Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't have any plans we can share yet, but we did design the display to be easy to replace by putting it behind a magnet-attach bezel and using fasteners to affix it the lid.
I’m curious about these responses. They kind of read like “Yes, but we don’t want to commit to anything right now.”
The Framework Laptop is now shipping
571–580 of 785 posts
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#572Framework Founder here! I am happy to answer any questions on the product.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#573This device is seriously the answer to all my laptop problems. I really like the form factor of the XPS 13, but now I'm stuck with the complete inability to upgrade RAM. In what universe is that normal? Then I accidentally nuked the USB-C ports on the left side when it got wet, and now I'm left with a single port for everything, including charging. What!? Why? I tore the entire thing apart and there's just no way to…
> In what universe is that normal? In a universe where you want high-performance energy efficient RAM. Premium ultracompact laptops have long moved to LPDDR which is both faster and consumes significantly less energy than regular modular DDR. And LPDDR does not come in DIMMs. And then you have Apple who are using custom package technology with custom RAM chips to cut down RAM power consumption to under one watt activ…
In the DDR5 timeframe, there is less of a power delta as well between DDR5 and LPDDR5.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#574Earlier quoted context omitted.
Up until relatively recently, a lot of laptops and even phones would put the connectors on separate PCBs connected by a ribbon, so that damaging those wouldn't mean a $500 motherboard replacement. I definitely remember ordering a replacement headphone socket board for an old MacBook and just putting it in myself, and I've done similar with, eg, the connector port board on a PS4 controller. But I guess this is one of…
If I am not mistaken the ports on recent Apple machines are on a separate, easily replaceable board.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#575I really like the replaceable USB-C ports. From my smartphone I know, these things wear-off when being used multiple times per day and being able to simply replace them is much more useful than it might look like at first sight.
As someone with zero problems finding the correct orientation (it's both tactile and visual) who is in the market for a new phone, makes me wonder if I should look for one with micro-USB again. Replacing that port sounds like hell, and I use devices at least 4 years so if C is prone to wearing I'd definitely have to.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is if it's a standard that everyone decides to support...
You can fit FAR more signals on the bottom of a chip and in a multi-layer PCB than you can on any socket you might think of. There is a practical limit to how small the pitch of the pins on a socket can be if it's going to be field-replaceable; at high pin counts, the length of the socket itself becomes a driving factor. As an example, even moving away from edge-connectors (which are just a non-starter for 800+ pins)…
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#577Earlier quoted context omitted.
RAM energy efficiency is extremely important because it is a significant part of the baseline power consumption. Power-hungry components like CPU and GPU can be run in the lowest power state most of the time, so it really comes down to RAM and the display. If you have a 60Wh battery and want to get 15 hours battery life, you need to get your idle power consumption under 4 watts. So even 0.5 watt in baseline RAM consu…
I recall underclocking the RAM on my video card a few years ago when in desktop mode. Reduced the heat in the PC case by several degrees.
VRAM consumes substantial power to deliver that performance. On many GPUs, VRAM chips are actively cooled. System RAM doesn’t even need passive heatsinks, uses too little electricity to care.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#578Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd make the trade off for more mm of thickness anyway. That's great, then you can buy this modular laptop or one of many laptops that still has user upgradeable ram. Turns out you don't have to make this compromise if you don't want to and people that do can also make their own choice!
Ah yes, the "free market" argument. Remind me of how that one went with the headphone jack. Seems I have less and less choices in that department these days, especially at the flagship tier - despite it objectively being a worse device for it with almost no positives except saving a little bit of cost for the manufacturer. I do not accept the arguments on it being necessary for water resistance or providing much savi…
> Seems I have less and less choices in that department these days, especially at the flagship tier
You're making a conscious decision about what sort of compromises you're willing to make with regards to your devices, just as everyone else is that buys electronic devices. There are plenty of phones with headphone jacks that have premium hardware specs. Sure, Apple doesn't have it. Samsung doesn't. But plenty of other manufacturers do, and people aren't buying them. Sony's top of the line smart phones have a headphone jack. LG's Vx0 line had headphone jacks and a fancy DAC built into them. ASUS's RoG phones have a headphone jack too. There's plenty of choice if it's actually that important to you. Buy those devices and hope that you can convince enough other people that the feature is as important to them as it is to you.
You don't need to shit on other people's choices nor assume that they aren't informed about the choices they make to want for the things that you do.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#579Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In what universe is that normal? In a universe where you want high-performance energy efficient RAM. Premium ultracompact laptops have long moved to LPDDR which is both faster and consumes significantly less energy than regular modular DDR. And LPDDR does not come in DIMMs. And then you have Apple who are using custom package technology with custom RAM chips to cut down RAM power consumption to under one watt activ…
> In a universe where you want high-performance energy efficient RAM [.....] You simply can’t have this with socketed RAM. You make it sound like a prerequisite. I'm pretty sure the reason LPDDR is Low Power is not due to (currently) being unavailable in socketed modules - that would seem to be a side-effect of the original target market (smart phones). They are just some BGA packages, I see no reason they couldn't b…
Edit: I guess to clarify, the plausibility challenge is that whether or not it is theoretically possible, the platform owner (Intel, AMD, etc) or the memory vendors (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) are unlikely to support the lark.
Re: The Framework Laptop is now shipping
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you please point us to some technical report or something where they document the energy saving of moving from dimm slots to soldered ram/ssd ?
I don't think you'll find any. The way I understand it, the savings come from the new LP variant of DDR chips and nobody ever bothered to put them on DIMMs. And even if the DIMM design (it's more than just a slot) doesn't make sense anymore, we could easily make a new "dumb" memory slot standard that would allow us to swap out the chips directly - like we have for CPUs.
You could, but it would take up a lot of space, given the higher pin count, and would most likely increase power consumption.