Solid Upgrade Path

Framework Laptop 16
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Nearly everyone of us has one (or more) Framework computers. As we all know, the beauty of this platform is that we can get the best of available hardware and software in the form factor of our choosing. I find the Framework 16 to be the greatest laptop I’ve owned, period.

Time has moved on; new options abound. The possibilities for a newer/better/different configuration are abundant. For many of us upgrading our existing Frameworks to ‘the next’ is thankfully possible.

As I see it, the second level of sales for Framework is in upgrades. For people who don’t have the time to research each updated part it would be incredible if Framework created the ‘Solid Upgrade Path’. This is a marketing and sales effort to project exactly what existing users could move to.

Software could be written and run to output each rev/model/part of all of the components that make up a person’s computer. (Or, to a lesser extent, Framework could even look at the sales manifest of all the parts that people have bought for their computer). Then, derive the ‘Solid upgrade path’ where a user can buy a package of parts to get them to the ‘next level’.

At its simplest, I need my computer to perform FASTER on Ubuntu. I also likely need a very serious Nvidia card now to power the AI that has happily and sadly taken over my life.

What PACKAGE of parts, with an assured level of compatibility, could I buy from Framework, today, that would get me to the ‘next level’?

If a ‘configurator’ of sorts were to exist, I imagine that to be our fastest possible upgrade path and the sales would only multiple from that.

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It sounds like what you want is the upcoming occulink devkit so you can plug a fullsize desktop GPU into the FW 16.

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Hey marketing person and a big fan of Framework Laptop 16 here,

Our current strategy is putting all the parts out there, making the compatibility information and differences between generations as visible as possible, and allowing customers to upgrade whatever they want. I think the majority of our customers actually like doing the research themselves and looking at specs. I think customers choosing their own upgrade paths works better for now, especially for the 16.

That being said, for Laptop 13 Pro, we have created some upgrade bundles for customers to easily choose the parts they need for their upgrade. There is no “one upgrade to rule them all,” but more like… pick and choose what you want. For the 13 and 13 Pro lines, we have 8 generations in total (and some 3rd-party mainboards as well), and customers might need a bit of hand-holding. For the 16, we are not there yet, but I simply hope we’ll have so many parts and so many upgrade paths in the future that we’ll need to come up with creative solutions.

We have a bundle functionality on our marketplace that allows customers to choose the parts they want and select “none” for the parts they are not interested in, it’s like a mini configurator, in a way. Based on how 13 to 13 Pro upgrades go, we will have a lot of learnings, and we’ll be applying them to future products.

Another thing we’ve been doing is preparing clear descriptions of parts and choices, like this one for modules (https://frame.work/laptop16?tab=modules), where you can see which part is which and what they do. We’ve also added new FAQs for the new touchpad and keyboard options in the Framework Laptop configurator to help people understand what the options are and choose between them.

Upgrade paths basically come from what customers want from their computers. Some people want more modularity, some want a more minimalistic and clean look. Some care about a haptic touchpad, some want touchscreens. Some need beefy graphics modules, and some don’t need a good GPU at all.

My point is, there is no single upgrade path we can provide, it’s going to be very, very different for each person. With the bundles, extra FAQs, and specs, we are trying to support that at the moment. I know some people would also be very against running that kind of software on their computers, so we might have to come up with a different solution to solve that :slight_smile:

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I think on possible upgrade paths, that what has been lacking/missing is better tuned speakers or just better hardware wise,for the FW16.

On Linux I can use easyeffects and load some community made profiles to fix most of the issues with the sound profile.

It would be really awesome if the speakers get some love.

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