The Framework Laptop and Right to Repair vs. Luxury

Aodhan_Gorman

Now that Framework has released its Intel 12th generation motherboard, is anyone considering purchasing or upgrading a Framework laptop? If so, why have you been convinced to invest in such a product and company? Also, would it be something people are interested in seeing carried at Micro Center?

Personally, I've always favored the premium space for laptops (Apple, ASUS Zenbook, Dell XPS, Microsoft Surface, etc.) so I'm okay paying more for quality or features that may be considered luxuries for the more frugal consumer. From what I've seen so far, the current Framework Laptop isn't all the way to the build quality or price to performance ratio of other laptops around its price, so that "Luxury" tax has to be the repairability. I'm all game for right to repair and I think it's important for this industry to move towards that, but my 2014 Macbook Pro is still a solid daily driver. If I were to price it out, I've only spent about $310 a year on it and for about 4 years it was still really powerful and had an amazing display (I'd even say the screen still looks better than a lot of laptops today). If Framework was around in 2014, I'd probably be looking at spending the same amount for less performance and replacing the motherboard in only 4 years instead of the entire laptop in over 8 years like my Macbook Pro. Being able to reuse the motherboard is a nice touch but that still means getting new RAM, SSD, Wireless card and some sort of case, which at that point along with the upgraded motherboard, nearly equate to a new laptop anyway. Because of this I feel like I'd need the Framework to be closer to a non-premium laptop price, but then be upgradable to have the more premium features for me to warrant buying one. I do hope they become successful enough to work on their profit margins because that will probably help with the long-term pricing that I'm most worried about.

I was really just interested in what other people thought on this comparison or if they had their own ideas on why they may or may not be interested in buying a laptop like the Framework.

Ian

The idea of the Framework laptop is interesting to me, a brand offering an easy to upgrade laptop may force other "major" brands to adapt or offer similar laptops in the future which would be cool to see.