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Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: October 26th, 2023
  • killbot0224@alien.topBtoFramework@hardware.watch•So easy, it's almost disappointingEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    They won’t sell a billion because the price premium is still significant, and the vast majority of people aren’t even aware it exists.

    Part of that premium is just being a small manufacturer… That is a premium with no actual intrinsic benefit, and even has drawbacks of its own.

    Part is its unique build, which delivers benefits, but drives up costs as well.

    • repairability. Most folks would jsut as soon pay an extended warranty, which is much cheaper than this premium. If you’re not a tinkerer, you’re gonna have to pay labor for fixes on this anyway.
    • upgradeability. Great! Will most people care? And you’re paying hundreds extra today just for the privilege of being able to pay for those parts later as well (okay I won’t hassle about the RAM/storage, but the mainboard prices are tough on the better chips!)
    • customizable deck (keyboard/input modules)… Which may not be of any value at all to many people. I’m uncertain if I care, personally, unless a touchscreen macro pad happens. I just know I want a numpad.

    Those are benefits that you have to pay a lot for up front… And may not get to cash in on for years (if ever!)

    And that’s not without trade-offs either.

    1. Middling battery life
    2. A decent but not “excellent” screen (no OLED)
    3. A lousy webcam.
    4. A touchpad that is a bit marmite.
    5. “Only” 4 ports + headphones on the 13 (6 on the . And I have to give one up for a mouse dongle. For many, built in flexibility might be more important, especially if you can’t predict your needs well, so you might be much more annoyed by not having the inbuilt breadth of jacks so long as you at least have a USB4/TB3+ jack. (Is carrying adapters around really more convenient than carrying a little USB dock? Best to carry one anyway if you ask me)

    To me the real upside to the adaptors is damage mitigation. The adaptor takes the brunt of any lateral/vertical forces, preserving the internal USB-C jack.

    All in all, that’s a decent bit of trade off.

    For me it’s enough (I’m stalling tho. I don’t love the I). But I’m enough of a tinkerer that I’m happy to replace a failing part for damage or upgrade, etc. Hinge, Screen, Storage, RAM, being the most likely culprits, plus an upgraded mainboard at some point.