MNT will supply open source DIY laptop at the end of this year for $999999

Germany’s MNT Research has reached its crowdfunding goal to create an open source DIY laptop. Buyers can get a kit for the modular Reform laptop at the end of this year for $999.

In a week, MNT has achieved its goal of raising $115,000 through Crowdsupply. This allows the German company to start production of the Reform. The Reform is a modular laptop designed to be dismantled so that users can repair, modify and examine it.

Thanks to open source tools such as LibreOffice, Firefox, Inkscape, Scribus and GIMP, the laptop can be used for office tasks according to the makers, but also for software development and applications in industrial environments. The absence of built-in ‘surveillance components’ such as a camera and microphone means the laptop must offer the user more privacy than conventional laptops and MNT also cites the absence of the Intel Management Engine, a remote management component that has been criticized by critics as a security risk. is seen.

The company is taking pre-orders and expects to ship from December. For $999, buyers get a kit that doesn’t require soldering. MNT also supplies turnkey systems. For $1300 it’s a Reform with 256GB NVME SSD and for $1500 a laptop with 1TB SSD and WiFi card. Only the Reform motherboard is also available for $550.

The base of the laptop is a Nitrogen8M system-on module from Boundary Devices, with an NXP i.MX8M soc and 4GB lpddr4. The reform also has a 1080p screen with IPS panel and a diagonal of 12.5 inches. There are three external USB 3.0 ports and two internal 2.0 variants. Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and an SD card slot are also available. In addition, there is a secondary OLED screen with a resolution of 128×32 pixels for displaying, for example, the battery status. The battery is made up of eight LiFePO4 cells of 1800mAh.