123, corret, Dave2D mentioned it: youtube.com/watch?v=Zy5MWFrb0Y8 ("Framework 16 - Performance vs Price... ") Smaller companies have it harder, one of reasons is economics of scale.
I like their fully customizable sustainable device approach. But unfortunately those notebooks aren't affordable anymore for other than tech enthusiasts or rich kids.
The Zen5 CPU price differences for the DIY model are ridiculous:
From 6 cores to 8 cores: $330 From 6 cores to 12 cores: $760
you can buy a laptop with the same cpu and a dGPU for far cheaper than $2,000+. then you can upgrade it with more ram and ssd space and still be way cheaper than a framework. their laptops make no sense economically.
you're paying $2000 because of the ryzen 9, the ryzen 5 and 7 are hundreds of dollars cheaper.
it's an ultraportable, you don't need a dgpu.
it becomes way cheaper than any ultraportable if you're willing to bring your own RAM/SSD. Dell charges $200 per 16GB of DDR5 - I can get 32GB of DDR5 for under $100. Dell charges $200 per 1TB of space - I can bring my own 2TB NVME drive for $120.
> not worth the price increase at all since you can always just sell your old laptop to help buy a new one.
old windows laptops have horrible resale value, frameworks have amazing resale value. my framework has depreciated by about 15% over 1.5 years of ownership.
framework laptops are way too expensive for what you get. why pay $2,000+ for a laptop without an OLED/miniled screen or a dGPU? just because it's a bit more repairable and easier to upgrade? not worth the price increase at all since you can always just sell your old laptop to help buy a new one.
Only 28.5% more performance than the 7840U while the 7840U version gets 50% more battery life (this has 2/3rds the 7840U's battery life). Not a good trade off.
Framework is squeezing as much as it can from its aging design all in the name of sustainability. It's working better than expected for the most part in terms of raw performance, but there are still a few key features we'd like to see.