Finally, A Backlit Keyboard!

I picked up a Framework 12 laptop earlier this year, mainly out of frustration that the otherwise excellent Surface Pro line was (and largely still is) unrepairable. I've had about eleven Surface Pro and Surface Go products, and a few Surface laptops, pass through my hands over the last decade. We standardized on them at work and it was my job to spec them out and support them post-purchase. While it took Microsoft a few years to get the Pro and Go lines figured out, from at least the Surface Pro 7 generation they were great machines. As long as the batteries held up. And... they didn't. The batteries were too small in capacity, and Microsoft struggled to get the hardware and firmware dialed in to keep power draw reasonable. We never saw the advertised runtimes in real-world use. New units with fresh batteries were OK, but within a year we would see a significant drop in battery performance. That was OK for business use - we were never far from a charging port. For my personal use, however, I felt I could never really trust them since I couldn't replace the batteries.

I wanted something that I could easily upgrade or fix myself - something designed from the ground up to be user repairable. There was (and still is) only one company offering this kind of a product - Framework. I focused on the new Framework 12. When I wrote about the computer back in February, I had two major complaints. First, the battery capacity is too small. Second, no backlit keyboard. But I bought the Framework 12 on faith - faith that the company would address these issues in a refresh. And they have!

Yesterday Framework announced the next generation of the Framework 12 line, and it offers a backlit keyboard and improved battery life. Too bad I don't need a new laptop. But this is Framework, and everything is backwards compatible. When the new generation is released, the company will also make the backlit keyboards available as a drop-in replacement for first generation owners like me. The power pins for the backlight are already built into the first generation motherboard. Framework was thinking ahead.

As to the power issue, that's a bit more involved. They didn't release a higher capacity battery. Better battery performance requires a motherboard swap for a new motherboard that has lower power draw. Again, there is backwards compatibility with the first generation units - pull out the old, drop in the new. You even get to re-use your old system memory and RAM. The lower power draw of the new motherboard is supposed to provide up to a 50% improvement in battery life. I think I'll wait on this to see what impact the backlit keyboard has on my current battery power draw.

I know these Framework computers are expensive compared to a similarly spec'd Dell or HP. I've already discussed this in earlier posts. My going with Framework is more a statement of support for their philosophy of owner repairability. I'm more than willing to pay a little extra for that. Plus, this is a hobby, and if you can't spend money on your hobbies what's the point?

W8BYH out