Over the past decade, I’ve had several laptops that have “bitten the dust” for one reason or another. Very often, it came down to a problem with something relatively trivial that could have been fixed or upgraded… if only the machine had been designed with the concepts “fixable” and “ungradable” in mind.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers today prefer to sell electronic devices as sealed units. In some cases, they go out of their way to implement their products in ways that frustrate any attempts to fix or upgrade the little scamps. They do this in the hope that we (the unwashed masses) will simply dump the problematic or underperforming device and “splash the cash” for a new one. Well, I, for one, am short of cash to splash.

The reason I’m waffling on about this here is that my chum Jay Dowling just introduced me to a company called Framework Computer Inc. The folks at Framework are on a mission to create products that are designed from the ground up to last longer, be fixable, and be upgradable.

This isn’t a fly-by-night operation; Framework has been growing from strength to strength since 2020. The product that caught Jay’s eye is the Framework Laptop 12. In my case, this would make a great computer to accompany me on my travels, not least that it has a shock-absorbing metal chassis that meets MIL-STD-810 durability standards to protect from bumps and drops.

The Laptop 12 offers build-it-yourself or pre-built options, includes the latest and greatest technologies (like Wi-Fi 6E), and lets you configure it just the way you want (e.g., up to 48GB of high-speed DDR5 and up to 2TB SSD). But best of all, the Laptop 12 is easy to repair and upgrade, so it will last for a long, long time.

The image to the right gives us an idea of just how cool this is, but if you want more, then the man to turn to is Zack Nelson and his JerryRigEverything YouTube channel (I know some of my friends who will be spending a lot of time on this channel after reading this blog). In particular, I’m thinking about Zack’s Don’t Let Tim Cook See This Computer short video.

Zack really emphasizes how well the Laptop 12 has been designed. As he notes, when you take something to bits and reassemble it again, you usually find yourself the proud possessor of some screws whose purpose and locations you can no longer recall. By comparison, all the screws in the Laptop 12 are of the “captive” variety, which means you can unscrew them to remove whatever module they hold, but they stay attached to that module, and new modules (like a 50Wh battery) come with their screws already in place.

The last thing I need at the moment is yet another project, but I’m sorely tempted by the Framework Laptop 12 DIY Edition. Maybe when I once again have some cash to splash…