You forgot to mention lots of these are probably still protected by IP laws
I’d love to see a lot of these get handled by expansion cards (e.g. joystick, multi-port headphone jack, ethernet port). Overall my one caveat with this list is there’s a lot of niche features that not everyone will want or use. Additionally, there are lots of potentially extremely developmentally expensive items on the list, like the slide-in graphics card (unless they can license the tech from ASUS or Lenovo).
My own additions to the list:
-
Desktop CPU sockets. MXM modules (or maybe the slide in/out PCIe connectors like described above). Laptop CPUs are not socketed anymore, but desktops still are. Replaceable CPU and GPU would be huge wins for that replaceable components dream.
-
Conservative base styling with a customizable top panel. I hate the RGB “hard-core XTREEM gamer special edition” craze, I just want a single-color machine, maybe with two-tone hilights or lighting. I understand this isn’t everyone, so a top cover that connects to the panel with pogo pins would allow people who aren’t me to satisfy their rainbow light addiction, in addition to allowing for sales of special edition covers with custom backlighting for your Tarkov fans, or whoever the customers are. This is particularly relevant for the framework because other than the styling, there’s really nothing thermally or chassis-wise that should differentiate workstations and gaming stations. #1 in combination with #2 would mean that you could have a single motherboard and chassis for general consumer gaming laptop requests, as well as for when a business customer wants Quadro or Titan beast for whatever their needs are. Businesses could even order a single top panel for their whole fleet with a logo if they wanted to, or, for the more IAP-focused companies they could go with a blank slate to minimize visibility. Individuals could also order blank tops with simple mods, like laser etching or hydro dips, and be less worried about scratches or dings, as the part should be easily replaceable. 3-D printed Lithophane covers with simple LED backlights are even possible for potentially crazy detailed back panels.
-
I like num pads, but not everyone does. How about a cover that has keyboard and trackpad that can be swapped in position for righties/lefties (the idea is you could put trackpad on the left and mount the keyboard to the right, with an hour and a screwdriver), and the trackpad can have the “num pad” mode for people like me who use a mouse and want a num pad. You could go even crazier on this concept by using a sensel trackpad, so that the numpad could have physicalized keys to press or customizable depth-sensing macros for the gamers and workstation crowd alike. That also gives you room to push your keyboard down the laptop and open the rear up for cooling like the aforementioned ASUS laptops have. If that’s covered by IP laws, then another idea would be for chonkin great big speakers or something. For the crowd that like a centered keyboard experience the side-trackpad panel could be swapped for a more standard centered keyboard and trackpad panel. This dual-layout panel would look something like the image I put at the end of my post. If a cooling ducts were wanted instead the speakers could be shrunk and a central cavity could be opened instead, flanked by the same half-height speakers.
-
16:10 aspect ratio. Alternatively, some genius way of having multi-aspect ratio screens supported (e.g. 16:10 maybe has a thinner bezel and flip-out webcam/mic instead? Who knows). In my opinion 16:10 is a great compromise between wide screen gaming or movie watching with small black bars (or no black bars on a good OLED panel), and productivity needs. It also gives a bit more depth for a better cooling solution or larger components.
-
Drip tray option. A thicker gaming/workstation means weight is less of a concern for lots of users. Two versions of the lid hinge could be offered: one with normal flush-to-keyboard clearance, and one with more standoff height when closed between screen and keyboard. You could then mount a drip tray between the universal keyboard and the rest of the chassis to protect the internals. The standoff height would make the screen and keyboard flush if the drip tray is included. Drip tray would have the same magnet arrangement as the keyboard, and would ship with included longer screws to replace the ones which normally screw the chassis and mobo together. This way it would be a real easy replacement, just open laptop up, pull out old screws, mount new screws, make captive, mount drip tray to k/b with magnets, and align drip tray to chassis with the help of the same magnets, screw in place.