386
do you think the framework laptop is a good long term investment? (frame.work)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
164 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u01AbiCn_Nw mental outlaw video:

hi everyone, i was planning on getting a new laptop cheaply for about 500ish but then i stumbled upon this near-totally modular laptop rhat starts out at above 1000 bucks. do you think the cheaper laptop in the long run is just a false economy and i should go for the framework or what? if you want to ask questions go ahead but im mainly concerned about the longterm financials (and how well it will keep up over time)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 22 points 2 years ago (7 children)

No.

I don't trust a single modern platform to last long enough to justify an investment - the company will be acquired and shuttered or the base platform will be upgraded and the current deprecated. The company today can full-throatedly promise you the world, but they know they won't be here tomorrow to answer for those promises and there are no consumer safeguards in place to hold the future leaders accountable should framework show profit potential and therefore become a target of acquisition to exploit that potential or to squash competition.

Framework is a fun, marketable idea, but Phonebloks / Project Ara me once, shame on you...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
    •
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I never really saw a computer as an "investment". They're pure expenses as far as I'm concerned. Any of the ones I buy could break tomorrow. I don't buy extended warranties, so outside the legal coverage, I'm SOL if something goes wrong anyway. Considering how bad repairability is with other brands anyway, it's not like you're throwing away much. Many of the components are just standard hardware, too - RAM, SSD...

    Considering this, I don't really see why I would deprive myself of buying something rather novel I'm interested in, given the product already showed some reliability, in fear of some potential hostile corporate takeover. YMMV, of course.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I agree. $500 to $1200 is the range at which I would not buy a warranty beyond the initial 12 months. I have purchased (and used) warranties for Mac laptops or PC desktops for work that cost over $2k. I can justify it on the Mac because there is usually one recall issue that needs repair (eg weird keyboard issue) but they otherwise have a long life. I’m at 5 years on my current machine with no plans to update. So many of the existing Framework laptops don’t have GPUs that I can’t understand why anyone would be excited about it. It’s a fun idea but feels like you’re paying a lot of money for the opportunity to pay more in the future.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Eh, I'm a fan of the principle that things should be serviceable. Framework is great in that regard. As for GPUs - my laptops are mostly work machines, and I don't really need one past just displaying on multiple monitors and UHD/4k support, so most iGPUs are just fine for me. When it comes to laptops, tons of RAM+a decent build quality >>> most other things for me.

    I'm in a similar situation as you are though, my current laptop is from 2018 and I don't have any plans to upgrade short-term.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I think the best part of the Framework is that the parts are replaceable for sure. The keyboard replacement I got was free but if it weren’t it would be several hundred dollars. My dad had a key broken on his laptop and they asked for $700 to fix it. Absurd.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I appreciate the healthy skepticism of typical business cycles, but at the same time - why would you buy the company and not sell upgrade parts to previous customers? If you didn't, you'd just own an overpriced laptop company amongst a dozen other cheap laptop companies.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    As others have pointed out, to kill competition and about paradigm shift. All, from their broken POV, so you can ideally eventually sell cheap laptops/phones shitty enough to warrant annual refresh (aka, the holy grail)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Huh, that's a good take! Didn't think about that.

    It kind reminds me of the Oneplus brand. I loved the one plus (1) so I bought a Oneplus2 only for it to be put aside fairly quickly. I remember I used to suggest Oneplus to everybody, eventually I told everyone to stay away... Eventually the brand just lost it's focus imo... Instead trying to pump out as much overpriced garbage as possible...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    It's a subsidiary of Oppo, they just tried different brands to corner the market. OnePlus attracted the purists but money reigns and they thought they had a loyal fan base and started changing. Most people would probably say stick to pixel phones for the stock Google Android experience. I liked my OnePlus 5, it lasted for a long time. Never smashed despite being dropped all the time. Just the usb c port lost its connectivity after a few years and needed replacing.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Yep I moved from Oneplus to Xiaomi and I can't day I'm disappointed but I'm feeling they are charging more and more and then phones aren't getting that much better. I think my next phone will be a pixel. Mostly for the camera. As I'm getting older I notice that I don't use my phone for too much other than photos of traveling or just messaging my friends and family on WhatsApp. Games on phone are absolute cancer anyways...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Let's not count Project Ara here, any google project has a 75% chance of being shut down before reaching consumers, they're just not a good company

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They have been here tomorrow for people who bough one with an 11th generation Intel CPU in 2021. I don't think they are looking to get acquired either.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Companies that are looking to get acquired don't hold press conferences to announce, "we're now ready to be acquired". They typically build and acquire press wins to get attention until they are a thorn in the side of a market leader who then takes a meeting with them. It's a quiet process, but the initial conversation is almost exclusively, "we're building this for the long term and we plan to be around for a long time".

    Just like all the products that promise long or even "lifetime" warranties - for most of these tech startups, they are well aware that lifetime means "OUR" short lifetime as a company and not your lifetime as the consumer.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Likely, but I'm hoping they last a decade like usual. I'm only slight jaded, and have similar reservations from similar history. Google, Apple, Facebook, and Reddit all had similar ideals. ("Don't Be Evil." Part of open source before it was popular. "It's your data. You control your data." Freedom of speech/information and, "Bits are not a bug.") [Insert Joke: "My back hurts" or "Get off my lawn."]

    The good news is Framwork is priced at near parity of Apple's products, which makes them unlikely to be bought out; they're much more likely to get too greedy, and compromise on their ideals.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent