Share
Dimapur, Feb. 25 (EMN): As the discourse for the right to repair rages on the internet, one San Francisco-based startup called Framework has decided to give the consumers what they want: a modular, upgradeable and repairable laptop.
These days electronics, in general, are becoming hard to repair as consumer technology companies create products that are designed to prevent their users from repairing their devices on their own or with a 3rd party repair service.
In response to these issues, Framework aims to give consumers the freedom to upgrade, customize and repair with their new "Framework Laptop, a thin, lightweight, high-performance 13.5-inch notebook that can be upgraded, customized, and repaired in ways that no other notebook can."
In a blog post, Framework founder Nirav Patel wrote, "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."
The Framework laptop comes with a 3:2 aspect ratio screen that has a resolution of 2,256 x 1,504 pixels with magnetic bezels making it easy to replace. It also has a 1080p 60fps webcam, hardware privacy switches, 55Wh battery and a keyboard with 1.5mm key travel. As for the processor, the laptop a quadcore 11th Gen Intel Core Processor, WiFi 6, up to 64GB of DDR4 memory and a Gen4 NVMe storage expandable to 2TB or more. All of these are housed neatly inside a precision-formed and milled aluminium chassis, coming in at 15.85mm thick and 1.3 kg.
The Framework laptop provides its users with the ability to customise their laptop in any way they can. This means users can replace all the external components including the keyboard, bezels, screen and ports. On the inside, users can swap or replace the memory, battery, WiFi adapters, storage and the entire motherboard (in case users want to upgrade their ).
The Framework laptop's expansion card system does away with adapters, letting its users choose the type of ports they want and the position where they want their ports to be in. The laptop comes with four bays where users can select from USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, MicroSD, ultra-fast storage, a high-end headphone amp, and more.
Patel says that the company is focused on improving sustainability across the life of its products. Most consumer electronics devices are disposable one-offs by design.
"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," Patel added.
In addition to releasing new upgrades regularly, the company is opening up the ecosystem to enable a community of partners to build and sell compatible modules through the Framework Marketplace, said Patel.
Although the company has not officially revealed the price of the device, it is expected to ship in the summer of 2021.
