When my current laptop from work runs it's course then I'll ask for one of these with a GPU. My current one I can change RAM and SSD. But later on I can't just get myself a GPU, DP connector, another USB-C instead of USB-A, LAN connector, memory card reader etc etc. I also think that if I already upgrade the RAM and SSD and then want to do the processor I shouldn't have to buy a whole new laptop. Options that allow you to bring your own RAM and M2 SSD are pretty few.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Asklemmy
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In my adult life, I have owned two laptops. Both were bought brand new, both were relatively high end machines that cost more than $1000 each, plus accessories and the maximum extended warranties they offered. Both lasted 8+ years in service. The second one (a 2014 Dell Inspiron) is still in service, though I need to upgrade the OS on it.
Both machines required warranty service fairly early in their lives(the Dell egregiously so; very long story very short, they sold me a lemon and after replacing practically everything in it at least once they eventually replaced the machine outright) and received repairs/upgrades around the 4 year mark. The Gateway got its fan cleaned and the RAM replaced/upgraded from 1 to 2 GB. It also required frequent adjustment to its display hinge. It was running okay if slow by the end of it; a Centrino Duo running Vista was kind of sluggish in 2014. The monitor died in a way I couldn't fix, and replacements were unobtainable, so that's what finally did it in. The Dell got a fan replaced, the battery replaced, and the HDD replaced/upgraded to a SATA SSD. It is still running its originally installed 16GB of DDR3 RAM. It's slightly sluggish running Windows, but feels very responsive running Linux. I intend to keep it in service until Linux Mint doesn't support it or something breaks that I can't fix.
On both machines, the I/O didn't age particularly gracefully. The Gateway only had a VGA connector well into the era of HDMI and DisplayPort, the Dell has USB 3.0 and no USB-C connectors, no Ethernet and a proprietary barrel jack charger.
Both machines showed scuffs and scratches by year 8 but the chassis held up and were/are still serviceable.
Given my history with laptops, I see a Framework as pretty much the same "investment" that my Gateway and Dell were. I would not anticipate upgrading the mainboard; I don't think they'll keep making mainboards compatible with the current issue chassis a decade from now, and the chassis will probably be ready for a replacement by then anyway. But, I anticipate replacing the battery, SSD and probably a fan or two at the 4 or 5 year mark, likely out of warranty, and it looks like Framework would be above average for that.
My next laptop is likely to be a Framework simply because they're one of the few companies that A. still exists and B. hasn't pissed me off yet.
Seems a little overpriced to me for a laptop when you can get a steam deck for 600 or a used thinkpad with very nice specs for 100-200$. This laptop has some neat features and if you have 1k to spend on a laptop I guess why go for it, but if you just want a device to do some basic computation work you can find more powerful laptops for much cheaper.
I got my 11th gen Framework a little over a year ago and love it. It's my daily driver. In that time my work has mostly been game dev on a legacy codebase, so I've exclusively been using Windows 10/11. I don't get many (any?) issues. I use an external GPU (Nvidia 2060OC) and that works great. I used to get freezes that I eventually traced to power saving in the Nvidia drivers, but that wasn't Framework specific.
I've replaced / upgraded the SSD multiple times. It's super quick and easy to do.
I got the "DIY" version, but it was mostly prebuilt. The LCD did develop a fault very quickly (within a week) a horizontal line across the display, but Framework shipped me a replacement screen pretty quickly, and swapping it was quick straightforward.
What I would say is that the screen does feel a bit flimsy vs other laptops.
Anyway, I'm a massive fan and am considering upgrading my mobo to a Ryzen one.
Oh, buy 4 USB C expansion cards plus extra ones. I got 2 USB C a USB A and an HDMI and to be honest, that was a mistake. Shipping (from Taiwan) makes it a costly to buy a couple more cards, so I wish I got 4 USB C plus the others.