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The Framework Laptop

frame.work

191–200 of 1001 posts

Re: The Framework Laptop

#191
Looks like it's still tapering off towards the edge.

Feel like they might've been able to fit slightly more space for port swapping if they had gone for the uniform aluminum slab design of the Chromebook Pixel, which, to me, is still beautiful:

https://regmedia.co.uk/2013/03/02/google_pixel_chromebook_he...

Re: The Framework Laptop

#192

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 c…

They've got the street cred but producing and marketing hardware is so damn hard. Ouya and the Essential phone are two cases that immediately spring to mind where the founding teams were credible, but the products ended up being massive flops. Good luck to them anyway. The idea is cool and I think if I were on the lookout for a Linux laptop and they delivered on their quality promise, I'd consider them.

I think the problem here is you have two complicated things to solve, both hardware and software and you're trying to do it with out too much money.

A small hardware project on its own might be doable.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#193

This looks really cool. I'm especially loving the weight. I really dislike a lot of recent laptops for their fragility and lack of upgrade capacity, so currently I'm using a T440P which comes in around 2.26kg - so if this is 1.3kg that's nearly a kilo of weight savings. The replaceable battery is great, the weight is great, the design is pretty good, and the keyboard seems fine - 1.5mm of key travel is usable. (The T…

I too love my Thinkpad(s), but pitting this thing against such high standards is asking a lot.

Sure it'd be nice, but I'm not going to hold it against them if their laptop can't survive a fire/spill/drop.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#194

Hmmm nice idea but they left some obvious gaps.. With custom port selection, there should be more port options, like ethernet. The chassis is thick enough to support one of those collapsible sockets at the very least.

We have a few more Expansion Cards currently in development and a very long list of cards in early exploration. The ones we've announced so far are the ones we plan to have available at launch: USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, MicroSD, and 250GB and 1TB storage.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#195
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're just USB-C dongles that snap into the chassis.. You can see better shots here: https://frame.work This is an unpopular opinion, but I think this proves that Apple was right to dump legacy ports. This solution is sort of clever but it sacrifices a ton of internal space that could have been spent on a bigger battery. USB-C, and the correct cables, are all anyone needs. (the Nespresso analogy is ridiculous, a la…

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#197
post #113
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the trackpad? Does it support Windows Precision? What material is it made out of? How does it compare to an Apple trackpad?

It's a Windows Precision Touchpad with a matte glass surface, and it feels pretty good!

There doesn’t seem to be much space left for a large battery. Do you have any estimates on capacity?

Re: The Framework Laptop

#198

Neat - I wonder how it’ll turn out. It’s weird how little there is in the laptop space that’s actually good. Macs, Thinkpads, maybe Dell XPS? Everything else sucks. It’d be cool to have another high quality option.

Thinkpads are far from being uniformly good, some models flat out suck. Macs aren't immune to lemons either - see all the issues with their keyboards after 2016, or the failing GPUs in some MBPs. Some XPSes are good, but many models had horrible coil whine as well. The LG gram was fine, if light and portable was what you're looking for. The HP Envy line has been pretty decent recently. Back in school I've had an Asus…

Yeah I’m with you that even in the categories I mentioned there are problems.

System76 comes up a lot, but to be blunt they seem awful.

Bad resolution displays, generally terrible build, bezels, etc.

I think there’s a market for a really good non Mac laptop with Mac quality hardware design.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#199
post #153

Hi, When I saw this announcement I was hoping that I could finally buy a laptop with a good trackpad, with buttons, and a good keyboard again. But looking at the announcement, it seems like trackpad and keyboard quality are far from anyone's mind, and it just looks like the laptop is copying Apple stylistically like everyone else, which means it is going to be kind-of unusable and I won't want to use it. (Especially…

not intending to start an apple-vs-msft flamewar, but this has been a solved problem on the mac since forever. is the experience that bad on windows laptops that you don't want a big trackpad? genuine question.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#200

This would be perfect think to spin off your own machines. Imagine downloading a Kicad files for motherboard, adding your own stuff, sending off to JLCPCB or similar for assembly and then stuffing into the laptop shell.

That's the goal! We will actually be publishing KiCad and OpenSCAD-based reference designs for the Expansion Cards for folks to be able to make their own. The mainboard is a bit more challenging, but we do want to enable an ecosystem around that as well.
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