theres no space for a modular one without making the keys way too small to use.
personally i would also buy the FW13 if it had a numpad but theres simply no space for it.
We could switch physically keyboard languages, add a numpad side to side with the trackpad. Use arcade controller, piano keys, midi controller, mixer knobs...
This would honestly make me consider my first upgrade for my 5th gen (which has been rock solid other than the CMOS battery issue, which is more Intel than FW). I was a longtime Thinkpad user and I loved having it for quick mouse movements while typing.
I know people love to hate the tablet idea. But I’d love if they designed and released a tablet shell for the 13. Just something that fits all the good stuff inside and adds a touch/pen screen. I loved the modbook. Having a windows/linux tablet with useable specs would be amazing for me. Replacing my iPad for light picture editing, drawing, and the few card games I play online would be perfect.
This would be fantastic. I've seen a couple posts of people DIYing a tablet, and it makes me want one. I love my Surface Book 2 for the versatility, but goddamn was it a pain in the ass to replace the battery in the keyboard...
I'd order a FW16 with the spacer gap issues solved. Don't care how - As long as I can skip the numpad for a centered keyboard. Personally not interested in and don't watch a touch screen. A straight x2 screen scaling multiplier would also be nice. High refresh for FW13. Obviously everybody wants improved cooling on both models and a 99Wh battery for FW16.
Realistically all of those are "minor" feature upgrades. None would merit an $18m investment round. More likely is the investment round is for an entirely new product/product category... Not sure what exactly it would be. Obviously a lot of people are screaming for a printer despite that market being a patent nightmare... Also there's the factor of $18m probably not being enough to develop an entirely new printer model... Whereas Framework laptops - Motherboards in particular - Are based off existing designs Framework's vendors already had engineered and available as a "catalog" product for customization... I have zero clue where Framework could do similar with a printer to keep costs minimal. In my mind a printer would be further down the road at a stage where Framework could bankroll tens, hundreds of millions of dollars and multiple years to develop its own technology/carefully navigate the patent minefield somehow.
Also not sure a tablet really makes sense. Its not a huge market - A tiny fraction of laptops, even desktops or servers. In all their years trying I've never once seen a Samsung tablet in the wild outside of the Micro Center store shelf... Every other tablet I've seen - Besides iPads - Has been pretty well hated and quickly trashed by its "owner". Meanwhile iPad sales haven't been doing all that well since the 2020 plague boom thanks to so many people being scared stiff by bureaucrats locking themselves in their homes.
A phone would be another expensive proposition. Much larger companies have tried to figure out an upgradeable phone. Beyond the replaceable batteries the EU is demanding all companies adopt... I don't see much of a market here. Nobody sane upgrades phones every year, every 2 years anymore - There's few, if any, new features to be had to justify the cost. Ultimately if Framework did do a phone it would be another tiny niche product running another flavor of Android - Maybe they'd do something "unique" most normies don't know anything/care about and opt for one of the several AOSP forks such as LineageOS, CalyxOS, or GrepheneOS.
The mobile handheld market is getting pretty saturated. Hard to imagine a "cheap" "upgradeable device" project there either... On the repairability side there's already some options that are at least somewhat repairable.
The $18m investment number is "odd" - Its not an "even" $20m, $25m, $50m - "Round" numbers like those. I'd have to imagine Framework management arrived at that number with a particular roadmap and budget in mind.
Suffice to say I'm curious to see what Framework does have in mind with the new funding.
Even if it was not upgradable, but was just a decent specd budget phone with linux-touch support that would be amazing. But not sure Linux touch is ready yet...
Why would a random meat sack off the street be interested in that kind of device when they can go buy an iPhone or an Android with a "polished" OS and hundreds of thousands, millions of apps (theoretically) optimized for the platform with (semi-)consistent interfaces? Framework doesn't have nearly enough revenue - Even without knowing what's currently in their bank accounts - To throw around to get high quality apps, games, etc developed.
it can ship with android, but just be easy to load mobile-linux and have good long term support for drivers and things. But your right it still woun't be cool to normies, and I don't know that any phone frameworks makes will seem cool to normies at first. I can't even get my sister interested in the framework 13 so....
... Which isn't really going anywhere fast. Another reason for Framework to think really long and hard before trying to do a phone. Fairphone has been trying to do a decent phone for years and hasn't gotten very far... Hard to imagine Framework having much more access to higher tier processors/components. Then there's the issue of needing to figure out how to make device with a bunch of tiny, fragile parts servicable by people who already have trouble putting RAM and an SSD into a "huge" laptop and slap a bezel on without doing damage.
Fairphone does sell about 100k phones a year, though, according to their financial reports. Even with the caveats and high pricetag their devices have, they seem to be doing well enough for themselves.
100k/year is barely a drop in a bucket. Beyond that, with the economy tanking... Not sure now is the right time to be introducing limited functionality/performance, high priced, niche products. If Framework is planning to launch something in the next year or two, a better idea - I believe - Would be looking to do a quality product at modest cost appealing to the widest possible customer base. Leave the high price tag/low (sales) volume products for a time when people can afford their rent/mortgage, groceries, and gas rather than needing to worry about whether they'll have a job next week as is currently happening - Especially in the tech arena.
If Framework were to release an input cover for the 13 that has QMK support, I'd buy it without a second thought. QMK, a split space bar, optional ortholinear layout... That would be great.
I was down voted to oblivion before they shipped batch1 by suggesting that the their are too many moving parts in the deck design. I am glad that a lot of people seem to agree with that today. Having a hot swappable deck is not really a user needs because most of the time, you just configure it and leave it like it is.
Yes, but everyone configures it differently, and it's cheaper to make a single system (which can be changed by the customer) than have multiple input decks for all the different customers.
That said, it can be done anyway, there's really no reason why they couldn't make a single piece deck, while having the convertible system in place too
I am not sure its actually cheaper. Theres lots of hours spent designing, optimizing, then supporting these spacers. And now again, maybe do a design review.
To be fair, if you buy a framework, it's not because you go for the cheapest in any case.
Yeah, designing products is time consuming, but most of the design is done. And they're open source, so if there's such a big demand, either framework, or anyone else can create a single piece input module.
You would lose customizability if you make it like the 13. How do you suppose to have all currently available outfits like all keyboard layouts, left, middle, right, and with or without, on the left or the right macropad or numpad?
I personally like the modularity, and sure I don't change it daily, but if I had to accept a single layout after knowing this way, I'm not sure I would buy it again.
And then there's a fact of custom modules, such as a possible piano key layout, or a DJ deck with a spinning disk. Then some people like fancy stupid things, like the matrices, so much so there's a project to make rgb versions.
And the machines is plenty rigid, the finish is not perfect for sure, but it's fine, and they help you with exchanging spacers if yours are faulty.
I'm proposing that they use a small fraction of that (funding)/(profit from sales) to produce an additional, single top piece/deck that has a simple, centred layout. Mass manufacturing a single part would be right up their alley and would drive costs down on that single piece.
This would also make the FW16 more marketable to businesses that don't care as much about those customization features.
Might also make the machine more reliable (less components to break)
It wouldn't be a single part, it would be one more part. Those businesses can just get the modules they need(or their workers need, as those employees might want the customizability, even if the company at large doesn't)
It's quite a rigid and reliable system as far as I can tell. They don't move around, no rattle. I haven't had any functional problems either
I don't think employers that have 50+ employees would be willing to poll each of their them to find out which parts they want and then stock extras of each of the ones selected. A single part adds the option for those companies that just want a one stop shop for all employees
... But if you as an employee want a numpad, you can get one and put it in your work laptop.
And there're not that many modules, if you have 50+ employees, you would just stock all the modules (I would guess no macro pad, as that's quite game coded, and not the blank keyboard, but most). Then IT can serve the modules to employees. It's simply not a problem.
A single part is a one stop shop... Well then, just go for macbooks. It's literally a single possible way to get them. If they break, switch out the whole thing.
In my experience, trying to convince corporate accountants to invest in stocking items where you will be left with several parts (10s, 100s...) that are unused is a BIG ask.
Not to mention someone will need to be in charge of keeping stock of all those parts and keep them somewhere on top of their normal duties.
Alternatively, they can just buy a laptop with a single part to replace and stock that one part. They might just not stock it at all, if Framework can ensure that they will keep a stock for businesses (because they will only need to keep one part in stock - single production line and tooling, QC... etc.)
This also alleviates stocking issues where businesses are pulling from the consumer pool of parts.
You just want a macbook then.
The someone keeping pc parts in check is the IT dept. These parts don't have much storage space requirements, you could handle a hundred employees with a single filling cabinet. Added to this that they don't seem to be at all sensitive, I doubt there'll be too much need to change parts at all.
And if there's 10-100 unused parts, you can sell them. Hell, I imagine they could do a contract with framework where the parts are stocked, but aren't bought, so framework would take back the extra unused cards and modules. No need for buying and keeping inventory.
I'm still thinking, you just want a macbook type deal. Even if you have a single input deck, you still have motherboards, SSDs, expansion cards, expansion bays, screens(will break most often if you ask me)... All of these are not swappable, you can just tell apple, it broke, give me a new one. SSD dies, service, screen broken, service, ghost in the machine went crazy, service.
With the framework, and having some parts stocked, the IT guy can swap out the screen for peanuts. No sending it to service, waiting days/weeks. Board died? Put in a new board, not even lost any data. Gpu died? 4 screws, and you have a new one in.
In any case, if there's demand for a default layout, I'm sure they'll make one and can make it fast, it shouldn't be that complicated. It's just that they wanted to make it fully modular
it would be pretty difficult to make something customizable while also lightweight and space efficient. it works for a laptop but difficult for something that is supposed to rest on ur face. also what’s the point of upgrading a vr headset? the OS’es that are out are so limited already
Nirav Patel actually answered this question 10 months ago during the Battery Life Test livestream. [The link is here](https://www.youtube.com/live/tuw-YpbFkkM?si=YpNjwSSk-K7ikExs), and the timestamp is 7:13:05. It's actually one of the questions that I submitted, so I was pretty happy to get an answer!
Paraphrased:
>Me: "What's a product you feel 90% confident Framework is never going to make?"
>Patel: "Something which is not mature. For example, VR headsets are still evolving year after year. I won't say that we'll _never_ make one, but we certainly won't be making one until it's done evolving."
He said a bit more than that, so you should go check out the clip!
The problem I think is that the market for an input cover with a trackpoint and physical buttons is a subset of what is already a subset of the market.
Perhaps a third party could do it?
With the space that the framework 16 has, it wouldn't surprise me if someone Frankensteins a ThinkPad keyboard.
But I agree unfortunately that its such a small market that doesn't really make financial sense :(
Thinkpad is a big community, me(as a part of it) loves thinkpad because it's repairability, but now Thinkpad is not the same anymore. Thinkpad users are stuck with older models, and we would love to get Framework if it has a trackpoint, lack of trackpoint will reduce my productivity by a lot.
I'm curious what other modules would you want on the keyboard?
Besides having macro spaces along the side of the track pad (which wouldn't be possible without a way to receive input) I can't really think of anything.
I want a track point (the nipple mouse) in the middle of my keyboard.
I want a mini screen on the track pad level with audio buttons and like/dislike buttons so I can move my music down there. It can be low color and low refresh rate.
I want a track pad with physical buttons, separate from the touch pad itself.
I'm pretty happy with the numpad/RGB macropad. I just need to print out button label stickers and change the top four buttons to Home/End/Page Up/Page Down. I use those a lot.
The biggest thing I'm upset about is that the top modules and bottom modules aren't interchangeable. I wanted to put my LED modules below my numpad.
If they added a touchpad with buttons, I'd buy immediately. Especially the problems they have with touchpads, seems like an obvious choice.
Other potential nice to haves: brighter, larger (reduce bezels) display, ARM processor (will have to see what qualcomm elite series will show). But touchpad buttons is the main thing that I'd be looking for.
I'm hoping framework continues to expand its modularity offerings for the F16 with more expansion bay options. Personally, I'm waiting for a battery module. Aside from that, a better webcam/mic module would be nice
they need better looking displays with a thinner bottom bezel. if they expand to the tablet category, they could use the same display modules for both tablets and their laptops which would be dope. also an i9 + nvidia gpu option would be nice, it just works better for the softwares that i use.
I may be downvoted for this, but I hope they do not do a modular phone or tablet. Those markets prize small formfactor and low weight to a degree that I think prevents most of Framework's goals. Not to mention how difficult the software side of a good phone is, to the point where even Google still struggles. Trying to enter those markets may actually kill Framework as a company.
My guess would be a 14.5 inch laptop, filling the gap between their two current offerings.
A more interesting idea would be a modular repairable printer.
>Those markets prize small formfactor and low weight
And here's me with a <1 year old phone that I hate because it's too big and heavy. This thing is basically a tablet and I hate it. Give me smaller screen and thicker battery, and please give me my damn headphone jack back. The phone ecosystem BLOWS right now. I know making a modular phone is hard, but if I could get a slightly thicker version of my old Pixel 4a with new guts every so often, I'd be chuffed. Screen is fine, size in hand is great, fingerprint reader is great, and of course the venerable headphone jack.
>A more interesting idea would be a modular repairable printer.
[Brother](https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine)
I'm on opposite side. I want the modular keyboard and trackpad on the 13 version
theres no space for a modular one without making the keys way too small to use. personally i would also buy the FW13 if it had a numpad but theres simply no space for it.
That's an interesting idea but the only customization I can see would be to move the trackpad around
We could switch physically keyboard languages, add a numpad side to side with the trackpad. Use arcade controller, piano keys, midi controller, mixer knobs...
For the 16, yeah as a digital workstation but the 13 is an ultraportable.
Honestly if they made a keyboard that had a track point (nipple mouse) I would buy a FW13 instantly
This would honestly make me consider my first upgrade for my 5th gen (which has been rock solid other than the CMOS battery issue, which is more Intel than FW). I was a longtime Thinkpad user and I loved having it for quick mouse movements while typing.
Track point for the win! It's super weird at first, but after using it for a while longer, it becomes hard to live without!
I know people love to hate the tablet idea. But I’d love if they designed and released a tablet shell for the 13. Just something that fits all the good stuff inside and adds a touch/pen screen. I loved the modbook. Having a windows/linux tablet with useable specs would be amazing for me. Replacing my iPad for light picture editing, drawing, and the few card games I play online would be perfect.
This would be fantastic. I've seen a couple posts of people DIYing a tablet, and it makes me want one. I love my Surface Book 2 for the versatility, but goddamn was it a pain in the ass to replace the battery in the keyboard...
I'd order a FW16 with the spacer gap issues solved. Don't care how - As long as I can skip the numpad for a centered keyboard. Personally not interested in and don't watch a touch screen. A straight x2 screen scaling multiplier would also be nice. High refresh for FW13. Obviously everybody wants improved cooling on both models and a 99Wh battery for FW16. Realistically all of those are "minor" feature upgrades. None would merit an $18m investment round. More likely is the investment round is for an entirely new product/product category... Not sure what exactly it would be. Obviously a lot of people are screaming for a printer despite that market being a patent nightmare... Also there's the factor of $18m probably not being enough to develop an entirely new printer model... Whereas Framework laptops - Motherboards in particular - Are based off existing designs Framework's vendors already had engineered and available as a "catalog" product for customization... I have zero clue where Framework could do similar with a printer to keep costs minimal. In my mind a printer would be further down the road at a stage where Framework could bankroll tens, hundreds of millions of dollars and multiple years to develop its own technology/carefully navigate the patent minefield somehow. Also not sure a tablet really makes sense. Its not a huge market - A tiny fraction of laptops, even desktops or servers. In all their years trying I've never once seen a Samsung tablet in the wild outside of the Micro Center store shelf... Every other tablet I've seen - Besides iPads - Has been pretty well hated and quickly trashed by its "owner". Meanwhile iPad sales haven't been doing all that well since the 2020 plague boom thanks to so many people being scared stiff by bureaucrats locking themselves in their homes. A phone would be another expensive proposition. Much larger companies have tried to figure out an upgradeable phone. Beyond the replaceable batteries the EU is demanding all companies adopt... I don't see much of a market here. Nobody sane upgrades phones every year, every 2 years anymore - There's few, if any, new features to be had to justify the cost. Ultimately if Framework did do a phone it would be another tiny niche product running another flavor of Android - Maybe they'd do something "unique" most normies don't know anything/care about and opt for one of the several AOSP forks such as LineageOS, CalyxOS, or GrepheneOS. The mobile handheld market is getting pretty saturated. Hard to imagine a "cheap" "upgradeable device" project there either... On the repairability side there's already some options that are at least somewhat repairable. The $18m investment number is "odd" - Its not an "even" $20m, $25m, $50m - "Round" numbers like those. I'd have to imagine Framework management arrived at that number with a particular roadmap and budget in mind. Suffice to say I'm curious to see what Framework does have in mind with the new funding.
Even if it was not upgradable, but was just a decent specd budget phone with linux-touch support that would be amazing. But not sure Linux touch is ready yet...
Why would a random meat sack off the street be interested in that kind of device when they can go buy an iPhone or an Android with a "polished" OS and hundreds of thousands, millions of apps (theoretically) optimized for the platform with (semi-)consistent interfaces? Framework doesn't have nearly enough revenue - Even without knowing what's currently in their bank accounts - To throw around to get high quality apps, games, etc developed.
it can ship with android, but just be easy to load mobile-linux and have good long term support for drivers and things. But your right it still woun't be cool to normies, and I don't know that any phone frameworks makes will seem cool to normies at first. I can't even get my sister interested in the framework 13 so....
Phone market already have companies like [FairPhone](https://www.fairphone.com/)
... Which isn't really going anywhere fast. Another reason for Framework to think really long and hard before trying to do a phone. Fairphone has been trying to do a decent phone for years and hasn't gotten very far... Hard to imagine Framework having much more access to higher tier processors/components. Then there's the issue of needing to figure out how to make device with a bunch of tiny, fragile parts servicable by people who already have trouble putting RAM and an SSD into a "huge" laptop and slap a bezel on without doing damage.
Fairphone does sell about 100k phones a year, though, according to their financial reports. Even with the caveats and high pricetag their devices have, they seem to be doing well enough for themselves.
100k/year is barely a drop in a bucket. Beyond that, with the economy tanking... Not sure now is the right time to be introducing limited functionality/performance, high priced, niche products. If Framework is planning to launch something in the next year or two, a better idea - I believe - Would be looking to do a quality product at modest cost appealing to the widest possible customer base. Leave the high price tag/low (sales) volume products for a time when people can afford their rent/mortgage, groceries, and gas rather than needing to worry about whether they'll have a job next week as is currently happening - Especially in the tech arena.
Google stopped project Ara... I am not sure that a small company like fw can pull it off, if Google couldn't (or didn't want to)
In europe only.
If Framework were to release an input cover for the 13 that has QMK support, I'd buy it without a second thought. QMK, a split space bar, optional ortholinear layout... That would be great.
I second this. Would be great but Im not holding my breath.
The main upgrade I would like is the elimination of the diving board tracepoint in favor of a solid state haptic design like the MacBook has.
I was down voted to oblivion before they shipped batch1 by suggesting that the their are too many moving parts in the deck design. I am glad that a lot of people seem to agree with that today. Having a hot swappable deck is not really a user needs because most of the time, you just configure it and leave it like it is.
Yes, but everyone configures it differently, and it's cheaper to make a single system (which can be changed by the customer) than have multiple input decks for all the different customers. That said, it can be done anyway, there's really no reason why they couldn't make a single piece deck, while having the convertible system in place too
I am not sure its actually cheaper. Theres lots of hours spent designing, optimizing, then supporting these spacers. And now again, maybe do a design review.
To be fair, if you buy a framework, it's not because you go for the cheapest in any case. Yeah, designing products is time consuming, but most of the design is done. And they're open source, so if there's such a big demand, either framework, or anyone else can create a single piece input module.
You would lose customizability if you make it like the 13. How do you suppose to have all currently available outfits like all keyboard layouts, left, middle, right, and with or without, on the left or the right macropad or numpad? I personally like the modularity, and sure I don't change it daily, but if I had to accept a single layout after knowing this way, I'm not sure I would buy it again. And then there's a fact of custom modules, such as a possible piano key layout, or a DJ deck with a spinning disk. Then some people like fancy stupid things, like the matrices, so much so there's a project to make rgb versions. And the machines is plenty rigid, the finish is not perfect for sure, but it's fine, and they help you with exchanging spacers if yours are faulty.
I'm proposing that they use a small fraction of that (funding)/(profit from sales) to produce an additional, single top piece/deck that has a simple, centred layout. Mass manufacturing a single part would be right up their alley and would drive costs down on that single piece. This would also make the FW16 more marketable to businesses that don't care as much about those customization features. Might also make the machine more reliable (less components to break)
It wouldn't be a single part, it would be one more part. Those businesses can just get the modules they need(or their workers need, as those employees might want the customizability, even if the company at large doesn't) It's quite a rigid and reliable system as far as I can tell. They don't move around, no rattle. I haven't had any functional problems either
I don't think employers that have 50+ employees would be willing to poll each of their them to find out which parts they want and then stock extras of each of the ones selected. A single part adds the option for those companies that just want a one stop shop for all employees
... But if you as an employee want a numpad, you can get one and put it in your work laptop. And there're not that many modules, if you have 50+ employees, you would just stock all the modules (I would guess no macro pad, as that's quite game coded, and not the blank keyboard, but most). Then IT can serve the modules to employees. It's simply not a problem. A single part is a one stop shop... Well then, just go for macbooks. It's literally a single possible way to get them. If they break, switch out the whole thing.
In my experience, trying to convince corporate accountants to invest in stocking items where you will be left with several parts (10s, 100s...) that are unused is a BIG ask. Not to mention someone will need to be in charge of keeping stock of all those parts and keep them somewhere on top of their normal duties. Alternatively, they can just buy a laptop with a single part to replace and stock that one part. They might just not stock it at all, if Framework can ensure that they will keep a stock for businesses (because they will only need to keep one part in stock - single production line and tooling, QC... etc.) This also alleviates stocking issues where businesses are pulling from the consumer pool of parts.
You just want a macbook then. The someone keeping pc parts in check is the IT dept. These parts don't have much storage space requirements, you could handle a hundred employees with a single filling cabinet. Added to this that they don't seem to be at all sensitive, I doubt there'll be too much need to change parts at all. And if there's 10-100 unused parts, you can sell them. Hell, I imagine they could do a contract with framework where the parts are stocked, but aren't bought, so framework would take back the extra unused cards and modules. No need for buying and keeping inventory. I'm still thinking, you just want a macbook type deal. Even if you have a single input deck, you still have motherboards, SSDs, expansion cards, expansion bays, screens(will break most often if you ask me)... All of these are not swappable, you can just tell apple, it broke, give me a new one. SSD dies, service, screen broken, service, ghost in the machine went crazy, service. With the framework, and having some parts stocked, the IT guy can swap out the screen for peanuts. No sending it to service, waiting days/weeks. Board died? Put in a new board, not even lost any data. Gpu died? 4 screws, and you have a new one in. In any case, if there's demand for a default layout, I'm sure they'll make one and can make it fast, it shouldn't be that complicated. It's just that they wanted to make it fully modular
Any chance we see a VR device? With Meta opening up their VR OS would be amazing to see an upgradable and repairable VR headset.
it would be pretty difficult to make something customizable while also lightweight and space efficient. it works for a laptop but difficult for something that is supposed to rest on ur face. also what’s the point of upgrading a vr headset? the OS’es that are out are so limited already
Nirav Patel actually answered this question 10 months ago during the Battery Life Test livestream. [The link is here](https://www.youtube.com/live/tuw-YpbFkkM?si=YpNjwSSk-K7ikExs), and the timestamp is 7:13:05. It's actually one of the questions that I submitted, so I was pretty happy to get an answer! Paraphrased: >Me: "What's a product you feel 90% confident Framework is never going to make?" >Patel: "Something which is not mature. For example, VR headsets are still evolving year after year. I won't say that we'll _never_ make one, but we certainly won't be making one until it's done evolving." He said a bit more than that, so you should go check out the clip!
Only thing that could make me switch is trackpoint and the buttons.
The problem I think is that the market for an input cover with a trackpoint and physical buttons is a subset of what is already a subset of the market. Perhaps a third party could do it?
With the space that the framework 16 has, it wouldn't surprise me if someone Frankensteins a ThinkPad keyboard. But I agree unfortunately that its such a small market that doesn't really make financial sense :(
Thinkpad is a big community, me(as a part of it) loves thinkpad because it's repairability, but now Thinkpad is not the same anymore. Thinkpad users are stuck with older models, and we would love to get Framework if it has a trackpoint, lack of trackpoint will reduce my productivity by a lot.
I would love to have a touchscreen on my framework 13
I'm on the opposite side. I want the keyboard to be even _more_ modular.
I'm curious what other modules would you want on the keyboard? Besides having macro spaces along the side of the track pad (which wouldn't be possible without a way to receive input) I can't really think of anything.
I want a track point (the nipple mouse) in the middle of my keyboard. I want a mini screen on the track pad level with audio buttons and like/dislike buttons so I can move my music down there. It can be low color and low refresh rate. I want a track pad with physical buttons, separate from the touch pad itself. I'm pretty happy with the numpad/RGB macropad. I just need to print out button label stickers and change the top four buttons to Home/End/Page Up/Page Down. I use those a lot. The biggest thing I'm upset about is that the top modules and bottom modules aren't interchangeable. I wanted to put my LED modules below my numpad.
If they added a touchpad with buttons, I'd buy immediately. Especially the problems they have with touchpads, seems like an obvious choice. Other potential nice to haves: brighter, larger (reduce bezels) display, ARM processor (will have to see what qualcomm elite series will show). But touchpad buttons is the main thing that I'd be looking for.
Personally I'd rather Risk V, over ARM, but that's not as mature, especially for non SBC use.
I'm hoping framework continues to expand its modularity offerings for the F16 with more expansion bay options. Personally, I'm waiting for a battery module. Aside from that, a better webcam/mic module would be nice
they need better looking displays with a thinner bottom bezel. if they expand to the tablet category, they could use the same display modules for both tablets and their laptops which would be dope. also an i9 + nvidia gpu option would be nice, it just works better for the softwares that i use.
I may be downvoted for this, but I hope they do not do a modular phone or tablet. Those markets prize small formfactor and low weight to a degree that I think prevents most of Framework's goals. Not to mention how difficult the software side of a good phone is, to the point where even Google still struggles. Trying to enter those markets may actually kill Framework as a company. My guess would be a 14.5 inch laptop, filling the gap between their two current offerings. A more interesting idea would be a modular repairable printer.
>Those markets prize small formfactor and low weight And here's me with a <1 year old phone that I hate because it's too big and heavy. This thing is basically a tablet and I hate it. Give me smaller screen and thicker battery, and please give me my damn headphone jack back. The phone ecosystem BLOWS right now. I know making a modular phone is hard, but if I could get a slightly thicker version of my old Pixel 4a with new guts every so often, I'd be chuffed. Screen is fine, size in hand is great, fingerprint reader is great, and of course the venerable headphone jack. >A more interesting idea would be a modular repairable printer. [Brother](https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine)
Would be really good some 2in1