Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are now open
frame.work
frame.work
Other than the rather "meh" speakers (which they offered a replacement for after releasing the largely compatible 'Chromebook' model) I've yet to really have any major complaints about the device
I went as far as pre-ordering the 13th gen i5 upgrade board, complete with a Windows 11 upgrade (rather than reinstall). Amazingly the machine actually feels faster than it did with the original top-end 11th gen i7, along with having significantly improved battery life due to the newer more efficient chip
I've got an open pre-order for the AMD model due "Late Q3" that I'm extremely excited for. I could upgrade piecemeal to it as I've done with the 13th gen model but it seems easier to simply purchase the whole machine outright and then use the older as a source of parts if needed
If Framework could finally get Coreboot support it would quite likely be the perfect laptop for me. Until then though it's the only laptop I'm willing to personally recommend to friends
(and I was not as happy with it as I was with the various Thinkpads I owned)
1. It's really hard to judge the performance of the GPU (RX 7700S) right now.
There's no easy benchmarks or comparisons out there to find.
I want to know where it lands in the spectrum of laptop GPUs and desktop GPUs.
I also want to know what the performance of the GPU is going to be while plugged in, and on battery (and how long that battery will last).
2. The squashed arrow keys really hurt the usability of the laptop.
The keyboard does have QMK firmware, so if someone makes a patch where holding CAPS plus pressing one of IJKL triggers an arrow key press then it should be fine.
That said, I rather just have the keyboard centered.
Super fascinating to read the user experiences so far, really excited and cheering them on!
Originally I thought the keyboard printing would be a sticking point for them not to ship there, but now that I just tried to customise a Framework 16, they do have Traditional Chinese keyboard (the usual English + 3 Chinese writing system on each key), and that's great. The 13 doesn't have it (yet?) though.
Looking forward to hearing more about these soon.
We also don’t know what their capacity is to be fair.