This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I haven't needed to buy a laptop since the company existed. If I did they'd be a strong contender
I have but I didn't consider them because retailers don't carry them and I'm not buying a laptop I've never tried typing on to make sure the keyboard isn't ass.
I own a 13" AMD version, the keyboard is very good.
I've heard all sorts of bad advice on various keyboards/hardware from other people. I don't trust anyone's judgement but my own when it comes to that.
I want one but I just got a refurbished thinkpad for like $350 and I'm trying to be a little more financially responsible than I was in the past. That being said I recently spent $2k on a 3D printer so maybe I'm not doing that well with the financial responsibility. I would love to get their 13 pro whenever it's in my budget.
Framework is great, but it's just so insanely expensive.
I was buying a new laptop about 2 years ago. A framework one cost more than twice the price of a regular ultrabook with comparable (but better) specs.
Sure, you pay more for a Framework, and you can upgrade it later instead of buying a new laptop. Makes sense, but even then - a Framework one is more expensive than 2 laptops with similar specs. It only gets cheaper on the third upgrade. Which for me may be 10 years away.
Personally I'm not thrilled about investing in a laptop that will pay off in a decade. Who knows what laptops will be like by that time. Hell, it's not unconceivable that devices like Framework will be outlawed. Or that Framework goes out of business.
It might make sense for people who upgrade often, but I don't. Or for people who don't, but are wealthy enough to pay the premium anyway. If anything, I feel like having a Framework would make me want to upgrade more often, which would be a waste of money.
Or that Framework goes out of business.
Even if they do, they use mostly off-the-shelf components, and the designs for the stuff that isn't are open-sourced. You can still repair them even if Framework doesn't exist.
Honestly if the average person can’t buy it at Best Buy or Target, they won’t. Most people don’t know about this stuff.
Wherever a random coworker or family member asks me which of two laptops to buy, it’s always between a couple of prebuilt machine at a big box retailer.
I love the idea of Framework myself, but I can’t afford to buy one.
Too niche for the average buyer, too expensive for the rest of us.
so it doesnt work
TLDR: Fuck "AI"
I was in the market for a 14'' work laptop and I so DESPERATELY wanted to buy a Framework but I couldn't thanks to a combination of all the AI bullshit driving up memory prices, Framework still being on the Series 1 Intel Ultra chips, and their global availability not quite being there (this bit is understandable for a relatively new company). I ended up buying a base 14'' MacBook Pro M5 even though I wanted to stay on Linux simply because it was the only thing with good perf, crazy good battery, and good build quality that was priced semi-reasonably even though it's on the opposite end of the repairability spectrum.
Even now a comparable Framework (Intel Ultra X7 358H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) costs ~$150 more than what I paid for my Mac, assuming I can even get it shipped to where I am, and the regional pricing/taxes doesn't push the price higher. Kinda crazy because it's on the more reasonable side of things if memory serves. Dell XPS costs even more.
I hope this memory crisis gets sorted because I never thought I'd see the day that Apple became the budget option. Maybe I'll sell my Mac and get a Framework then because as much as I love using the Mac, I still hate being at Apple's mercy if anything breaks or if I need an upgrade.
I can't afford that kind of money on a laptop!
I'm a Linux nerd FFS... I've never owned a new laptop in my life!
Almost nobody is willing to buy one
repairability enthusiasts have bought Framework laptops in the hundreds of thousands
Pick a lane there, XDA...
I don't buy notebooks. Only used older Thinkpads, particularly for coreboot/libreboot support.
They are expensive up front. I have one of the first 11th generation Intel ones. I bought a new CPU fan last year instead of getting a new laptop. One of my kids dropped it, and I'll need a new screen for it here soon.
Instead of buying 3 laptops, I bought 1 and repaired it. Super worth it.
Yes, pretend it's something wrong with the right idea (a repairable /upgradable device) and not the fact that America took a giant, wet trump all over the entire economy and a combo meal at mcdonalds is $16 with a small, non-refillabke drink and everything else is exponentially fucked from there.
Give us a reasonable pre-trump PC market, with this being a slight premium above that, do projections to normalize cost of ownership over say 10 years and it would grow. But we live here, so no.
My Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6th Gen is quite repairable thank you very much, and it was like 400 bucks, and it comes with an i7, 16gb of ram, and a 256gb ssd. It's only marketing that has people convinced they will fall behind unless they have the latest and greatest.
I'm increasingly comfortable being in n the almost nobody category. You should be too, after all almost nobody uses Lemmy.
Framework's whole thing is upgradable laptops. The increased cost is what you pay for the upgradable platform instead of buying a new laptop.
Repairability has already been proven multiple times by several OEMs like Lenovo.
Even if the repair process itself becomes tedious, the mark of a quality OEM is offering parts and schematics that allow repair shops to disgnose and fix broken machines.
Unlike Apple, which actively prohibits their vendors from selling any parts to anyone except Apple.
