Hands-On with Framework s Fully Modular Laptop

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hey everyone it's norm from tested and got  a question for you when's the last time you   upgraded your laptop your notebook and i don't  mean go out and buy a new computer to replace the   one you currently have but actually open up that  system and swap out the ram or upgrade the storage   or replace the battery or repair any of the  components well chances are if you have a macbook   or even a modern day ultrabook on the pc side you  haven't been able to actually swap out that parts   and that's by design a lot of the modern day  computer manufacturers solder on the components   directly onto the main board or motherboard for  kind of proprietary purposes so they can keep the   design as compact as possible but also to lock you  into their system so you have to go to them for   repairs or buy a new system from them when you do  need to upgrade and that's that's not how laptops   used to work way back in the 90s and the  early yachts you know we had computers where   swapping out components or even upgrading things  like ram was pretty basic part of that experience   and that's what a company called framework is  trying to bring back they have a new laptop that's   available for pre-order today where they've  designed not only the components internal   components to be completely upgradable and swap  outable but also the ports as well your usb a c   your hdmi out ports and even the motherboard  itself the idea is down the line where an intel   might release new chipset or new cpu you don't  instead of having to buy a completely new computer   you can actually just buy a main board with a cpu  from them and put that into your laptop chassis   kind of the way you would if you built your own  desktop pc well i had a chance to visit frameworks   offices and check out the latest prototypes of  their system and chat with their ceo narav patel   about how they've designed this laptop not only to  be repairable and modular and upgradeable but also   be competitive design wise and cost wise with  today's latest laptops let's take a listen   looking at consumer electronics as a whole pcs are  almost the only place where you still do retain a   level of modularity and ownership and ability  to tinker with your product and that really to   a large extent is what inspired us to get into  the notebook space and kind of hit the reset   button and return to that you know just watching  this trend over the last couple of decades of   consumer electronics products getting increasingly  locked down and glued together and soldered down   and you know designed in a way that consumers  can't upgrade and repair them easily and so this   everything you see here is really just a reaction  of that of like let's really think about how we   can build a product that is a great product that  still retains those useful properties to the end   user and i imagine that's no simple engineering  or design challenge so let's talk about the form   factor right because i assume it all starts with  you guys choosing a a weight and a profile and of   a volume essentially of how much many components  you can pack in and how much custom custom   hardware you want to design yourself and your team  right that's right we do have a fantastic team and   that's how we've been able to accomplish this but  you know as you look at the product really the   goal from the outset was let's benchmark against  the other products that are in the market and make   sure that from a form factor and a materials and a  thickness and a weight perspective that it really   matches what's out there you know we don't want  to have a product that is great and modular and   upgradable and repairable but then comes in as  this you know bulky monstrosity we wanted it to   feel familiar to users and really feel like a  product that can fit into their existing lives   and workflows and the way they use pcs so you can  actually check this out i mean from a thickness   and weight perspective it really does look and  feel like a normal notebook and it's a standard   size of 13.5 inches i like the aspect  ratio you guys have gone with so it's not   that widescreen i do like this um and i can  see here this is basically the cavity you have   uh the anatomy of a laptop you know people don't  often these days take apart their laptops maybe   who will build up their pc so use that analogy  you have like a motherboard or a main board and   over time that's gotten really small like right  tablets these days it's like a strip of circuit   board you know this is the the main board that  you guys have designed that's right right yep   um and it's running off of uh intel 11th gen yeah  intel's latest tiger-like cpus so talk about the   design of this because i see the cpu there how  much of this had to be designed by your team   what are the considerations for making this fit  within the chassis here but also as something   that can potentially be upgradeable definitely um  so the goal here really was to make the main board   replaceable which is something that you can do  on a desktop pc it's not something that any other   notebook offers and we made that plausible really  by socketing as much of the value as we could so   ram storage wi-fi those are all socketed  as modules rather than being soldered down   and that means that the vast majority of the cost  and complexity of this main board is actually in   the cpu itself which means that by making you  know the ram and storage and wi-fi removable   we can actually offer this as an upgrade module  to consumers in a pretty cost effective manner   and we've designed this basically thinking  through you know not just how to make it work   around tiger like in this platform and this  generation that we have now but also designing   this main board in a way that we can carry this  form factor forward into future cpu generations   we've done that by basically really thinking  through the interconnect and the interfaces   and just the general size and shape of this thing  and the way it slots into the system and the fact   that it's socketed not started on you're having  those ports you're adding a little bit of height   those are your trade-offs in terms of you know it  not being a fixed part but it still fits into the   cavity here you mentioned interconnectivity  uh how does that work in terms of ports yeah   definitely and just on the you know on  the thickness of the machine you know we   had to probably add a fraction of a millimeter  of thickness but the actual machine as a whole   is still 15.85 millimeters thick which is actually  0.2 millimeters thicker than a 13-inch macbook pro   which you know it is like a totally  soldered down and glued together machine   and so yeah as you look at the the product one of  the most interesting uh choices that we made from   modularity standpoint was actually making all the  external ports uh user swappable expansion cards   and these are all hot swappable meaning that you  don't have to reboot the machine to be able to   slot them in and out they actually just slide  directly in and out and can be ejected directly   and the goal there was you know as we looked at  how people are actually using their pcs we can see   that everyone has a different set of peripherals  and cables and monitors and other things in their   lives but notebooks come in whatever configuration  the manufacturer decided was useful and so we saw   that as just this really low hanging way to use  modularity to make our product work better for   end users and so at order time people can actually  choose exactly the ports that they want to   their machine and then when they get it at their  doorstep and unbox it and put it together they can   slot in the ports that they want on whichever side  of the machine they want them on how it's actually   ported out on the motherboard because it's hot  swappable is that just usbc yeah it's actually   usbc and you know that is one of the nice things  that's come about in the last you know five years   especially is just the dominance of usbc over all  other physical interconnects and the ability to   route all these great protocols directly over  it so that usbc port there that's just like an   extension you know in this form factor so you have  it flush with the laptop that's right yeah this is   just a pass-through card via the usbc to usbc and  the a is you know just changing right exactly yeah   and we have a few other cards too like a micro sd  card um actually in this machine here we've got an   hdmi on one side i think i actually added another  hdmi to displayport which you have probably   a normal user would not ever have three  monitors plugged into the node right right   you can if you want um and we also have high  speed storage which means you can even install   your os on an external drive that slots right  in and be able to pop it out as you need to and   you said this is possible because the way i guess  the platforms are designed today that controller   controls data video it's all through the system  exactly and then and you can also all have it   with a usbc endpoint that then using that module  can be that's right yeah and that was actually one   of the great things about the tiger-like platform  and one of the reasons that we chose it is that   actually all four of these ports have identical  functionality which just means you don't have to   think through which card needs to go where you can  plug any of them into any of the four ports and   power it also go through that's right as we power  through any of the four ports as well through usbc   and so in terms of off the shelf components i see  ram storage you said wi-fi that's right as well as   decision not to integrate that the packaging  here is all custom um the way i understand   like traditional laptop makers you know they buy  they may design their own packages or they buy a   chipset package from like like intel but here it's  all that's right so oftentimes especially you know   historically actually ram was socketed uh on most  notebooks and it's really over the last you know   decade or five years that there's just been this  trend towards soldering it down which means that   as a consumer when you buy your machine you have  to think through for the next few years how much   ram am i ever going to need i better buy all of  it right now because i can't upgrade it whereas   by making it modular like it is on desktops you  can buy just the amount you need on day one and   if you ever need more you can just buy more and  slot it right in and a big part of the volume   of a laptop is of course the battery so i see this  battery here that's right is this custom design as   well yeah so that's custom actually everything  here except for these off-the-shelf modules is   a set of modules that we've custom developed  to fit into the framework laptop and what's   this capacity so that's a 55 watt hour which is  pretty typical for a 13 and a half inch notebook   and something that if they wanted to replace you  would unscrew it and that's right and that is   one of the modules we focus on making as easy to  replace as possible because we know that you know   performance upgrades really you know there may  be a subset of people who are interested in that   but literally everyone has had the experience of  a product with a worn out battery and just getting   frustrated by that so making it super simple to  be able to get a new battery slot it in and get   great battery life again was just incredibly  important for us is there any design decision   as to not have that be an external solvable  battery and then have extra housing on this   that that is something that we that we looked at  and thought through but to keep a really slim and   robust form factor we knew that we had to keep  it internal um you know that's something that you   know for other types of products i think there  are other trade-offs there but for a thin and   light portable notebook it really is important  to keep it thin and light enough that you can   keep it portable so this is just a normal  assembled framework laptop we've taken all   the expansion cards out of it and then this is  actually the screwdriver that we ship in box   and it has all the functionality needed to replace  any module in system so just a torx screwdriver   on one side phillips on the other side and then  a spudger on the back of it to be able to lift   any small cables or connectors and then we can  unscrew the five fasteners that are up the bottom   and these are all actually captive fasteners  which means that they stay inside of the module   so you don't have to fish around and potentially  lose your your screws or all just stick in place   a driver with interchangeable and a spudger on  the other side why did no one think of this before   and so yeah we pop off the input cover and take a  look inside and we've designed this to be really   simple to repair so there's just a single cable  that connects the top half and the bottom half   and at that point you've got a single  level of modules here a single layer   and then a single layer of modules here so  you don't actually have to like fish around   anywhere everything's just directly exposed  and you can see that the qr codes are all   visible so you can take your your phone out and  scan them and get to our support pages and the   marketplace and so we can do two things here  actually so we can pop in an extra stick of ram   so right now there's eight gigs in there and  we can just drop in another eight gig stick   so that simple as that we're done adding ram and  then we can also swap out the battery since that   is likely going to be a thing that any consumer  who wants to use their product for more than a   few years is going to do and so this again three  captive fasteners all using the same screwdriver   we just unscrew it and then take out the cable  use the little spudger to lift the tag up and then   unplug that and battery comes out old battery  and then we can take the new battery thank you   and then slide that right in  and we can plug in the connector   and screw back in the three  fasteners that we unscrewed and then take our input cover  that we took off and connect the   connector that we disconnected and  stick this back on and flip it over   and then re-screw the fasteners and this we've  done here is like 90 percent of what you'd ever   need to change in a laptop adding some more  ram to uh to keep your performance good as you   need new applications and swapping out a battery  as your battery wears down and we did it in like   two minutes um so it's you know we really designed  this thing to you know look and feel really like a   normal laptop but still make it super easy to  get in and do all the things that you'd like   to be able to do to make it last for longer  and then over time you know as intel releases   new chips the thing that is soldered on here is  the processor is the idea that framework would   then design a new whole main board system that's  right exactly yeah and at that point you know you   take your storage out you take your wi-fi you take  your ram and you swap out the main board for a new   one and as long as you know the ram generations  and compatibility remains the same you plug   everything back in slot it in and boot back up  you know in some generation to generation updates   there may be things like ram changes where then  you'd also need to bring new ram but actually part   of our model is that modules that you take out of  your laptop because you're upgrading and replacing   they still have value to someone somewhere and so  we're actually building out a marketplace where in   addition to new modules that we sell we're going  to be enabling users to resell their old modules   so the user benefits and that you know they get  some money back for the product they're selling   some other user benefits by getting something that  they needed and of course the environment benefits   because we're reducing e-waste going out into  the environment i can also imagine that because   everything is modular it doesn't necessarily have  to be the form factor of a laptop either that's   right someone wanted to you know 3d print and  design their own housing and make that a set-top   box or something like that another video game you  know main box or something they could do that yeah   yeah we're like i'm especially excited to see the  cyber deck builds that people put together with   the with the main boards coming out of these um  also then aesthetics and uh kind of the the visual   presentation of it yeah you notice you know you  have some different color ways here bezels here   is there differences in like the type of keyboards  that people can buy yeah definitely so we built in   uh you know good high key travel keyboards so 1.5  millimeters of key travel and we've designed it in   a way that it is easy for users to be able to swap  it out in case you know something ever happens and   they manage you know to break a key or even if  you just want to change the keyboard language   you're learning a new language or you bought a  used laptop that came in a different language   you have the ability to swap that out and we have  a couple of special editions uh which are actually   these stealthed out blank keyboards so black  one and a clear one and these are all backlit   um and in addition to that yeah  we've got the bezel is actually   magnetically attached and removable and you  know the core intent there actually was that   we wanted to make it easy to replace panels  you know not needing to replace the entire   top half of a notebook if you know you dropped  your notebook or something and cracked the screen   just being able to replace the panel itself and so  you pop off that mechanic or magnetically attached   bezel unscrew the panel and put in a new one  but it also lets us offer different color   ways as you noted and you guys are offering the  laptop in two primary models someone can buy it   pre-configured so they get something like this  where maybe the most they'd want to swap out or   the io or something that's really a kit build  almost that's right if you look at the how home   i guess granular is it right yeah so you know  we that's another place that we really drew on   desktop pcs and so the idea behind the frame the  framework laptop diy edition was that you can   bring your own off-the-shelf modules bring your  own ram storage wi-fi your own operating system   and then when you unbox the machine unlike our  pre-built ones where you just hit the power   button you're in windows and you're done you open  it up slot in your off-the-shelf modules swap out   anything you want to change like a keyboard or a  bezel and then boot it up install your operating   system and get going which is really almost an  exact copy of what you would do on a desktop pc   but crammed into the form factor of a notebook  right and the business model you guys have   obviously selling laptops selling kits selling  components are there any aspects of this where   you might potentially you know put out cad models  for people design their own customized parts or   start sharing designs for parts yeah definitely  so actually the expansion card system is one where   we'll be releasing reference designs and  documentation to let people build their   own cards which is great because you know an  individual hobbyist with you know home 3d printer   and all the great pc hobbyists or or pcb hobby  services that are out there can actually build   their own card and we've built some interesting  internal prototypes that are pretty fun   but that's something we're really looking  forward to seeing and the idea again behind   the marketplace is that someone can not just  build something that's interesting to them   but then they can also build you know an extra  dozen or hundred or thousand and sell them out   into the rest of the folks in the world who are  interested in the same concept and really building   a community of people who want to embrace this  platform and i guess that's a big question for   people this is chicken neg if like they want  something like this to to last and endure   and it's not cheap to custom design this hardware  so from a business standpoint you know what can   you promise potential consumers or you know  how big of a community base you need to really   make this work that's right and yet we know it's  on us to build all the modules that we need to   to sustain the ecosystem and build the community  until it's large enough for other people to come   in and say like okay this there's an install  base here it makes sense for us to participate   um you know in some to some extent it is a little  bit like game consoles with like the hardware and   game content model where if you're standing up a  new platform you have to fuel it with content and   for us the content actually is modules and so we  are building the modules we need to build but over   time we really want to encourage third parties to  come in and participate in the same ecosystem and   you're launching uh pre-orders uh soon right  now this video so when when is like how far   along is this in the production pipeline and when  will people be able to get these yeah so these   this is actually our last pre-production build  that we have in hand here and all the parts here   came out of that and so we are just about to ramp  into production we'll be shipping out this summer   with our our first batches of orders awesome  well it's a i love this idea i love that it's   really although it sounds new it really is going  back to the roots of laptop um and for for pc   enthusiasts and and good luck with it thank you  so that was nirav patel and i want to thank him   for inviting us over to the offices to check out  this laptop and you saw in the video i did get   a chance to actually go through the disassembly  process and it is as straightforward as you saw   in the interview there are five screws in the  back and that really nifty driver that you get   to unscrew them with the screws are captive so  they actually fall out they stay on the bottom of   the chassis which is nice and it's very easy then  to pop off the keyboard and look and see in that   loop and then you can really just disconnect  one ribbon cable with the loop very easily   nothing was torn and that gets you full access to  this beautifully laid out internal arrangement of   components you got the battery on the bottom  the main board on the top everything is really   nicely labeled and you can very clearly tell the  places where you can swap out your ram the storage   as well as even the wi-fi chip and every component  has a qr code so that gives you access to not only   more information about that part but also their  planned marketplace where you can not only buy   new components but also offload your old ones  when you want to do an upgrade and that's the   promise of this ecosystem this community they want  to build of people swapping components replacing   parts and then having the older laptops finding  new life in new system builds whether it's inside   a framework laptop or in some other type of system  that you might put that main board in and that's a   really neat idea it's going to of course rely on  framework sticking around and lasting long enough   through these upgrade cycles because this isn't a  system where i can see myself you know opening up   the laptop every couple months even to swap out a  component you're going to do it maybe once a year   seasonally maybe when there's a nice sale on the  holidays for storage or ram and you're going to   buy components now the diy model that they have is  going to start at 750 so it's a pretty good price   point but you do have to bring your own storage  and ram uh and that's where you know maybe storage   is a great place because uh where you can find  parts that you might already have at home because   today's nvme based pcie storage it's basically the  same component that you might have on your desktop   pc and so i can very easily see myself maybe  upgrading my desktop pc getting more storage   there and then passing on the stick of storage  onto a framework laptop now their main board is   based on the intel platform and so they're using  the uh the tiger lake processors these are the   the u-class processors four cores using their iris  gpu so it's it's their built-in gpu no external   nvidia no you know amd based gpu here and they're  also i think limited i want to say with the kind   of expansion ports four usbc ports which compared  to maybe a macbook yeah that's pretty standard   but compared to a high-end pc laptop i expect you  know multiple usb-a and usb-c and hdmi and micro   display port and maybe even ethernet so that's  where even though it's a neatly and kind of a   nice cartridge based system that they've put  into their their ports uh the four ports still   feels a little bit limiting and as framework  is launching they have only one chassis design   right now it's basically a 13.5 inch display  the equivalent of what you'd find on you know a  

13-inch macbook pro uh but i would love to see  them go bigger i would love for them to take   this idea and you know incorporate a motherboard  and chipset that can make use of intel's age   class processors and discrete gpus and even more  expansion slots something in a larger form factor   or maybe for a more workstation class laptop is  something i'd love to see them dive into but good   luck to framework at this launch and if i have  a chance to test this laptop we'll of course be   reporting it back here on the channel thank you so  much for watching and i'll see you next time bye

2021-05-18

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