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Comment by cdata | Hacker News Reader

I used a Framework 13" as my daily driver for 3 years. I still have it, and now I also have a Framework 16", which has been my daily driver for the last six months.

The user serviceability and upgrade stories are real. The hardware isn't as svelte as Apple's, but mine has traveled all over the world and has yet to have any major issues. The one hardware failure I had was that the USB-C half of the charging cable on my 13" eventually broke after a few years of abuse, but that used to happen to me with Apple charging cables, too.

Framework has an active initiative to do outreach to different Linux distro communities and give them free hardware to help shore up compatibility. And, on that note, I haven't run into any Linux hardware compatibility issues (not with Pop!_OS, or more recently NixOS).

Speaking for myself, they have a loyal customer for as long as they continue to make this kind of hardware.

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I love mine too (have owned every 13" they have made either personally or at work, plus the new 16"). Having the actual usb recessed and having a sacrificial usb-c as the one you use has saved taken me from breaking usb-c ports at roughly one a year to zero. The upgradeability and serviceability is real as well.

That beings said, my complaints about them are: They are a few hundred dollars more expensive than comparable hardware most of the time.

They were pretty slow releasing bios updates, although they seem to be getting faster at that.

There is no kensington lock.

After seeing the Linus tour of the factory where they fully assemble the DIY edition for testing and then take it back apart for shipping. I'm kind of annoyed. Find a different way to discount home users, you're spending more labor to get a lower price for your product.

Tbh it probably is cheaper for them to test that it powers up ... There would be nothing worse than building a laptop to find it was an RMA deal.... I would expect that the social media backlash could kill the product...

Yah, it does, but just leave it assembled to the point you had to assemble it and ship it rather than making me put the ram/gpu/nvme/whatever back in putting wear on the insertion slots and taking my time. I get that they are trying to put a barrier big enough that people are willing to pay the few hundred dollar convenience tax, so maybe just leave the NVME out and avoid the wear and tear on the GPU and the ram. It's basically the same barrier because you are removing the keyboard and undoing a bunch of scary screws in both cases but you get to spend less on labor at the factory and I have to install less crap myself (I was always buying the self assembled one, I like that stuff).

I fully expect that the intention is to force you into opening up the laptop to install the RAM. RAM is so easy to install that there's basically no risk of the customer messing up, and it exposes you to how easy it is to open up your laptop and how high quality the build is. Worked very well for me, I knew I would not accept buying anything of a lower standard before I even powered it on for the first time.

If it's actually an advertising expense then it's likely priced wrong. They should give the real price in the business section (where people don't want to have to install because they are buying multiples of them and where that price is obscured from the consumer) and have an even higher price for the fully assembled one (and a bit lower price for the unassembled one). Now if 80 % plus of their consumer business is the diy one right now then I'm wrong, but I doubt I am.

Glad to hear it! I'm interested to know, though:

How rigid would you say the frame is for Frameworks? Do you feel any flex at all when typing? Screen shake?

Over time, some of the laptops I've tried (cheap and expensive, many different brands) just feel like they start to fall apart. Either the screen hinges are junk and fail, leading to screen shake/nod whenever I type...or the frame is too weak, and the laptop itself starts to bend inward over time because I type hard.

If I could get something with an incredibly rugged frame, and excellent hinges, it'd be wonderful. I've seriously considered Toughbook's in the past, but the keyboard feeling for them is atrocious and the specs are always too weak.

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