Framework Unveils Upgradeable, Customizable, Repairable 13.5" Productivity Laptop

[Uskompuf]

At Framework, we believe the time has come for consumer electronics products that are designed to last. Founded in San Francisco in 2019, our mission is to empower you with great products you can easily customize, upgrade, and repair, increasing longevity and reducing e-waste in the process. Today, we are excited to unveil our first product: the Framework Laptop, a thin, lightweight, high-performance 13.5" productivity notebook that can be upgraded, customized, and repaired in ways that no other notebook can. We're here to prove that designing products to last doesn't require sacrificing performance, quality, or style.





The Framework Laptop meets or beats the best of what's in the category:

• Crafted with a precision formed and milled aluminium housing, coming in at 15.85 mm thick and 1.3 kg.
• Designed for the future of work with a 13.5" 3:2 screen with 2256x1504 resolution, a fantastic 1080p 60 FPS webcam (finally!) with hardware privacy switches, a high cycle-life 55 Wh battery, and a great feeling keyboard with 1.5 mm key travel.
• Delivering excellent performance with 11th Gen Intel Core Processors configurable with Wi-Fi 6E, up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, and 4 TB or more of Gen4 NVMe storage.

On top of that, the Framework Laptop offers unparalleled options to upgrade, customize and repair:

• Our Expansion Card system makes adapters a thing of the past, letting you choose exactly the ports you want and which side of the notebook you want them on. With four bays, you can select from USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, MicroSD, ultra-fast storage, a high-end headphone amp, and more.
• Along with socketed storage, Wi-Fi, and two slots of memory, the entire mainboard can be swapped to boost performance as we launch updated versions with new CPU generations.
• High-use parts like the battery, screen, keyboard, and color-customizable magnetic-attach bezel are easy to replace, with spares available directly through our web store.
• In addition to releasing new upgrades regularly, we're opening up the ecosystem to enable a community of partners to build and sell compatible modules through the Framework Marketplace.

Most consumer electronics devices are disposable one-offs by design. The single best way to reduce the environmental impact of electronics is to make them last longer. In addition to enabling longevity, we're focused on improving sustainability across the life of our products. The Framework Laptop is made of 50% post-consumer recycled (PCR) aluminium and an average of 30% PCR plastic. Our packaging is fully recyclable with no single-use plastics, and all of our product shipments are carbon offset.

The Framework Laptop is available in a range of pre-configured models running Windows 10 Home or Pro. For those of you who love to tinker, we've also created the Framework Laptop DIY Edition, the only high-end notebook available as a kit of modules that you can customize and assemble yourself, with the ability to choose Windows or install your preferred Linux distribution. Regardless of the path you take, we include a screwdriver in the box so you can upgrade over time.

We're looking forward to sharing more and will announce our full line-up with specs, pricing, pre-order timing, and a summer 2021 ship date over the next weeks.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Post Nut Clairvoyance]

this is :somewhat: interesting in a stale laptop market I guess :shrug:
all those adapters looks just like regular usb-C accessory without thunderbolt even!
doesn't look like it will have a spare m.2 pcie slot either.
I suppose they have the "module" for storage that runs on USB bus. If you want to use internal m.2 for pcie adapter, windows doesn't install on usb bus -__-? for someone like me who likes to mess around with these, it is probably just something that can be fixed/mess about with while doing less work than other laptops with their bios blacklisting, weird pcie configuration, glued components. but unless priced not too far from others in this performance class, I'd rather something with 2 pcie m.2 slots.

it would also be heavenly if they could change one of the docking slot to m.2. so without cracking open the laptop a whole world of pcie devices is open to this device.

my prediction is this laptop will be priced more than a reasonable amount. if i buy this, it will be because the price is not stupid, and because it has pretty innerds, as a modular laptop... well, as modular as a modern laptop can be (cpu soldered like everything after haswell)

what the hell is with the 3:2 screen...

 

[SerPiolo]

Jesus, god you guys and guru3d went to shit, stop posting bullshit news, I made this account just to say that IT news sites, like whores went to shit, I mean is it news that a laptop should be repairable and upgradeable, well say hello to all laptops before apple bullshit, "thinkpad" ring a bell? or HP or Dell for that matter? stop posting bullshit news,
PS: who the fuck cares about some god damn "arctic cooling" coolers? again stop posting bullshit news
But you cant, cause these are not IT news, these are "promoted and paid posts"...
jesus "press release" you mean "they paid us to promote this"?

what's wrong with you?

 

[Caring1]

"we believe the time has come for consumer electronics products that are designed to last"
Last how exactly, you mean by constantly replacing parts?
How about building in durability so they won't need to be repaired.

 

[TheLostSwede]

this is :somewhat: interesting in a stale laptop market I guess :shrug:
all those adapters looks just like regular usb-C accessory without thunderbolt even!
doesn't look like it will have a spare m.2 pcie slot either.
I suppose they have the "module" for storage that runs on USB bus. If you want to use internal m.2 for pcie adapter, windows doesn't install on usb bus -__-? for someone like me who likes to mess around with these, it is probably just something that can be fixed/mess about with while doing less work than other laptops with their bios blacklisting, weird pcie configuration, glued components. but unless priced not too far from others in this performance class, I'd rather something with 2 pcie m.2 slots.

it would also be heavenly if they could change one of the docking slot to m.2. so without cracking open the laptop a whole world of pcie devices is open to this device.

my prediction is this laptop will be priced more than a reasonable amount. if i buy this, it will be because the price is not stupid, and because it has pretty innerds, as a modular laptop... well, as modular as a modern laptop can be (cpu soldered like everything after haswell)

what the hell is with the 3:2 screen...

I think you need to read the specs again. The notebook has USB4, which supports PCIe. It's technically Thunderbolt with a new name and logo.

USB4 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The fact that all their accessories don't support it yet, isn't so strange, as it's a brand new standard.

3:2 screens are very popular with people who do coding, Microsoft has it one of their notebook thingies and Acer has a few models with 3:2 screens. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I know of the top of my head.

Seems like there's a long thread here with people from the company discussing things.

The Framework Laptop | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

"we believe the time has come for consumer electronics products that are designed to last"
Last how exactly, you mean by constantly replacing parts?
How about building in durability so they won't need to be repaired.

Here you go.

 

[Wirko]

They could as well name their company Elppa.

 

[TheLostSwede]

They could as well name their company Elppa.

Because it's a machined aluminum wedge? Like every other thin and light notebook in the market?

 

[Wirko]

Because it's a machined aluminum wedge? Like every other thin and light notebook in the market?

Because their design philosophy is like Apple's but inverted.

 

[mouacyk]

All those MicroSD options are necessary? For da profits?
Entire mainboard needs to be swapped for new CPU. Not very customizable.

 

[Wirko]

Entire mainboard needs to be swapped for new CPU. Not very customizable.

The other options at the moment would be Intel LGA 1200 or AMD AM4. Would you like those better?
Well, yes, it is unfortunate that socketed mobile CPUs don't exist but Framework can't do much about that. If they succeed and gain popularity with their concept then maybe we're going to see larger and thicker "desktop replacement" laptops with ~35W desktop CPUs later.

 

[Post Nut Clairvoyance]

I think you need to read the specs again. The notebook has USB4, which supports PCIe. It's technically Thunderbolt with a new name and logo.

USB4 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The fact that all their accessories don't support it yet, isn't so strange, as it's a brand new standard.

3:2 screens are very popular with people who do coding, Microsoft has it one of their notebook thingies and Acer has a few models with 3:2 screens. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I know of the top of my head.

Seems like there's a long thread here with people from the company discussing things.

The Framework Laptop | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

Here you go.

thank you! can't believe i skimped over usb4... must be all the usb-if naming.
one question if you are willing to answer, can usb4 be thunderbolt-less or otherwise not have pcie endpoint? basically can manufacturers make usb4 shitty?

having usb4 on this thing certainly opens up a world of oppotunity, productivity wise with high bandwidth lan and all the other things attached to pcie.

im more used to 16:10, i suppose 3:2 is similar if not slightly less adapted to watching 16:9 youtube. but this machine is maybe not for people who plays games and watch video all day i suppose

 

[TheLostSwede]

thank you! can't believe i skimped over usb4... must be all the usb-if naming.
one question if you are willing to answer, can usb4 be thunderbolt-less or otherwise not have pcie endpoint? basically can manufacturers make usb4 shitty?

having usb4 on this thing certainly opens up a world of oppotunity, productivity wise with high bandwidth lan and all the other things attached to pcie.

im more used to 16:10, i suppose 3:2 is similar if not slightly less adapted to watching 16:9 youtube. but this machine is maybe not for people who plays games and watch video all day i suppose

My understanding of it, is that it's always TB3, but not always TB4, if that makes sense.
USB4 is based on TB3, with more USB bits, but Intel has also made TB4, because they could.
TB4 on the other hand, always supports USB4.
All three use the same connector though, i.e. USB-C.

No, I think they have a specific market in mind for their first product, at least based on what I see from the spec.
Obviously everyone has their own preference when it comes to screens, many of us started out using 4:3 or 5:4 CRT screens so...
16:9 is really only a thing because it's the most efficient way to get as many panels out of the large sheets of glass that they start with, as they come in specific sizes from the glass manufacturers.
3:2 is the same aspect ratio as that of 35mm still film, which I guess some people as you get added height, which is handy when you are a programmer, since you can see more of your code without scrolling.
We all have different preferences when it comes to screen sizes, aspect ratio and resolution and the market seems to have finally understood that and is now offering more options than I think we've ever had, if we're talking computer displays, even though 16:9 is by far the most common aspect ratio.