I didn’t know where to put this, but I figured I’d put it out here somewhere. Who remembers netbooks? Or still follows companies like GPD?
Personally, I believe that something like a 10" and below laptop/palmtop with hot swappable connectors would be a game changer for IT, CompSci, Security Specialists, and enthusiasts. I frequently search for things like this as I like to keep my carry light and versatile and I myself am getting into the Computer Science field.
These could also be popular with people who stream while travelling, especially if there was a capture card bay that could be added to the device as well for cameras, portable consoles, or hosting stations with stream output.
I hope this reaches a person with an interest in this idea with the means to realize it!
I am some one who fondly remembers and misses those genres of computing devices. I think the best modern day implementation that I have personally used is the One Netbook Onemix 3pt .
It was fantastic, but neigh unrepairable and when the keyboard broke, the device was dead, even though it wasn’t.
Miniaturization of components flies directly in the face of modular repairable goals unfortunately.
Looking at the 12, we can already see what the shrinking of size forced in the way of concessions. You have 1 RAM slot instead of 2, and the CPU variants are not as powerful as the 13’s 13th generation offerings.
Such is life bound by the laws of thermodynamics.
I have been working on a chonky UMPC project for a while, and I am convinced that there is a size that just doesn’t can’t be gone beyond without impacting something important like repairability, usability, and durability.
Anyway, Framework has incredibily talented engineers on board, and if they would set their minds to working on something like a smaller Framework then I would be the first to be very excited.
As it is, I am VERY happy with the 12. I think they are marketing it to education, but I think the scope of it is much larger. This thing is a complete Thinkpad X line replacement in my opinion. That is pretty huge.
If you are willing to sacrifice swappable IO on one side (or use extensions to reroute expansion ports to the back/front even and make the laptop a little thicker) and potentially find a smaller screen/kb/battery you could totally make a framework laptop 11 (or 10 with extensions and ports at the back)
I don’t think it will be first party but it could work
Absolutely, I know I wouldn’t blame them for making the same sacrifices that GPD makes or even trying their hand at RISC-V or ARM for the sake of a smaller form factor. Of course I say RISC-V just because I’m curious to tinker