This looks nice but the prices are insane. €2,787.00 for a good FL 16 build? You have to even pay extra from USB ports. I can buy more or less as good Slimbook for half that price. Is the serviceability really worth it if my laptop will last 5-10 years anyway? I mean I can buy another entire Slimbook in 5 years and not spend that much more. What’s the justification for that?
I think the idea is that at the point when you would upgrade you would just buy the new motherboard rather than a whole new laptop so the future prices will be cheaper for you but the price to initially get on board is kind of steep because of it. But this is also putting a lot of trust in that at the time you want to upgrade they’ll still be making compatible boards.
I had this perspective too when I made the decision to buy one in 2022. But recently what I learned is that their modern gen mainboards often cost between 2/3rds - 3/4ths of a full laptop with the exact same CPU from competitors.
With the amount I have spent on the initial purchase, and now an upgraded board, I would have easily been able to buy two laptops from some other company. I likely would have also ended up having a better display, a better battery than what was available in 2022, newer wifi, and so forth. So no, “upgradability” is not an actual benefit of Framework laptops in my experience.
That aside, I ultimately don’t regret my purchase because I did spill a beer on it last year and I was able to fix it for about $50 worth of parts. Framework’s value comes almost entirely from being able to repair it and eco-friendliness/sustainability.
FYI, their RAM and SSD prices are often almost double what you can find elsewhere – at least that’s the case in the US. Getting a DIY edition and buying these components separately will likely make the price a tiny bit easier to swallow. Still, spec wise alone it will never be a great value.
To add more to ridiculous is that the diy edition originally came from factory with the RAM installed (for testing and certification) but then they pay someone to remove it
This looks nice but the prices are insane. €2,787.00 for a good FL 16 build? You have to even pay extra from USB ports. I can buy more or less as good Slimbook for half that price. Is the serviceability really worth it if my laptop will last 5-10 years anyway? I mean I can buy another entire Slimbook in 5 years and not spend that much more. What’s the justification for that?
I think the idea is that at the point when you would upgrade you would just buy the new motherboard rather than a whole new laptop so the future prices will be cheaper for you but the price to initially get on board is kind of steep because of it. But this is also putting a lot of trust in that at the time you want to upgrade they’ll still be making compatible boards.
I had this perspective too when I made the decision to buy one in 2022. But recently what I learned is that their modern gen mainboards often cost between 2/3rds - 3/4ths of a full laptop with the exact same CPU from competitors.
With the amount I have spent on the initial purchase, and now an upgraded board, I would have easily been able to buy two laptops from some other company. I likely would have also ended up having a better display, a better battery than what was available in 2022, newer wifi, and so forth. So no, “upgradability” is not an actual benefit of Framework laptops in my experience.
That aside, I ultimately don’t regret my purchase because I did spill a beer on it last year and I was able to fix it for about $50 worth of parts. Framework’s value comes almost entirely from being able to repair it and eco-friendliness/sustainability.
It’s sad that eco friendliness comes at a premium
FYI, their RAM and SSD prices are often almost double what you can find elsewhere – at least that’s the case in the US. Getting a DIY edition and buying these components separately will likely make the price a tiny bit easier to swallow. Still, spec wise alone it will never be a great value.
To add more to ridiculous is that the diy edition originally came from factory with the RAM installed (for testing and certification) but then they pay someone to remove it
Well to be fair this is a required step so they can make sure they’re sending functional parts to customers