I’ve been using a Framework laptop for a few months now. It’s every bit as svelte and compact as my previous MacBook Pro, but it’s designed to be fully upgradeable. In an age when everything in our devices seems to be glued, soldered, or packaged in place, I liked the idea of being able to take advantage of improvements in technology and component price reductions without having to throw away a bunch of perfectly good parts.
This week, Framework announced that they have produced a custom higher-resolution 13” display. I found myself thinking that I wished they had done so before I bought my machine, when I realized that I didn’t miss out because, if I want, I can just replace the display in my laptop with the newer one.
In truth, I probably won’t upgrade. It was just that moment of hearing about the better display and, by reflex, thinking of it as forbidden fruit since I’m not ready to replace my months-old machine. “I want it, but I can’t have it.” In the old ecosystem, such things would accumulate until I might — well before I really needed to — choose to replace it. Instead of feeling stuck with an old, obsolete machine, I feel that I have a nice platform on which to build improvements should I so desire.
—2p