MNT Pocket Reform Retrospective

In 2023 the crowdfunding campaign for the MNT Pocket Reform open source laptop started and I backed it right from the beginning, securing one of the first devices of that batch. This week, about three and a half years later, I sold that same device. If there’s a time for a retrospective on my experience, it is now. Spoiler warning: Given that I just sold my Pocket Reform, it shouldn’t be surprising that I have more negative than positive things to say. I will keep the good stuff towards the end before I wrap up. Wait, what’s a Pocket Reform? Reform is a series of open source portable computers made by a little company called MNT Research, based in Berlin. The first of these devices was the Reform laptop, introduced in 2019. It was a 12.5’’ laptop, very thick compared to modern mainstream devices but aimed for open documentation and repairability at a time when laptops generally were nearly impossible to maintain or repair. This was the age of the butterfly keyboard MacBooks after all…