Yes. Normally some people (like me) can't afford to buy the highest spec laptop. Thus, I'll be going with a lower memory and storage version of a machine, and then expect to upgrade the RAM and storage when I've got enough. That's exactly what I did with my current Thinkpad T440. And for a current gen Apple, I can either buy a 8 or 16GB machine, and the price difference is pretty significant for me.
FWIW, if I understand you correctly, AIUI you can order the "DIY" Framework with no RAM at all, so there's no need to discard anything--but also, just looked now & you can also order the DIY edition with 64GB.
> By the time you want to upgrade the CPU, the mainboard won't be compatible, so what's really there to upgrade?
The mainboard! (Well, that's Framework's plan at least.)
And the mainboards can run standalone too, so you in theory you can use it to automate your house in the future or something too. :)
(With regard to the 2-in-1 aspect, I think it's important to remember that this is Framework's first product range, they need to limit their scope to not spread themselves too thin.)
And people are already starting to experiment with hacking together their own modules, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_uOzNt-xwY who was prototyping with off the shelf "magsafe" style adapters & essentially "rehousing" a wireless mouse dongle.
So with a "universal" wireless mouse + keyboard dongle rehoused in a module you could get two of your ports at least. :)
> They don't even offer the obvious "2 in 1" dongles where one dongle would contain e.g. two USB-A ports.
I would have thought that by making the expansion ports slightly wider, including 2 USB-A would be possible.
At my side gig running livestreams, I often end up with more than 4 USB-A devices connected, unfortunately, so with USB-C charging and HDMI, I'd need a dongle to use this device even with such a 2x USB-A expansion.
- USB-A dongle for wireless mouse
- External USB-A sound card (to connect the mixer board)
- External USB-A camera
- External USB-A flash drive to load up PowerPoints etc provided by the presenter
- ... and then maybe I need to plug in my USB-A Yubikey to authenticate. Or a 2nd flash drive.
That said, using a USB-C hub/dongle for cases like mine isn't the end of the world.
Many other laptops aren't modular - but they offer more than enough ports to make up for it.
You need at least 1 USB-C port for charging. If you want to be able to use an external mouse and keyboard without a hub, that's 2 USB-A ports that you need. That leaves you the choice between having one USB-C port OR HDMI for the last port. There isn't even an Ethernet option at all. And you still get the potential downsides of the ports being adapters from USB-C, if I understand correctly.
If you grab a Lenovo P14s, you can't swap one of the two RAM sticks (limiting you to 48 GB), opening it takes a little bit more work, and replacing some of the more integrated components is going to be harder (SSD is trivial). In exchange, you get 2x USB-A, 2x USB-C, HDMI, MicroSD, and full-sized (not flip-out/break-off) Ethernet. Plus an optional built-in smartcard reader, plus some proprietary docking port extension around one of the USB-C ports. Looking at the Gen 2, you can get that at around 3/4 of the price with a similar or better config (including a somewhat serious GPU) as long as you order on the weekend (when Lenovo's non-ripoff pricing is in effect), and you can also add a fingerprint reader and NFC if you want.
The Framework laptop has upgradeable RAM, but you will have to upgrade it yourself (discarding the RAM that comes with it) if you want more than 32 GB, and no matter what, it won't ever support more than 64 GB. Is supporting at most 64 GB really that much better than a laptop with 64 GB soldered in?
By the time you want to upgrade the CPU, the mainboard won't be compatible, so what's really there to upgrade?