Preorders are now available! I was looking through the prices and i’m not sure how I feel about it. What thoughts do you have regarding the pricing of both the DIY kit and the prebuilt?
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I honestly feel it is a bit on the pricey side, even though I did place a pre-order anyways(still debating a bit though). I do feel like they are a smaller start up company and probably didn’t order a lot of bulk parts, in which contributed to the slightly higher price. If this was base on the AMD Ryzen the prices would been a bit better. But there would have been other issues I’m sure. Right off the bat, chip shortages being one of them.
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I don’t think it makes sense to order DIY if you’re just going to order parts for every single category. It’s really more advantageous if you’re going to bring your own components, whether you already own them or spend some time shopping around for deals in multiple places.
For someone like me, who already has things like an SSD and a spare Windows 10 Pro license, it offers more opportunity.
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I am actually happy with the pricing, I hoped it was less than 1500 Euro and it is.
I will buy the one for 1400 as soon as it is possible here in Germany.
But why is there a version with a 256 gb Ssd? Why not just always 1TB, that costs about 70$ more.
At least I can buy my own SSD and put it inside. That’s why I love this Laptop.
Hope there will be a version without Win10 and maybe without SSD.
Anyway, this Laptop is better than every other in the world! The Pricing is really fair!
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I’m used to developer laptops in the $2500+ range, so I’m very happy with the pricing. A comparable 13" MBP is over $2800 compared to my $1509 DIY config that is only missing an SSD.
Dell is more competitive with the XPS 13, but that can’t even be configured with more than 16gb ram or 512gb ssd, and has much more limited I/O. And a comparable CPU choice makes it $1399 even with less ram and storage. (it does have faster LPDDR4x, though)
I always used Linux on my personal laptops, so not having to deal with or pay for Windows or Mac OS is also a big plus for me.
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I made up a spreadsheet last week with local and online price quotes on the DIY components SSD, RAM, WiFi etc. My guess on the DIY base price was… US$750. So I was a whole dollar high in my expectations of the pricing. Close enough! I think the pricing is VERY reasonable for what you are getting. The AX210 WiFi 6 card is $25 with the FW Laptop; they sell for about $40 on eBay, so that’s reasonable too (buying in quantity has its benefits as well as its risks). Count me as quite satisfied with the pricing. And some have commented on Windows driving up the price of the DIY edition. I have a solution for that, which won’t please everybody: don’t run Windows.
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What I’m finding unreasonable is the 700$ difference between the i5-1135g7 and the i7-1185g7, it seams way too much.
Intel site is showing
i5-1135g7 Recommended Customer Price : $309.00
i7-1185g7 Recommended Customer Price : $426.00
I don’t think the 700$ difference is justified.
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I honestly think it’s a little on the pricey side as well. $750 for an i5 model without ram and storage is a bit steep when compared to acer or dell where you can get a slightly better processor (Ryzen 5 5500u) but a worse screen (1080p) with a similar metal build for 600€(incl. Tax) with memory and storage included(Where the ssd and either one or both dimm slots can also be upgraded).
I know this is probably really naive, but in my mind it was something like this: Smaller volume of production & modularity adds about $50 to that price, better screen adds about $50 as well, the better camera adds about $10, labor of assembling vs individualizing each diy order evens out, and not including memory and storage / windows license saves about $100 to $150 depending on the configuration.
The current pricing isn’t completely silicon-valley levels of outrageous either, though.
One thing that also has to be taken into consideration is how much the future upgrade mainboards will be. If those are priced reasonably i.e. like a normal off-the-shelf CPU + the price of a motherboard, then the equation changes significantly, since you’ll be saving a lot on your next upgrade.
That being said, I’m still really excited about it and will probably just wait for a year to 18 months to see if they can get that hump down a bit by making back some of the initial R&D cost and optimizing their supply / manufacturing processes / the chip shortage going away(hopefully).
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Oh damn, that’s quite pricey. Maybe they’re making a loss on the cheaper version and subsidize that with the higher-performance one? Or is there something more to putting the stronger CPU onto the board? Additional support components, higher bandwith for RAM, etc?
In reality, the price difference seems a bit larger than juts the recommended retail price, the Dell XPS with those CPUs has a price difference of ~350$ (including RAM upgrade), but that’s still a far cry from 700$.
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@iFreilicht I’m almost certain the price difference is to profit from the “professionnal” options in the non-DIY. I’m not against higher price for professional, they often dont care, but in this case it’s not affecting only professionnals.
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I haven’t looked at benchmarks but the i5 seems not too shabby, and it’s got 4 cores x 2 threads. Seems like the pricing is driving many people to take the i5, given that, on the configurations page, the i5 is sold out for DIY Batch 1, whereas both i7 configs are still available in DIY Batch 1. So if you didn’t already order a DIY i5 and want to, you’re now looking at August shipping instead of July.
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You can buy the DIY edition without Windows and without SSD. Even with RAM if you want.
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I actually hoped the price would be like 800 dollar for the core i5 model. A Macbook air base model with similar RAM and storage is also $999 and the M1 processor is faster. Or this HP https://www.amazon.com/Envy-X360-Touchscreen-Fingerprint-Thunderbolt/dp/B0924BFGR8/ref=sr_1_3 is 50 dollars cheaper has double the storage, a core i7, and a touch screen. Of course, the framework laptop is upgradable but it is a bit pricey right now
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tbh I’m extremely happy with the price. With the specs i chose it amounts to 935$ which is roughly 750-800 EUR and that’s less than most of the alternatives i was considering while with greater value. I would have gladly spent 200-300 EUR more than this for it.
I’m going to chime in on the “satisfied” side. I think everyone brings a different use case and requirements for their needs, and for mine, I’ve been looking for something nearly identical to this product for the better part of a year. Comparing what I actually ordered to similar models in the Thinkpad line, this laptop will be competitive for sure. That said, the jury will be out for some time to come on customer service and support, but the idea is compelling and the execution seems a good match for me and my needs (which have less to do with the technical, and more to do with the privacy side of things). I plan to install Linux and have a couple of VMs run on swappable storage modules - pretty vanilla needs overall from a technical standpoint. Don’t need a fancy keyboard, don’t need an eGPU, don’t need a million standard input ports… the upgradeability is even a nice-to-have for me as well, but honestly, I will probably find it to be essential once I have it.
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I’m going to agree with others above and say I feel the pricing is reasonable. Although it may seem a little expensive compared to similar laptop, I guess you should see it as an investment in future upgrades?
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Ok, I read a lot that hasn’t been thought rhrough… at all. AMD and Thunderbolt4/USB4 is an issue and can be discarded as a request at this point in time. The next generation will have some ports. How many? No idea, but maybe in 2022 this becomes an option, if they support USB4 with a maxed out design. Apart from that, I do think that the price is acceptable for an intel platform. Outside of the CPU, there is no upselling going on. No +8GB RAM for 250$, SSD prices are fine as well. I can live with that and see it as an investment for easier upgrades in the future.
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I can admit that the laptops are a bit pricey, however, I’m currently a Mac user, so I’m used to pay higher prices for my laptops. I do know PC parts are cheaper though, so that helps with the price. I’ve done some research on the pricing and some of the prices appear to be similar to the market prices on other sources. As a company, of course there is a need to make money and that’s fine, as long as it’s not completely overboard.
I found that i7 1165G7+16GB RAM+512GB worth 1400 USD(about 9000 CNY), and 1TB SSD is no more than 1500 USD which is an acceptable price. Other laptops like lenovo are also $1000 (basic configuration) ~ $1800 (top configuration). We should see that if Framework Laptop worth this price.