinarily get a Macbook because of its color reproduction capabilities.
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True, I hadn’t considered HDR or a color calibrated display for this yet. My assumption that I didn’t think to clarify in the original post was that a computer with dedicated graphics would need to be at least 15" to accommodate better cooling, and probably but not necessarily be 16:9 given the increased size. Sounds like 1440p is the sweet spot for that size, and spending extra GPU power on higher refresh and better colors is fairly popular, with other display technologies like touch support or other panel types also having some interest.
@Tim_Southwick Some people may ask “why would you want to get a better screen for your laptop, when you could simply get a better external monitor?”. Well, it’s more about the convenience the option provides, than the utility of more attachments. After all, unlike the Macbook design is it based on, the Framework laptop is not “feature-complete”, i.e. not everything the user will ever need is already part of the package.
Do such features make for expensive inclusions? Oh, absolutely, but “it’s better to have it and not need, than to need it and not have it.”
Folks want super fast panels?
Looks at the Iris Xe GPU and sighs. I guess they want to play Half Life 2 all day… 
Maybe just a 75Hz panel eh? Baby steps… 
Also ignores the obvious:
I don’t use my laptop with an external monitor.
I have a desktop computer for that.
Okey, but… your wording here seems to imply that the Macbook design has “everything the user will ever need”.
I just received a new macbook from my employer, for work. Their default send included a belkin USB dongle. Because, you know… All I would EVER need on a macbook is two USB-C ports? 
Yeah, no. 
Similarly, any person that wants a touch screen on their laptop (weird people, but apparently it is a thing), are just SOL with anything Apple.
I’ll assume there’s some disconnect in how you intended your post to be understood and how I read it, though.
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While the Framework isn’t officially thunderbolt certified, it runs an external gpu enclosure via thunderbolt totally fine. Basically, that screen’s outpout could easily be being driven by a Geforce 3090. All you have to do is connect it via the standard USB-3 ports. Technically don’t even need the modules for that, since they’re just a passthrough…
So, yeah, running games at obscene framerates is something you can very easily do on the Framework, if you have that equipment.
But that’s a really bad setup. Using that level hardware with a laptop…on a small screen…not really portable, CPU limited, not pushing it to a 4K or 1440p screen etc. etc.
Great for the four people that might do it for a laugh I guess…
External GPU, handy for folks doing transcoding/video or CAD work but again a 120Hz screen isn’t going to help massively and you wouldn’t want to do work like that on a 12" screen.
Just because you can… The real solution…buy a different laptop in the first place. This is like buying a Honda Civic and trying to turn it into a Ferrari.