Asklemmy

Hi. Let's set the table here. Context: What future advantage or benefit do you expect to get by investing?

• Your budget was initially $500.

• The absolute cheapest you can have a brand-new complete Frame Work 16 is $1,621 and 5 to 8 months (Ships Q2) assuming you get the cheapest of everything and don't purchase secondary storage. You will have a low-end laptop with the ability to trivially upgrade it later.

For an additional $1,100 what do you expect to gain? In reality you can get an equivalent performance for $200, so the question then becomes $1,300 for what?

For $2,187 you can have an equivalent to this $1,100 ThinkPad that will likely last you 7-10 years unless it breaks first. What are you investing in for $1,087?

For $2,734 and ~8 months, I can have a high-end laptop, not the most expensive options, but my personal preference to tide me over for 10 years. Is whatever I'm looking for worth $2,200? Possibly.

• For hardware I can have schematics to, after signing an NDA.
• For hackability.
• For a laptop I won't void the warranty for fixing.
• For never having to remove 17 screw, 5 stickers, 5 more screws, an excessive amount of plastic tabs, and possibly adhesive.
• For almost indefinite access to parts. Parts that won't disappear from the market in 1-3 years, unless the company goes under. (Yay Cali for the 7 years of parts... we'll see how toothy it is and how long it can withstand legal and technical sabotage. Like Apple's software locks.)
• For a laptop with parts I like. (AMD open-sourcing like mad-lads, but not quite FLOSSing.)
• For a company that I can trust for a decade before they see the dollar dollar bills. Like Google, Facebook, Reddit, etc.
• For sustainably sourced parts.
• To support a company that won't put me through a hoop circus just to tell me I have to buy a new product because they screwed up?

If I could get it in 30 days, maybe. If I have to wait a financial quarter, or 2, and a half... maybe I'll wait until they ramp up production, and see what innovations they have in a year. (Related: The week I decided to buy, was legitimately the day they opened for Framework 16 orders, which I would've sworn was Framework 15. Must be losing my mind. In any case, maybe I'll still get the 13 and save $500.)

Is it worth it for you? Depends on your financial situation and what you value.