This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Not readily available in Australia, I associate it with Linus (not torvalds), they're expensive, and god knows if Trump does weird export import stuff the moment it ships, and if it needs repair, nobody would be unsurprised if Trump made us pay to ship it back
Real talk. I fixed laptops for years. I'm not sure that I can justify the price with these.
A nucish box and portable monitor is cheaper.
I'm real interested in this as I'm currently shopping.
I bought a 13" years ago. I thought I would have upgraded the cpu/motherboard, battery, speakers, screen by now but I could never justify the cost for the benefit. So it is the same as the day I bought it. I have bought cheap laptops for kids schooling and had to replace one for what would have been a repairable fault on a Framework but there is a massive price difference and could not justify another Framework. It is a shame. Their stuff needs to be a lot cheaper but it is a chicken and egg with volume.
When they made a cheap "chromebook" class plastic school laptop for kids it ended up costing more than a vastly more powerful mac (even before Apple released their cheap models). The low volume manufacturing had heaps of problems reported on their forums. Its strictly for the fans sadly. People with lots of disposable income who buy one in every colour. I would have loved to buy a similar looking product at a mainstream price and with modern specs but it makes no sense with current cost of living pressures.
I was looking for a new laptop recently and considered framework, exactly because of repairability/upgradeability. They are just too expensive for what you get, buying used enterprise model is a lot more economical and powerful. I ended with thinkpad p1 gen 5 that was essentially new with 64 RAM, rtx 3080 ti laptop for ~$1100. And you can replace everything easily but the motherboard.
This is the real issue IMO, framework mainly appeals to the environmental crowd and economical crowd. Problem is buying used corporate workstations is way better for both these markets + it doesnt even seem like the motherboard upgrades are much cheaper than just buying a new used laptop. Maybe with terrible ssd prices the calculus changes, but you still need to upgrade ram on a new board anyway. Hardware just doesn't improve on the 2-4 year timescales to justify this anymore.
Well, supporting DHH doesn't really help their case either...
It really bothers me that this shit is never mentioned or gets drowned out whenever people talk about Framework laptops. We should absolutely name and shame anyone who donates to alt-right nutheads that sincerely believe in "White replacement" bs.
I haven't owned a laptop since smartphones and tablets took off. It's become a redundant form factor. Framework would be my go to choice if I ever did need one though.
I literally found out about these today. If the price isn't astronomical, and they have a model that suits my needs, I'll look into purchasing one
I've swapped the Main board and WiFi chip in a framework laptop. Swap the ports regularly. It can have a few quirks to get used to. It is wildly worthwhile to me now that Dell has decided nothing can be repaired anymore. Those who say they take care of their laptop likely do try and one should but it is survivorship bias imho. Accidents happen unintentionally that is why they are called accidents.
Spent over two decades repairing laptops... I'm unlikely to purchase anything but framework for years going forward. Now if we could just get the framework printer :P The upfront cost is high they are still a small manufacturer. The long term value is working out well for me.
Can anyone educate me on this? What happens if the company goes bust? Can I still swap the CPU and GPU on it, or am I entirely relying on parts made by Framework?
Actually other companies are making framework compatible parts now. There are third party ports and third party mainboards available now.
Their design is open source, you can make your own if you want to. I've 3d printed parts for my frame.work using their published specs.
It's an attractive option, but it has a pretty hard competition from the 7th gen Thinkpad T14.
And many people want high quality repairable laptops.
Mediocre and repairable hardware for premium prices is not for everyone. Most people probably want the most performance for the least amount of money without any regards or respect for money or the environment.
It probably doesn't help that they have been in some controversial drama either.
And let's not forget that Linus Sebastian from Linus Tech Tips is an investor as well. I don't want my money to go to that greedy turd who screwed over his own audience for money in pure greed, and when he became a rich turd he instantly became the very greedy person he used to hate on the WAN Show.
I know a lawyer who just ordered one.
He's got disposable income, he wants a decent windows based laptop for his work, he liked the repairability angle.
This isn't for just tech enthusiasts.
He's got disposable income
A key difference, especially of late.
I still have my 17" Satellite l300. Still runs briskly. On its third battery.
