"It’s also compatible with all of our existing Framework Laptop 13 and Framework Laptop 16 models, so you can pick it up in the Framework Marketplace and upgrade the laptop you already own"

It's nice to see this in a world where the status quo is soldered-in unfixable hardware.

I want hardware interconnect standards to advance so that I can get performance comparable to soldered chips. It’s not (just) planned obsolescence that the companies do this.

While I'm personally happy with the current webcam module (although, depending on how much the standby power reduction is, that might be worth it even if I don't care about the quality improvement?), but I'm very happy that we are starting to see more of these upgrades which is a non-trivial part of the framework value proposition.

I've had a Framework 13" Intel 12th Gen for about two years now. It's my personal machine, so it doesn't get a ton of use. It's been quiet as a web surfing and desktop syncing machine. I use it to administer my other computer around the house. I even used it to host a steam game trivia night and some light gaming without issue. I've switched out the hinges and will probably switch mainboards and displays at some point in the future.

Does it have battery life like the macbook or those new arm machines? No. Does it have the same performance for RAM as soldered options? Probably not. But if they introduce an LPCAMM2 variant, it will be more competitive.

I have the same model.

Does it have the best performance for your buck ? No

Will it end up obsolete and in the trash in a few years unless I find cheap parts on AliExpress to have a laptop that holds together ? Hopefully, no either.

Will I be able to upgrade to a more powerful motherboard or more RAM or a better SSD if I find performance is lacking ? or a better screen or longer lasting battery ? I already can.

A $40 upgrade for existing owners makes this all the sweeter. Would that anyone else making systems have such a sustainable ethos.

I wonder how hard it would be to use this for other purposes.

I'm with an XPS right now and the 4k 13" display it has is wonderful. That's the only thing holding me back from a framework laptop.

I ordered their new display and am very excited about it! 2x scaling and 120Hz are going to be awesome.

Glad to see this update, the original webcam was merely adequate.

I'll go so far as to say that the original camera is pretty terrible. This looks like an excellent upgrade

I didn't want to say it, but you're exactly right haha. Colors were WAY off even in a room with enough light.

i honestly dont see a big difference between good and bad camera on apps like teams, it's just terrible and the only difference is how terrible it is

s/on apps like teams/on teams/

Teams makes every camera stream look like it belongs in the 90s. Slack, Google Meet, Zoom, FaceTime all have quite good image quality.

Can you use the module as a regular webcam? The thin stripe on a display bezel would look less intrusive than a regular protruding cam.

Emailed Framework, they publish webcam connector specs at Github [0] and promised to do the same for the new modules. Sounds doable if you know your way around electronics.

[0] https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/tre...

Do Framework have an ARM offering? Or is it on the cards?

I don't see it at first glance, that would peak my interest.

I can imagine Qualcomm being quite interested in working with Framework on a Snapdragon X Elite design.

I'd be interested in a Linux version of that laptop (especially given that all the current X Elite machines are completely locked down and only allow you to install Windows).

Me too and/or a fanless x86_64 offering, which should be easy to accomplish with Intel N. It'd also be cheaper.

The RISC-V offering might fill in part of this niche: https://frame.work/gb/en/blog/introducing-a-new-risc-v-mainb...

The road towards ARM is very rough for those who do not control the entire ecosystem around the hardware.

Microsoft is on their second attempt, and they have much more sway over their ecosystem than Framework ever will. The magic Apple was able to achieve is almost entirely due to their iron-fisted control over their ecosystem. It's one thing to have a killer chip, but if nobody supports it, it's DOA...

> The road towards ARM is very rough for those who do not control the entire ecosystem around the hardware.

Isn't that what Framework does?

Framework creating an ARM variant with in-tree drivers and bundled with something like tow-boot out of the box would be a huge win for the community. The pinebook pro sucks and is the only real competition in this space unless you count chromebooks.

> It's one thing to have a killer chip, but if nobody supports it, it's DOA

The beautiful thing about Linux/OSS these days is you can typically assume if you have amd64 support, there's probably a working arm64 port, too.

> Isn't that what Framework does?

Framework kinda serves as a glorified systems integrator. They need partners like Intel and AMD to work with them to make sure their chips are suited for the sort of chassis they're making. The recent RISC-V board was almost entirely a third-party offering as far as I can tell.

So, I'd argue it's not really what Framework does. Someone like Nvidia, Broadcom or Rockchip would have to provide a particularly compelling chip that fits the form factor and power/thermal envelope, with potentially another middleman designing/integrating the chip into a compatible board. Making, upstreaming and maintaining those in-tree drivers is a commitment of it's own, and you'd have to validate the plethora of expansion cards/peripherals with a device that doesn't have UEFI or probably even PCI.

Like the parent said; you'd need a sizable ARM license-holder to commit to the entire vertical process for it to release in a quality state. It's not infeasible that one of them might step up to the plate for this someday, but the incentives would have to line up for them before they'd consider making it a product.

To put it in another way: ARM is late, as RISC-V is already available.

There's no point in switching from a proprietary ISA (x86) to another proprietary ISA (ARM).

No, but a RISC-V partner-made mainboard was just announced.

I'm just running ubuntu 24.04. After following their guide battery life is pretty great, GNOME has fractional scaling under both Wayland and X11, the fans do get loud under full load but not otherwise, it doesn't suspend like older laptops but it does always work, touchpad is great, haven't had wifi issues and the sound isn't too bad.

I've seen numerous people complaining about battery life, fractional scaling or sound that just didn't follow the guides. For instance there's a bios setting for linux audio compatibility.

Note this is a fw16 without the GPU.

Would you mind elaborating on:

> it doesn't suspend like older laptops but it does always work

It's using S0 instead of S3 sleep, losing ~1% an hour.

> it doesn't suspend like older laptops

What does this mean