I just watched the latest Framework 13 YouTube video, saying that you read all reviews and get into your community while figuring out next steps. I wanted to add my vote that I am just waiting for a Framework 16 with a touchscreen. This is the main thing holding me back from a Framework.
For me, the convenience of just being able to touch controls instead of finding it via keyboard or touchpad is something I don’t want to give up. The breadth of alternative uses for it is immense. If I am playing music, I can touch controls or keys on the screen. Scrolling through documents in a folded laptop is useful. I often move windows from my main monitor to the touchscreen just to be able to navigate menus via touch. This is particularly common with Word and other text editing tasks: I can just touch the word I want to edit.
If I am switching to a Framework, I am already signing up for whatever issues will come from the mistakes a “new” laptop company makes; I don’t want to also give up the touchscreen I have on my HP Spectre. Right now, the inability to upgrade RAM (I need >=48GB for my use case) is the main reason I don’t want to go for the big players, but once touchscreen laptops with LPCAMM2 come out, I would rather go for a touchscreen (preferably 2-in-1) with just upgradeable RAM and SSD and be ok with the other unrepairability downsides than go with a Framework. But if Framework makes a touch screen, I would rather get a Framework than any other laptop.
I liked the Frameworth ethos so much that I let the touchscreen go.
An old saying says " If the horse bolts, don’t go looking for it; leave the barn door open and the horse will come home when it’s ready".
So the door is open, but my 13" 11Gen is happy on it’s own. It’s what it is and what are all these wants and demands that people throw at each other, definitely not love or touch:
while I already have a framework 13, one of the largest things I would like to improve that laptop is a touchscreen. Recently, the new display that will be shipping out in q3 gained my attention, but unfortunately it is still non-touch. I really hope the framework developers notice the number of people wanting this as an option.
I’m sure they do but the number may still be ‘small’. I’ve asked around and although I would have liked it, no one else I speak to cares, and I got used to not having one after a few days and weeks and now I really don’t want one.
How I change
Going back to pencil and paper when I can, better hand movement.
It is such a shame their new screen doesn’t have touch. My company has decided to move on from framework because of the lack of touch. It’s been 2 and a half years and everyone misses their touch screens. I’ve already switched back. Love frameworks thing and the desire for repairability. But customers have been requesting touch screen since they started and has been one of the most requested features. This new screen without it seems like they don’t care especially about what the community wants outside of the community they want to listen (Linux).
One more vote for “need/want” touch screen (on 13’').
I’m also in the category where it’s not really “nice to have”, e.g. I need to be able to make notes with a stylus and sign PDFs and such. I’d really love to get a Framework when my now 3y+ Spectre gives up.
I do agree that even better would be 2-in-1, but that would be something negotiable. Of course I get that we don’t always get wat we want, but it is a very serious consideration, and TBH, I really think a Framework 2-in-1 could be the absolute killer, so it might be really worth it for them.
Well I’m not sure that makes sense. I used touch before but this has ethics more to my liking.
I don’t see how ‘Linux’ is related. On my previous 2 in 1 Toshiba I ran Win and Ubuntu and I loved the touch, but this is what it is and there was never any indication that touch would be an option. Mainboard I expected, but nothing else.
Whereas there has clearly been a desire by some, me included initially, I’m not sure that ‘one of the most requested features’ really says anything.
I would speculate (also from my own bias of course) that Linux users are significantly over-represented in Framework’s target group, because of the “shared interests”:
Linux HW compatibility is a first class citizen (and that’s pretty rare, just Framework, Tuxedo and System76 come to mind)
People that are not mere “appliance consumers” but appreciate (deliberate, technically guided) choice, modularity, repairability, sustainability, fair (and verifiable) pricing, DIY spirit
I like my spectre (mostly for its 2-in-1-ness and compactness), but never got the fingerprint reader to work and certainly needed some tinkering to get a good UX with a non-mainstream OS (NixOS) and DE (custom/Hyprland), so a Framework 2-in-1 would be an instant no-brainer for me, and I would speculate potentially much more than just a niche market.
If there is a chance for touch-screen support (maybe even with a display-casing solution for a convertible. Times change and laptop designs change and personally I would buy a convertible Framework 2-in-1 solution! Are there not other people who feel that way? Also it would be a great way for Framework to “keeping up with the Kardashians”.
Until time is ripe and Framework would show interest in the idea of a convertible, would I be free to insert a touchscreen into my Framework Laptop if I bought one? That is swap the current screen for a 13" touchscreen? I am just playing some thoughts through. I don’t know yet if I would want to. I would procrastinate a decision until I would hold one in my hands actually. But until then I am just curious whether it would be technically feasible and if what your philosophy on the screens is:
2.1 Do you see the screen as modular part too?
2.2 Because, for instance, if I should try to swap the screen and make a mistake, is there a way to buy a screen from you officially?
2.3 I am not as hardware-savvy. I could imagine that it is possible to solder some ram for instance. But I have no real idea about the ways displays are usually connected to the motherboard (?). And if there is even always a possibility for swapping displays so easily.
Thanks for an answer in advance.
Yours sincerely
Balthasar Zorn
PS: If I order, do you guys have a anchor branch nearby Germany? Else I could imagine things would become troublesome time-wise in any case of reclamation-case. Wouldn’t want to wait weeks for a defect part to be replaced. Just in case…
Honestly the biggest issue for me is accessibility. I am sight impaired, and the addition of a touchscreen especially for magnifier use would be a huge improvement for me. I keep finding myself going back to my tablet simply because the touchscreen makes the UI so much easier to navigate for me.
A touchscreen of the correct size exists, and it might be possible for Framework to buy them. The first six generations of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop have a screen the same size and resolution as the original Framework 13 display (not the new 2.8K one). The most recent one, the Surface Laptop 6 for Business, is only sold through their business division and is a current product. The new Arm-based seventh generation Surface Laptop has a slightly larger display.
I don’t know anything about other attributes of that screen, like whether the interface is compatible with the one that Framework uses. It’s also possible that Microsoft has an exclusive deal on that display, so the maker isn’t allowed to sell them to anyone else.
I’m in the same boat. Leaving touchscreen behind is a heartbreaker for me. The 2-in-1 part is more negotiable.
I have spent so much effort on cobbling together touch support even with my 10y+ laptop that never did touch. I went through the trouble of figuring out how to reverse USB tether using an old Android tablet, run a VNC desktop over it, and then use that as a touch screen. Or running an X server directly on the Android tablet. This was before more mainstream screen share apps came by.
I was so, so happy with my Spectre. Overjoyed. 4k screen where I couldn’t see the pixels. Touchscreen. 2-in-1. Stylus support. Upgradeable RAM, SSD. What’s not to love? It just (after 5 years) started having some random reboot issues. I took it apart and put it back together, and it stopped having them. No idea what was wrong, but I hope it doesn’t come back. Also my LCtrl is dead.
But that’s why I want to switch to Framework. I keep checking (praying) every other week if Framework is saying something about releasing a touchscreen. I’d be so happy to switch. So happy. Please think about it.
Recently my Spectre’s 1TB NVME died without much forewarning (I did have some suspicious hangs a few days before, and I immediately suspected storage, but all checks I did came back clean).
Replacement with a different brand (any?) one was super easy (and up and running in no time, because I don’t keep unique data on it and it’s NixOS so completely installed as it was without much intervention).
I checked for other “repairability”, and it looks the battery would be easy to replace too. So the Spectre’s still got quite some life in it (now almost 5 years old) if the motherboard and mechanical parts hold out.
Just to say, if you’re lucky and somewhat technically versed, you could still use your spectre for some time…
