Would soldered RAM be antithetical to the framework model?

Framework Laptop 13
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Thought a little further on this and realized my use case would be even BETTER served by 8gb. So I swapped to the two sticks and will keep one in storage until I need it (in proper ‘configure to your needs’ fashion).

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I strongly oppose soldered RAM as well :exclamation:

So far I have had two cases of RAM failure in the past. One of the laptops affected has been a daily driver for my family since 2010 to this day. :slightly_smiling_face: If a RAM swap had not been (easily) feasible with that system, we would have been forced to dispose of it back in 2015 already.

Besides, repairability above all is frameworks’ unique selling point! The framework founder Nirav Patel said in several interviews that his or rather the company’s goal is to do something against the prevalent throw-away mentality in consumer electronics and reducing e-waste. This philosophy makes them stand out from their countless competitors that only pay lip service at best.

One of the main reasons for an overall shorter life span of electronic devices these days are soldered components making repair economically unreasonable or almost impossible. If framework were to introduce that into their products it would only cause them to lose their focus on their USP, “water down” their brand, and ultimately losing their target audience in the long run.

For those who want a product with soldered RAM so badly there is already a plethora of options in the market (most unfortunately :disappointed: ).

[…] Sure, it means the RAM is not replaceable separate from the mainboard, but we already accept this tradeoff for the CPU, and it’s not unreasonable to ask if memory is worth doing the same with.

I only accept this tradeoff for the CPU because a CPU failure is far less likely to occur. At least I have never come across any CPU issues in the past 25 years. RAM issues, however, are much more common.

Naturally I would like it better if the CPU was socketed.

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I have and use a MacBook Air and a Framework.

For the FrameWork, the main driver was to get the ability to choose the specific components I put in. The comparison was the Dell XPS 13, where I would not get to choose the ram.

For the MBA M1, obviously I have no choice. But the thing is that I am not entirely convinced that the secret to the speed and ability of this machine is down to the on die RAM.

In two years I am moving to Bolivia. So it remains to be seen which machine I take as my daily driver. But right now, I am leaning Frameworks with some extra parts like batteries, a RAM stick and a ssd.