spectrums_coherence

That is just plain not true. If you are a enthusiast and know where to look then you definitely can find better deal than framework, but getting a dell (or even better dell?) for half of the price is simple not true.

On Dell website https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-xps-14-laptop/spd/xps-da14260-laptop, a core ultra 7 358H with 32GB Ram and 1TB SDD is 2749$ with no touch screen and a 2K display and windows Home.

On framework website https://frame.work/products/laptop13pro-intel-ultra-3/configuration/new, the same processor, ram, storage, with 2.8k touch screen, plus windows pro cost 2299$

Framework is cheaper than dell if you don’t try to find deals or buy older models.

If you buy older models, then framework don’t need to replace ram, I can upgrade my laptop to kitted out ryzen AI 9 for only 849$, https://frame.work/products/mainboard-amd-ai300?v=FRANTE0009 with my existing 64GB of ram. I don’t think you can get any laptop close to that quality with this price.

oh Sorry, bad at reading comprehensions :(

Nope, not on intel core ultra 3 unfortunately (unless you have LPCAMM2 lying around, which is unlikely), that is the risky part I mentioned in the end.

If you have a desktop with internet connection, maybe a USB stick would suffice?

There is also USB tethering from a phone that could work.

I am not defending framework. They should try to do better (maybe windows is the bottleneck? not sure). Just offering solutions to people who might encounter this problem later.

You also likely don’t need to reinstall/resetup everything, which is absolutely painful.

I would like to offer a slightly different perspective: I believe framework is uniquely positioned to survive the ram apocalypse (at least respect to their scale).

In the sense that, framework user can keep purchasing and upgrading components, like battery, screen, speaker, hinge, expansion card, without needing to worry about ram prices, and framework can profit from these component without needing to subsidize ram prices.

That being said, as a smaller company, they certainly don’t have the same amount of bargaining power on ram as most big players, and the launch of LPCAM2 is a bit risky, since that pervents people from purchasing new ram/board/laptops given the current ram prices.

And I don’t see why that is a problem. If a company is doing good thing and sustaining itself, I don’t see why they will need to be the next dell, hp, or lenovo. That feels like the toxicity of “endless growth” in the capitalistic view of the world.

Not to mention in most of the place I go to, these are the most popular laptops only behind macbooks. In many situations, they are even more popular than macbooks.

To me the point of framework is that it can reliably endure amateur (aka me) repair.

I have repaired a fair amount of device in my life, companies without a focus on repair will have fragile cabel and components. And everytime I open it up, there would be a high chance of me breaking something, forcing me to use a broken device after that.

Repair and cleaning will need to happen every two or three years for most electronics, and that usually means I will live with a corky device for the next two years, then produce a bunch of ewastes consists of mostly perfectly functioning parts, with one failed critical component (most of the time, said component has not even failed, just significantly worn).