The Framework Laptop • Hacker News Board

Re: The Framework Laptop

#101

Post by gregmac » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

gillesjacobs wrote: post #58

Great initiative, but the proprietary expansion cards are entirely counter-productive to maintainability. The expansion cards will only be available for as long as your company provides them. Using the most-commonly used, mass-manufactured standard interfaces for components would provide more long-term repairability and upgradeability. The trade-off would be in design resulting in more bulk and in the economics of yo…

In the worst case (they change the interface spec and no one else produces old modules, or the company folds entirely) it's not any less maintainable than any other laptop on the market today. I think most laptops still allow storage and battery upgrades/replacement; RAM is questionable (some being soldered on the motherboard); and anything else basically means replacing the whole device.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#102

Post by rrss » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

ampdepolymerase wrote: post #79

So a ThinkPad in Mac shell? Is the framework flexible enough to switch an Intel processor for AMD Ryzen without having to replace the entire motherboard?

No. You can't even do that in a desktop. AMD and Intel CPUs don't use the same socket or pinout.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#103

Post by samizdis » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

Ars Technica has a sceptical but optimistic/hopeful take on it:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/framework-startup-de...

Edit to add quote from Ars article:

Framework is promising an awful lot in its very first product—"thin as an XPS 13, repairable as a custom-built gaming PC" is a pretty tall order to live up to. We very much want to believe, but it's going to take a full Ars Technica teardown before we're completely convinced.

Although we're skeptical, we are hopeful—the fledgling company does have a pretty solid pedigree. Framework founder Nirav Patel was Oculus VR's head of hardware from 2012 to 2017, and he was a Facebook director of engineering beyond that. The company's team also includes design, engineering, and operations people hailing from Apple, Google, and Lenovo.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#104

Post by intrasight » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

This will only be "real" if an when there's an ecosystem of clones as happened with the original IBM PC. But it's definitely about time that we had such standards for laptops.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#105

Post by david927 » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

Thank you so much for doing this. It's really needed.

I once had an HP Envy laptop which was so poorly made that I refuse to buy anything from HP again.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#106

Post by skadamat » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

This is super cool! Any plans to release a trackpad with the classic 2 physical buttons?

Re: The Framework Laptop

#107

Post by stephen » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

I know trackpads won, but would love a trackpoint. I keep buying Thinkpads solely for that feature.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#108

Post by hamburglar » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

The page about smart TVs makes me wonder if anyone has reverse-engineered the interface between a Samsung Frame TV’s main controller box and the panel that goes on the wall (it’s a remarkably thin cable that carries both the signal and power and can easily be fished through the wall). I absolutely love the panel itself with its wonderful display characteristics, but the software that drives everything from the main controller box is such trash that I’ll probably never buy one again). I’d happily buy a 3rd party box that would drive that display panel and be free of the buggy, spying, shitty UX that Samsung provides.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#109

Post by tromp » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

What led framework to choose Intel CPUs over AMD ones? Did it simplify the design of the system?

Re: The Framework Laptop

#110

Post by conqrr » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

nrp wrote: post #57

nightowl_games wrote: post #34

Honestly this is exactly what I want (quality, repairable, upgradable), but I'm not all in yet. I feel like this space is extremely hard to break into, and I'm worried about their ability to pull it off. Is there massive capital in this corp? Will the price be really high? I'd pay a premium for this kind of thing, but if they start crowd funding it's gonna seem like a red flag.

We have the funding we need to bring the product to market (an odd downstream benefit of Oculus getting bought by Facebook), but we will be taking pre-orders with a deposit prior to shipping to make sure our SKU mix and production rates are matched to actual demand. We won't be asking consumers to pay a premium for longevity, but it's nice to hear that you'd be willing to!

Will it be cheaper than a mac? If yes, you have my money as I can see it being used for the next 20 years (with upgrades).