I just wanna know how long I should wait in case there are major changes planned. Besides having more expansion cards, are there plans for making more things upgradable, like maybe the GPU?
The general gist of this situation is that if you keep waiting for the next best thing to come along, you’ll never actually get around to buying anything!
There hasn’t been any announcement of GPU upgrades from Framework, and I can’t see them doing that in the near future because I doubt it’s possible in the chassis they have, and there are probably much more valuable things they could be working on like new processor options and new screens (resolutions, refresh rates, and touchscreens are all things people care about - I’d wager more people care about a touchscreen than a dedicated GPU for example).
Of course the difference with Framework is that when they do offer upgraded modules, you should be able to just install them as upgraded modules and not have to buy a complete new machine…!
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If I had to guess, the following are likely in the near future (like this year):
- some more expansion cards like maybe full-size SD, ethernet and dual USB
- a few more cosmetic options like bezel colors and keyboard layouts
- a new mainboard revision with fixes for 15V charging and other minor improvements (like battery holder)
- mainboard availability in the marketplace
For early next year, I predict
- a new mainboard revision supporting newer Intel CPU versions
- touchscreen option
- maybe a new 2-in1 aluminium case option with 360° hinge
Everything else, I don’t really see:
- 15 and 17 inch laptops are already available in affordable, robust and pretty repairable versions like Dell and Lenovo Business laptops, including versions with GPU. The market is kinda already there and I don’t see Framework expand that fast into that section.
- Dedicated GPUs won’t fit in the current 13,5" laptop version, so unlikely that that changes.
- AMD and ARM based mainboards would be interesting, but full Thunderbolt support is difficult, so there are probably compatibility issues with the expansion slot model. Even the current Intel version still isn’t certified. It also would require developing a pretty much completely new mainboard design.
- I don’t see other screen resolution options as there aren’t that many different screens available in the 3:2 format from manufacturers. Maybe Framework can convince the current manufacturer to make them a matte option.
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