Won’t happen
What about a small wireless mouse like device that fits one of the slots to store and charge.
Never say never! While Framework mentioned in the post you quoted that they can’t easily do separate colors for keyboard covers vs the rest of the laptop, and have mentioned elsewhere on the forum that the only color is bare aluminum silver since adding color to the metal is bad for the environment, there is always a chance that if enough people are interested, Framework could find a more eco-friendly way to color the laptops, or even find an alternate material that could be even better for the environment (I recently saw new laptops that had some sort of wood fibre/bamboo top casing that could be a future venture) This thread is for brainstorming for the future, not shooting down other people’s ideas!
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Sure but they should be realistic, should I suggest that FW make a car next? Call me a negative nancy all you want but not every idea is a good one. I’m not even suggesting that forum members game out a business strategy but at least put a little thought into the idea before throwing it out there. FW could potentially find a new an innovative way to color the laptops, I don’t deny that. In this particular case however, dBrand is the better option and services the market quite well. FW doesn’t need to push into this space because it’s already well serviced and even if the environmental factors were excluded, would still present a logistical challenge. I wasn’t even mean and just quoted a relevant authority. There are plenty of zany and off-the-wall ideas in this thread that are quite good. That one just…isn’t, that’s all.
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I would love to see 80gbps thunderbolt, for future use with eGPU enclosures of the same bandwidth.
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Something I forgot to add in my previous post, after moving from my Macbook air to Framework, I have found myself really missing its trackpad. While the Framework trackpad is one of the best in the windows laptops I’ve used, it still pales in comparison to the Haptic Trackpad of the Macbook. I almost never used a mouse on the air since the trackpad was just that good. I know Dell with their XPS 13 and Sensel have developed haptic trackpads for their windows laptops. Would love to see this integrated into my Framework!
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I personally disagree, in the fact that while DBrand does have some nice skins, they still leave gaps and can be costly, plus even just having a second color beyond silver means that when swapping out metal parts on the laptop you can add some personality to your computer.
All that said, I would also disagree with shooting down any idea here, even a car. Nirav started this thread by saying that they want to remake all of consumer electronics, but made sure to add an (eventually) afterwards. I don’t see the point in differentiating good and bad ideas in this thread, because Framework has a lot of smart people working in the company, and they know better than all of us what ideas are good or bad for their business. If their employees and the community moderators are not taking any action, then all ideas here are valid, and no offense, but the response you added only mentioned separate input cover colors, and other than the post saying that they aren’t doing more colors at this time, Framework has never said that they will never choose to make other colored cases in the future.
The biggest reason I responded the way I did is because all you said was “Wont happen” which is not necessarily true. I added my own context so that the original commenter knew that “it likely will not happen soon, but it’s not impossible”. Unless the Framework team is much less intelligent than we’ve seen so far (highly unlikely) nothing mentioned here will risk the company’s safety, so unless a response is harmful in some way to other forum users, there is no reason to shoot down ideas imho.
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And now? Is there a result, what frameworks next project is?
How about a 11 in. super durable, repairable Chromebook with enough capacity to dual boot a lightweight Linux distro? This would be ideal for the educational market and so valuable to anyone with children. They break things easily and those lightweight, plastic pieces of junk are no match for them. I know from experience. Parents, students, and educators the world over would be thrilled!
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Would really love to see a super simple Thunderbolt/USB4 eGPU adapter (not a full enclosure), ideally low cost with less bells and whistles. The Razer Core X is waaay too expensive, and the alternatives that make sense price-wise ($170-ish) are on AliExpress, which I have less than 100% trust in. Thanks for this amazing laptop, I got it 2 days ago and am already in love!
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Well, still no hinge though!)
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The most obvious for me is a tablet. Mostly because I’ve pushed their age quite a lot. I cannot stand a slow work computer, but an old tablet is OK, because its only job is just being a comfortable web browser and video player.
I’ve just upgraded to my 3rd and the previous ones were replaced because I could not fix them. Also some freedom to change the OS would be amazing, because Android vendors max upgrades only to 4 years. That’s ridiculously low for a device that I am OK with doubling or triple a laptop age
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My suggestions after yesterdays event:
- Modular, repairable phone
- Modular, repairable tablet
- Modular, repairable printer
- Enclosure for (old) displays with VESA-mounts
- New expansion cards
The italic suggestions would secondary for me.
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I am still, personally, looking for a touchscreen to succeed my Surface Pro 6. A 360 hinge would be nice to have as it would be a true successor to my currently un-upgradable, device.
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Well, the two biggest asks have been answered (AMD and Framework XL). Where do we go from here?
The logical next choice is the next most popular, which I don’t have as good a read on. Just from the posts I’ve seen in my time here, a touch screen module is a good contender. Not to mention the fact that the reason that my friends who need new laptops are looking elsewhere is touch.
Phone is an ask for some people, and given that there’s a collaboration with Google now, Android is a possibility. I worry about starting R&D for another new form factor (how are modules going to work here?) before there’s even revenue from the last one.
I also saw a printer higher up the thread, but I’m not sure how it could be gimmick-ified to be modular other than opening the the ink bay to be made compatible by the community with any cartridge possible. Given the state of the printer market, it would definitely be industry-disrupting.
On the subject of accessories, a bit more mundane is the computer mouse. Could definitely be brought into line with laptops’ gimmick (make it expansion card sized and detach from a small dongle part of the card), or be scaled up to full size as just a sustainable mouse with its own modular ecosystem (scroll wheels, buttons, the sensor, an rp2040-enabled side button plate…).
More niche but high margin is the education market. If on-site tech support is able to stock screens for when a middle schooler inevitably steps on their school laptop, it’s significantly more cost efficient than comparable fleet alternatives. A lower spec, cheaper laptop, still modular but designed for cost efficiency and wholesale purchase? Again, there is the strain of a new R&D expense sheet, but with potential for even bigger payoff than the 16.
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It’s tough, I would have said an eGPU but the upgradable GPU laptop covers that… I don’t think tablets have a big enough market so phone I guess?
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Welp now that we have AMD, I’m gonna go the new category route and agree with Smartphone!
The foundation has been there for a while with Project Ara… Makes sense to go there next, phones haven’t exactly been repair friendly for a while…
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- I don’t see a framework phone happening unless they work with an established brand such as fairphone, either being their US distributor (they are only focused in Europe rn) or rebadging it for the US market.
- Side note it would be crazy if these two merged and became on big repairable tech company
- As someone has said, you made the two items everyone has been asking for. The 17 and 18-inch markets are extremely niche and only really used for gaming. For mobile os tablets, Apple has that market on lock, so that may not work either.
- What would make more sense would work your way into the mid-tier laptops, a better-priced Chromebook, an all-in-one computer, and possibly a 2-in-1 tablet computer.
- The mid-tier laptop market point is self-explanatory, and Be_Far made some good points on this above
- The current Chromebook is way too expensive for what a Chromebook should be priced at and their main demographic. Lower the price to be more competitive and to be an actual value because, at the end of the day, it’s a Chromebook.
- A repairable all-in-one computer would be great (unrealistic but would still be cool to see). The most “upgradable” version, I think, is the HP all-in-one in which you can upgrade the memory and storage.
- Finally, a digital artist-focused 2-in-1 laptop. Something to rival the surface pro and xps 13 2-in-1 tablet.
- Other than this, I don’t know what else can be made for your main product lineup. Maybe a high-refresh screen for people who want it, especially with the AMD and 16" variants.