I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13
blog.matthewbrunelle.com
blog.matthewbrunelle.com
This approach even allows the manufacturer to correct design flaws after the fact -- and let's face it, there will always be design flaws. For instance, my FW13 originally came with a very weak hinge for the screen. It was perfectly usable for most daily usage and most people probably wouldn't care, but it meant I couldn't hold it up without the screen tilting back. Well, FW corrected this for those customers who really did care by just selling a new hinge for $24, and so $24 + 10 minutes with a screwdriver later, I had a substantially more refined device! (And to clarify -- there was a defective hinge version in the early batches, and those were replaced free of charge. Mine was a slightly later version that, beyond lacking the level of stiffness I preferred, was not defective.)
[1] Shift+7 == /, AltGr+¨ == ~. These two in particular are tedious as a Linux user.
Comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt1DL1fO6Zs
Note that weird abomination of a backslash key around the enter key on the US keyboard.
There's no way to just map the US keyboard to the UK one.
But I’ve ended up using a split keyboard where every key is 1u. All language layouts map to the physical layout in basically the same way.
Mac UK is shit.
It's awful.
Some of the other changes aren’t great, I agree.
Shift+3 does not give you #.
Despite that, the Qwerty keycaps remain useful for me, because my keyboards are not programmable, so the key mapping is done by the operating system. When I have to unlock the computer with a password, after booting, the keyboard still works as Qwerty and the keycaps help me in entering the password, because nowadays I touch-type only on Dvorak, while on Qwerty I must return to hunt-and-peck, as there are many years since I stopped using Qwerty.
So only because of this password entering, I prefer to not have blank keycaps, even if I ignore them in normal usage.
If you get the key caps, they're trivially swapped.
I use Dvorak, and I've swapped keys for every generation of keyboard over the last 10 years. Once swapped, the layout can be set system wide.
I've swapped ~579 keys (6 MacBook keyboards, and one magic keyboard) with exactly one broken plastic bit from the very first key tried, before looking up the youtube video on how to do it. Damaging the metal retaining frame is impossible when removing or installing them appropriately, so the technique you used was very very wrong. They're easily and trivially popped off and on, if done right. Great care is not needed, with the whole processes taking me around ~10 minutes.
I will always loath the Mac UK keyboard layout. Wildly different than ISO and ANSI for absolutely no benefit.
It’s kind of a bad deal.
For the last six months I've just been using a laptop as a mini pc with no battery.
That is one of the advantages of the bigger name brands, replacement parts are generally a lot easier to find.
They don't manufacture batteries and never have, I've always had mixed feelings when it comes to "supporting their goals".
I appreciate their work to get Linux working on those models, but they can't provide long term hardware support.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-97-wh-6-cell-lithium-io...
At the end of the day it's probably worth replacing it with something that probably won't burn my house down.
I almost pulled the trigger on a mini PC over the summer, but said "the laptop still works, you don't really need this" and now it would be 30 or 40% more because of ddr5 and NVMe cost spikes.
It's not a money thing, it's the principal of it.
I love the idea of the Framework. I don't love the lack of a trackpoint, or the pricing. I'm willing to forgive the latter since it's a small company with a mission I appreciate. There's likely a Framework 16 in my future eventually.
Unfortunately the quality of Thinkpads went downhill after Lenovo took over, they used to be really good. But there is nothing else with trackpoints these days, which I vastly prefer over touchpads. (And even on some old Dells that had trackpoints, they never felt as good as on Thinkpads.) Also, Linux support was always very good, though that is less of an issue these days.
Never had to replace a battery though, but I always used that "don't charge more than 80%" mode. My old Thinkpad with a Core 2 Duo from 2009 still gets over a hour of battery (though the laptop is largely unusable for any practical use these days).
I don't mind repairing electronics in general, even on a component level if need be (as long as the components are large enough that I can see them, which really isn't the case any longer with tiny SMD components). And I tend to use things for a very long time rather than replace them. I'm still rocking a Dell monitor from 2013 for example.
Hope you find your batteries.
I found a few which said "in stock" but was refunded each time as the part didn't actually exist.
If I search for battery stuff shows up, but they only ship bare batteries to the 48 states and Canada.
Contacting support should be able to help you too.
> The hardware supplier that we use no longer has the battery. Therefore, we cannot sell you the battery. What we can do is provide you with the part numbers so you can source it elsewhere. If you're considering sourcing the battery for the Darter Pro 5 from another supplier, please note that the model number for the battery is N150BAT-4, and the original part number is 6-87-N15ZS-51E01. Third-party battery sellers may display one or both of these numbers and might also list other compatible part numbers that are suitable for the same model.
It's actually a Darter Pro 6, but the battery part number is correct in that text.
You can not purchase this battery, it no longer exists. There are a few sketchy websites which say that they sell it, but they will cancel your order a few days after placing it and tell you that there is "lack of material".
It’s too bad there isn’t standard cells anymore. I did notice my Bluetooth speaker (which had replacement batteries available) also had instruction videos floating around on buying replacement cells and rebuilding the battery pack.
Laptop packs I don’t think are typically made of replacable cells.
I’ll probably replace it eventually with a t14 which is pretty light these days.
Lenovo stopped selling the batteries for the T480, so the only sources are various 3rd party manufacturers I've never heard of.
The thinking goes they are brilliant because they are so easy to repair and parts are easy to source globally.
While that’s true, I much prefer to drive vehicles that don’t need repairs.
My parents have a Lexus RX400H (hybrid), that even for me as a car guy is a nightmare to work on. It's technically never had a fault since 2007 with 215k miles. But changing the spark plugs was probably the third hardest thing I've done with cars, only behind dropping a transmission and doing a head gasket job on other cars.
My framework 13 is OKAY. But the reality of it is the economics just don’t make sense with their pricing.
The biggest thing people can comment on the keyboard is easily replaceable. That’s cool and I love the idea, but any vendor could do that part.
In fact, I think Dell or HP or Other could demolish Framework in a 1/2 second by offering a line that was even 50% the offering. By focusing on replaceable screens, keyboard, and standing the chassis for multiple boards and selling some parts they dry up FW’s moat with little effort.
I don’t remember the number of times I typed dell.com or Lenovo.com, looked for a replacement for my 10-year old XPS, and came out extremely frustrated with the experience. Not to mention the recent copy-paste nonsense from Dell with their Pro/Pro Max laptop offerings.
Good display, decent CPU, a battery that lasts a day, and Linux support - that’s all that I ask for. Outside of Apple(bar Linux support) are there any manufacturers that offer that?
Specific issues by laptop:
1. Pressure marks on screen, failing USB ports, cracked hinge after three years.
2. Pressure marks on screen, failed battery, failing power supply socket after seven years.
3. Warped reflective layer in screen, rattling fans, overheating despite fan replacement (which I did at home and it took three hours) after five years.
I also broke the butterfly keyboard on a 2019 MBP I was using at work.
With the Framework I can address each and every one of the mentioned problems myself - just need to order parts and spend half an hour or so per item.
Used mbp bought in 2019, taken through a dozen countries in a 4x4, sold in 2022. Never an issue.
Used M1 mba bought in 2022, taken to twenty countries, never an issue.
I do heavy photo and 4K video editing, light dev work, writing, web.
I restart at most once a year.
Also if you hold a 2kg closed laptop with one hand - you're going to have pressure marks and I learned that the hard way.
Anyway, all around me people have always had hardware issues - also with Apple products. I recall replacing the battery in a late 2011 MBP because it was swollen as it failed from age alone.
Bottom line is that I believe you, I just think you're an outlier.
I have a nearly 5 year old ThinkPad that's in great condition too. Never needed a repair, though it's had a couple of spells where it acted funky that resolved themselves.
“My laptop is really slow.”
“Don’t you think the power supply socket is faulty? <wink />”
(I read this as the power socket in the laptop, not so much the power supply, obviously you'll have less luck there.)
I owned a number of 90s trucks and though it was easier to get into the engine, I had to do it well before 100k miles sometimes. Meanwhile I have a 2010s Japanese vehicle that is at 200k with only an alternator replaced.
An analogy would be buying a new car then bragging to your friends that despite it being a lemon, you're thrilled because you can repair it yourself (at cost).
Laptop hinges were notorious for killing laptops for like a decade.
Yes, I would be thrilled to find a car that gave cheap and available replacement parts so I could remedy those issues later. That used to be the standard! The trend now is for automakers to keep juicing the proprietary software tools and one-off components, making repairability harder for the owner.
So, to rephrase your analogy: "[That's like] buying a new car then bragging to your friends ... that you're thrilled because you can repair it yourself (at cost)."
Awesome. My last laptop had the same problem but the repair employee broke the whole computer when he came to replace the keyboard. Dell then did not want to accept their fault.
Vive le framework.
Alas this third party parts manufacturer/supplier never took off.
I replaced my last laptop after 10+ years because the battery gave out, the end-of-life hardware was so old it no longer got OS upgrades, and eventually apps stopped working. I like the idea of getting to easily throw new hardware at my machine to keep it going.
(I also tired of Apple shoving bad experiences down my throat (TouchBar, Butterfly keyboards, thin glass screens that crack, USB-C and no USB-A...) so I spec'ed out my Framework with USB-C and USB-A.)
But aside from repairability when stuff breaks, a laptop's hardware slowly becomes obsolete because software is usually written for the new stuff. If you're like me and you keep your laptop for 10 years, that means: in year 1 you have 1 year old hardware, in year 6 you have 6 year old hardware, etc. So your laptop gets worse and worse performance because you can't incrementally upgrade your hardware... you only upgrade in a big bang every 10 years when you buy a new one. Towards the end of its life, you're really struggling to keep the thing above water.
With a Framework, in theory I can upgrade the hardware incrementally over time rather than needing a big bang every 10 years. So instead of having 6 year old hardware at year 6, I'll probably have 2 year old hardware again. So I'll more closely match the industry improvements curve.
Will this work in reality? Will it be expensive to replace all the parts, and will the case be able to cool new CPUs, and will I have to get a new mainboard, etc? Who knows. But I thought it was interesting enough to take a gamble on the laptop. And worst case, it's not a fatal decision... I can just go back to MacBooks...
Edit: forgot the printer. I connect it via USB-A on demand. /edit.
My laptop (bought this year) charges via a DC barrel jack, afaik because USB-C doesn't deliver enough power for peak usage. Buying a little HDMI-VGA converter was a lot cheaper than throwing a perfectly good screen away. My keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals also simply still work, seems silly to replace them just to get a C variant when 700-1300€ laptops have 1 or 2 C ports and always 2 A ports (I happen to be up-to-date on that, at least, because I helped someone select a new laptop ereyesterday)
I don't know what I'd need more than one C port for but I'm very happy that there is more than one A port on my laptop. Add in the standard set of 3.5mm jack, HDMI, ethernet, card reader, and charging, and you're already at more ports than even the new Framework 16 can physically fit in its frame, let alone nerd ports like serial or a second ethernet port. I considered buying a double-priced Framework earlier this year for the linux support and upgradeability (I really support their goal and would pay that premium if it were a suitable system) but this is one of the main reasons it just doesn't work for me: I'm actually a power user that regularly uses these connections and more
I've got a Dell 120W USB-C charger from a 2017 Dell laptop, and I think you can go up to 240W now.
Now the highest power is a bit of a compatibility nightmare. I also have a 60W framework charger but it will only charge the Dell at 15W because that's the maximum mode that both the Dell and Framework charger support in common.
But given the barrel connectors are usually only compatible with the exact laptop they're sold with, that's probably an improvement.
I also own something like three different Framework products (16, 13 and Desktop) and gifted two more (13 and Desktop) to people. Really, apart from the fit issues on 16 spacers and perhaps the speakers, the only really unforgivable issue is the size of the expansion cards (too small for interesting hardware like a good LTE modem).
That said, there have been a few things that have been a bit less than deluxe on my FW13:
- The touchpad mechanical click is just not that good. It is too sensitive to exact pressure and touch location and I find holding it down and dragging to be excessively difficult compared to all other touchpads I've ever used.
- The delete key seems to oxidize and needs a bunch of hard mashing to get it to become responsive. No, it's not sticky or dirty.
- The air intake on the bottom is highly prone to getting blocked, mostly by my legs.
- There's no BIOS option to turn down the brightness or disable altogether the charging status LEDs, and I find that when I travel and can't keep the laptop in a separate room that it's bright enough to interrupt sleep. I've taped over them, but the light leakage from other crevices is still sufficient to be at least mildly annoying. The translucent Ethernet adapter card also acts like a lightbulb.
- The laptop ramps its current consumption from type-C very quickly and seems like it overshoots its target a little bit, and so it is the only device I have that trips out the OCP on some of my bricks.
- There's no BIOS option to artificially limit the charging power, and so I often trip the OCP on aircraft if my battery is not fully charged before plugging in. I don't want to carry a secondary small brick just to use on planes.
- The LCD backlight uniformity and color quality are mediocre, but for my use case I just don't really care that much. For me, this is a portable technical productivity machine and not an art studio, so it doesn't matter.
- The LCD backlight intensity curve is pretty bad. I very-frequently want to have a brightness in-between the lowest and second-lowest settings. I would love to get more control at the bottom and less at the top. It feels like it's linear when it should be logarithmic.
- The speakers suck. So does the volume control. I very rarely go above 10% volume and frequently don't have sufficient control resolution at the bottom. Anything above about 14-16% volume causes something to distort and other stuff to rattle. Luckily I mostly don't consume media, so this is rarely a real problem. But it is truly atrocious.
All that said, I'm generally a pretty happy camper. I look forward to continued improvements from the company over the years.
Thanks for the feedback on LED brightness and airplane OCP. That should be something we can improve in firmware.
At some point I actually considered poking around the firmware and seeing about fixing up the PD behavior. But it never quite rose in priority above my many other projects.
I absolutely love that the embedded controller firmware and much of the motherboard schematics are available. It makes it possible to do these little projects should I gather the gumption. That, plus easy and reasonably priced replacement parts availability and easy OS compatibility, are why I got the Framework.
As soon as a CSR asks me to record a video, I write off the brand. Maybe Gen Z will tolerate that, but I'm too old for that nonsense.
Why are so many machines (including some fairly high-end models) shipping with worse touchpads than Apple were shipping over a decade ago?
USB-A is like what DB9 was. Easy to use, easy to plug-in, used on most devices. But there comes a point in time where we move on to the next connector, which is USB-C.
Most of my hardware is younger than ten years and everything has USB-C. I had a night light with micro-USB still but that was one of the last devices with a legacy port.
I guess I could, but I would rather not upgrade all of those to USB-C and I really tired of having to carry dongles everywhere.
I even like that if I were consistently using HDMI, I could actually just put an HDMI extension card into my laptop and still not need a dongle. It's customizable to my usage at any point in the laptop's life.
And even then, I'm not re-buying junk that works. I just swapped for a webcam that has a C cable, and ironically it's being used with an adapter because the integrated hub on the KVM switch is A-only.
Also dev tasks like flashing bootable ChromeOS and linux images pretty regularly, connecting to a Flyswatter JTAG adapter, UART adapters, etc...
USB-A was actually a really great plug and objectively works better for a lot of applications than the tiny C connector.
* keyboard
* mouse dongle
* webcam
* microphone
* mouse charging cable
* smart watch charging cable
* SATA hard drive dock
* 32GB and 64GB USB memory sticks
Things that use USB-C
* new SD card reader
* new headphones dongle
* smart phone charging cable
Some of the above could maybe be replaced with a USB-C equivalent, but they are still working and I'm still using them. Why waste money and create waste replacing them?
4-ports -- supports webcam, microphone, keyboard with no issues.
Bluetooth being cnstantly used for audio and so many other things as well might also be at play ?
On Macos, first party peripherals have of course pretty good connectivity (is it even straight Bluetooth?) but it's not perfect either, and third party ones have a tougher time.
I wondered how much it was just me, apparently we were dozens: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/17659mx/sonoma_bluet...
And people have huge piles of charging cables that are USB-A to micro/mini USB or USB-C.
I'd be willing to pay more over time to have better hardware over my laptop's life. Meaning, I'd rather pay ~$3200 over 10 years for a Framework + 2 mainboard upgrades + a RAM upgrade vs ~$2000 for a laptop that slowly gets worse over the same time period.
For example, with Socket 939, I started with an Athlon 64 3000+, and upgraded later to an X2 4200+.
With Socket AM4, I skipped the first generation, got a Ryzen 2700X, then skipped the next generation, and then got a Ryzen 5900X! (But a solid 4 generations on the same socket!)
You really do have to buy it for the idea rather than the reality.
As a result, the question is more Framework vs. Dell or Lenovo, and that creates a much smaller gap in capability in the 13" form factor.
While it was not really useable for mainstream usecases in the beginning (no speakers, no webcam, other random issues), it did get better month by month and problems got resolved, I find useability equal to my x86 laptops now.
Other complaint is that because of comments here I went looking at framework but it doesn't show what GPU comes with AMD processors so I'm going to have to not look at this on mobile.
I have a Thinkpad, Asus and surface 13" amd and none have fully scratched the itch for my go to machine. Asus is powerful enough but the build quality and durability are pure garbage.
Honest question and not meant to flame anyone. What benchmark are you referring to regarding performance; spec sheets or your tools are not working correctly or working slowly?
Just trying to understand users needs in upgrading. I have some new MacBooks and some old linux laptops. They both equally work just fine for what I need to do, and I am starting to question the need for me to update to a new MacBook M* chipset moving forward.
I love my M1 Pro MacBook and I wish I could have the same efficiency when running Linux but I can't.
My Framework runs faster, but a lot hotter, louder and with a lot less battery life. But I feel like I'm supporting a good company, a good cause, and I love that I can do software updates without fearing that it fucked everything up like every major macOS release does.
No doubt. And don't forget Apple nailed the trackpad experience too. But I seldom need to use my laptop for 20 hours away from an A/C outlet. It's nice, but not necessary for me.
With that being said, I personally am going to start abandoning the Apple ecosystem with each device that NEEDS to be replaced. I'm tired of features being forced into each software cycle, and I don't want any AI on my devices.
I'm going to lean into Framework (or keep my old T480 alive) and GrapheneOS when needed.
Windows 10 in comparison gives maybe 4-5 hours of battery plus lots of fan usage (but lesser ram usage often).
A $50 battery pack solved the battery efficiency problem.
So for a little extra weight (external battery + FW13 weighs the same as a MB Pro 14”) I get a lot more actual capability in places that matters than a base MacBook Air.
I’ve got two more USB-C/Thunderbolt ports than the Air on both sides of the system with the option to swap them for any I/O I want.
And I’m not stuck with macOS arbitrarily dropping support for my non-upgradable all-soldered hardware every 10 years.
(I also couldn’t really find a similar Lenovo at anything close to that price/spec with the kind of requirements I have - good keyboard with low flex, nice to haves like the 3:2 aspect ratio, generally a programmer-oriented laptop with good. My second choice might be a Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition. The T14 series has unacceptable deck flex. Even value systems like the IdeaPad 5i 16 cost more. I could see myself enjoying a Zenbook like the Zenbook Duo but again it costs more).
fw13 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/15773121
MacBook Air - https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-air-15-inch-2025
There is a gulf between the two and that’s what is sacrificed on the FW13. I m not saying someone can’t decide to prioritize modularity, storage, and repairability over performance, but there is a ‘price’ to making that choice.
This is Apple’s price anchor in action. The base price is essentially not the real price. Anyone who can use the capability of their chips to their fullest will need more RAM and storage. Even casual users will find 256GB tight sometimes. Goodbye, “Optimize storage.”
In practical use, there really isn’t anything my system can’t do that a MacBook Air can besides battery stamina. Since moving to Linux/x86 gaming has become way easier (goodbye CrossOver). Programming and containerization is way better on Linux, and I finally have the RAM for it.
I acknowledge Apple’s lead in their chips but that’s only one component of the experience, and it’s not so far ahead that it’s a major detriment to choose something else.
The MBA has about a 20% better score on the single thread perf benchmark. It's better, but is it that significant ?
Especially as it has no active cooling. By the time thermal throttling kicks in the FW13 will keep chugging along. The MBP solves that issue, albeit at significantly higher price range.
Then again, the amount of RAM the FW13 can take will also help in many cases.
For example, in the real world, you’ve gotta run most PC games using CrossOver on Mac with significant performance implications or have them not work at all, where modern Linux/x86 is nearly fully PC game compatible, and the AMD integrated graphics are much more game-optimized than Apple’s.
The arbitrary spec limits on Apple systems also get in your way. Want 4TB of storage? Want more than 32GB of RAM? You have to upgrade to a MacBook Pro even if you don’t want all the other features and expense of the Pro model.
Is all you want a USB-C port on the right side or an SD card reader? Pony up the extra $600 for the 14” MacBook Pro.
It has a diving board trackpad, significantly worse speakers, no zonal dimming on the display (comparing to MacBook Pro, which higher end specs of the Framework cost as much as), general poor body rigidity, an aggressive fan curve that ramps up audibly on short loads (the Air doesn't even have a fan and the Pro can handle a couple mins of all-core 100% load without becoming audible), etc etc.
As much as I dislike Apple's business practices it's undeniable that other vendors are generally selling significantly cheaper feeling devices at the same price point. These are not niche things, you feel the cheapness on the Framework with every touchpad click, short bursty CPU task, HDR video, audio playback, heck even picking it up off the desk.
macOS assumes you’re using a trackpad to a fault, to the point where I prefer a trackpad on macOS desktop systems. That’s an operating system choice that a conspiracy theorist might tell you is Apple’s way of artificially differentiating their patent-protected trackpad hardware products. If Apple just used a normal mouse and designed the OS around it like everyone else they couldn’t sell you the advantage of their fancy trackpad, since we all know a dedicated mouse is more precise and quick, so that situation is yet another crazy expensive vendor lock-in accessory along with the Touch ID keyboard. Over $300 if you buy both for your desk setup!
Also remember that this is a laptop for programming…how often am I using my mouse?
Worse speakers, this is true, though it’s improved by installing Easy Effects and running a Framework profile. I use my AirPods Pro 3 on the Framework and they work great with it. MacBook speakers sound really good but they are still laptop speakers.
I don’t agree that the Framework body rigidity is poor. Do you own one or are you just assuming it’s poor? It’s very comparable to a MacBook, the screen has slightly more flex but the keyboard deck and core system is almost identically rigid.
Zonal dimming is only available on the MacBook Pro models that cost $600 more than my Framework, which doesn’t include the cost of upgrading them to equivalent 2TB/32GB configuration. So realistically, for my needs I would have had to spend double to get zonal dimming, which doesn’t benefit my programming work at all, though it would presumably benefit gaming. But gaming is my secondary use case.
Also, if Framework ever makes a micro-LED screen in the future, I’ll be able to replace it for a very reasonable cost. They have already released a display upgrade and surely will upgrade it again in the future as more panels become available.
You can customize the fan curve of a Framework! But the fan noise was never a consideration of mine. I’m not an audio producer.
https://github.com/TamtamHero/fw-fanctrl
You’re saying I’m constantly burdened by this computer but you’re not really considering how I’m using the laptop. I don’t care much for HDR content and barely watch television, fan noise hasn’t been an issue, this laptop is almost a full pound less heavy than my previous 14” MacBook Pro and almost identical in weight to a MacBook Air, so I don’t understand how picking it up is a worse experience.
You didn’t even mention the weak webcam on the Framework! It sucks! But I don’t use it, just like I didn’t use my MacBook webcam. I’m a programmer remember? I don’t go on camera. That’s for sales bros. FaceTime on iPhone is better than the MacBook anyway.
If you ever have a meeting where multiple people huddle around a laptop, that uses speakers, webcam, and microphone, and the MacBook does so much better in that scenario. We have interrupted meetings to swap from a Framework 16 (old CTO's laptop) to my MacBook Pro because participants simply couldn't hear those of us slightly further away from the laptop!
Zonal dimming is an advantage whenever you have black areas on the screen, and good fan tuning is an advantage if you want to compile some changes during a meeting without thinking "this task will turn my laptop into a jet engine and distract everyone else".
If you don't care about these things, then you can find way cheaper devices than the Framework that are cost competitive on core specs. Let's get some Framework pricing as a datum, Framework will sell me the AI 350 and 2.8K display for $1939CAD, it has no RAM, no SSD, no charger, no ports... if I add 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, charger, and 2xUSB-C, 1xHDMI, 1xUSB-A, we're looking at $2403CAD.
If I don't care about the less measurable components, why would I not buy something like this $400USD (~$550CAD) laptop [1] another poster in this thread found which also has an AI 350, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD? I can buy four of these laptops for the price of the Framework and still have some cash left over! If I need more RAM I'm sure I can find a similarly cheapo laptop with a SODIMM by actually googling myself.
I think the reality is both you and I do care about these other parts, just maybe with a different minimum acceptable quality. But even inside PC land Framework is not competitive. Higher-end X1 Carbons have haptic trackpads at the same price point as Framework is offering diving boards. Across the market there are OLEDs for less money than Framework is charging for LCDs.
Personally, I don't care about trackpad alone so much, merely that the pointing device situation be acceptable. When programming, I type a lot and then do a few small mouse actions (e.g. expand some segment on a docs webpage, or mouse around some GUI to test the feature I have been building out). With a haptic trackpad, I can move my thumb from the spacebar to the top of the trackpad which is just below it and do my mouse actions without significant hand movement. This is not possible with a diving board design as the top of the trackpad is not clickable. A pointing stick is absolutely an acceptable solution to this problem, but Framework also does not offer those, again despite price-competitive offerings from, say, Lenovo offering it.
Let's briefly look at Lenovo's website. I can spec out a ThinkPad P14s Gen 6 here in Canada from Lenovo's website [2] with a 120Hz OLED screen, trackpoint, Ryzen AI 350, 1x16GB SODIMM and 512GB NVMe for $1529CAD, that's a fully working computer for less than the barebones Framework, with a better display and pointing device situation! I can use the empty second SODIMM port with a single 48GB stick and get 64GB, and stick the NVMe in an external enclosure to use as an external SSD, and deck it out with whatever market-rate drive and RAM I can get.
The Framework is broadly uncompetitive even if you won't consider a MacBook.
[1] https://slickdeals.net/f/18984394-hp-omnibook-5-16-fhd-ips-r...
[2] https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bun...
This $2400 CAD price point is pure fantasy to me because that’s not what I paid. I paid $800 for a DIY system then about $200 or $300 for RAM and storage (USD).
The ThinkPad P14 you specced out is not significantly more competitive. I’ll use my US website prices to compare. The base model starts at $1044. It comes with a Ryzen AI 340 which is a far worse chip for integrated graphics than my 7640u, it’s like 60% of the speed of the 7640u graphics. The display in that model is the base model display, not a 120Hz OLED, similar specs to the Framework. You have to add $10 for fingerprint reader then I have to still buy a new stick of RAM and a bigger SSD.
I also tried a Lenovo T14 in store and felt like it had way too much deck flex. I had no idea if the P series is the same but Lenovo felt plasticky. Framework is an aluminum chassis and the keyboard deck flex is about as good as it gets before you sign your life away to Apple.
The $500 cheapo spec laptops aren’t as nice as the Framework! I swear FW haters just insist that the hardware quality is budget tier and it must suck since it’s modular and that it’s not a premium-class system. But that is just not true. The Lenovo T14 felt cheap in comparison. If I get a $500 cheapo laptop I’m getting even more plastic and flex.
The ThinkPad T14 keyboard was not good enough for me. The Framework 13 has better keyboard. I like it better than my previous MacBook Pro! A $500 cheapo laptop isn’t going to satisfy me there.
In terms of Linux support, Framework is premium. The company itself focuses on it more than Lenovo. Hardware firmware gets updated automatically within Linux, and there’s a dedicated community surrounding it, which you won’t get on some random $500 HP laptop.
Maybe Lenovo offers an equivalent value or sometimes even a better value when there’s a sale. For my needs Apple couldn’t even get close to the kind of price I paid for what I got.
One more sidenote, you brought up buying the power supply separate, which I didn’t have to do because I already own an Anker Prime charger that I’ve used with my previous MacBook for being a superior travel solution compared to OEM. My monitor on my desk already provides USB-C PD. So really, if I buy a laptop that includes one it’s just e-waste that I don’t need.
All the time?
Some of us have embraced IDE and graphical tooling in desktop systems since the 1990, after computers with desktop environments became affordable and we weren't stuck with text only interfaces.
And like I said, the trackpad isn’t bad, it’s just not the world’s best trackpad.
To reiterate further, macOS demands you use the trackpad for gestures that aren’t demanded in other operating systems. They want you to buy their $150 trackpad even though you’re sitting at a desk and could easily use a $20-50 third party mouse.
There is enormous historical irony in this comment. The Apple Distortion Field was an observable delusion for decades before Apple's ARM silicon.
That said, CPU performance is just one criterion in choosing a laptop, and Framework's modularity is a greater idea than anything Apple has ever done for re-use.
When a $39 hinge kit costs $70 after shipping, it sounds unlikely I'll be buying replacement parts from Framework, and there's really no 3rd party marketplace either.
Its a good laptop, but not a great laptop. Its very light and compact (very important to me), and its been reliable, at least since the AMD GPU driver issues were resolved. The matte screen is fine, battery life is adequate, and the CPU meets my needs as a hobby developer.
Overall, I'm happy with it and I expect to use it for many years.
Its biggest issues are the touchpad (it's a diving board design, so you have to always click in the bottom 1/3 of the pad) and the quality of the case. The case flexes slightly if the computer is on an uneven surface, or if you are holding it in one hand by the corner while typing/mousing with your other hand, and this can cause the mechanics of the touchpad to jam. I've trained myself to tap instead of click, but that's me adapting to bad hardware.
I wish the case were more solid, even though I know this would add to the expense, size and weight. I expect to eventually replace every part of this laptop except the case, so I would appreciate more durability.
I was considering one, but definitely not worth it. I can get a ThinkPad for less and it’s much better quality.
The entire laptop can be easily and worryingly flexed by hand when closed.
The keyboard in particular flexes by more than a millimetre when pressing on a key or in between them.
It seems ridiculous when the much cheaper and thinner MacBook Air is far stiffer with no noticeable keyboard flex.
I looked up my purchase using my Framework account to confirm my purchase date, and it lists my mother board as System: Intel® Core™ i7-1260P. Sloppy record keeping like this doesn't inspire confidence.
It is definitely not, and /proc/cpuinfo confirms it:
model name : AMD Ryzen 7 7840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics
----
Update: Sorry, there is no mistake! The i7 order was my original pre-order, which I canceled. My order is correctly recorded.
Wait, are you saying it's not possible to change settings so that I can
- single finger tap anywhere for a left click,
- two finger tap anywhere for a right click.
In case it breaks, I walk to my nearby electronics store and purchase a new MacBook Pro. With Time Machine restore I am up an running within an hour. The M1 goes onto the pile of stuff to repair later. And this is where the international part plays a role, in nearly any city in the western world I can grab a new MacBook Pro within an hour.
My day rate is significant enough that downtime is expensive. Not working for a week waiting for Framework to send parts is not an option for me. I can get next day delivery for memory and an SSD through Amazon in most of Europe but that is still a day rate wasted.
A Time Machine restore has never failed me. You are fully operational after the backup is restored. Syncing your data onto an SSD via M2 isn't comparable.
Then it just comes down to the time delta between buying a new Mac from a shop in a city (assuming you want one of the immediately-available specifications) versus waiting for Framework parts of be delivered. Framework could optimise this if it was worth their while by having a limited number of common replacement items at fast-shipping fulfilment centres.
However, in reality it sounds less like a genuine question, and more like someone justifying their decision to buy a Mac post-hoc with a range of specific requirements only a Mac could meet.
You are comparing apples and oranges here. Apple is internationally available because it is 40 years old and very successful. There's no reason why Framework cannot be that successful in 10 years time.
Furthermore, when Framework might become that successful, no need to buy a full new laptop, you can just buy the stuff that failed and move on. And if that does happen, then experience with Framework promises to be much better than experience with Macbook.
They don't have the resources nor is their scope large enough. Could that change in 10 years? Maybe, but probably not. I'm not even sure it's something they would want to replicate. Retail costs a lot of money and the benefits to it are quite limited. Similarly a service network that would be comparable to one of the larger PC manufacturers would also be very expensive.
> Furthermore, when Framework might become that successful, no need to buy a full new laptop, you can just buy the stuff that failed and move on. And if that does happen, then experience with Framework promises to be much better than experience with Macbook.
The experience you're describing is still involving a person opening up their laptop to replace whatever the failed part is, assuming they even know what the failed part is. I'm qualified to do those sort of diagnostics on a computer and depending on what it is, it'd still be more downtime than going to buy/getting a loaner laptop in most cases.
I'm not saying people can't learn that but I know that people won't.
Sure, they could theoretically be a good buy in 10 years.
The laptop can then be whatever and if it breaks or gets stolen it's not a big deal. I don't need an expensive laptop and all my stuff is on the desktop so nothing to lose.
Does require a somewhat decent internet connection but nothing special.
I literally just brought a laptop 3 weeks ago and I've already upgraded both of those. It's a newer model with an RTX GPU.
I think framework has potential, but it's going to be a decade to see how things pan out. Will I be able to use the same mainboard for a decade?
So far what I'm seeing is a laptop brand which charges between 50% and 100% more with strange customer support issues and a limited service network.
If you're thinking about reducing waste , buy a refurbished Thinkpad.
If you're getting a Framework with the top specs and can't get a competing laptop at higher spec cheaper, I can see the argument that you might benefit from the extra upgradability headroom. However that almost certainly means a mainboard upgrade, and I'd be concerned about the thermals of a current chassis with a hypothetical future mainboard.
Of course, warranty and support quality is a different question.
Maybe, but you can actually just upgrade the mainboard. Framework has already done that cycle a couple of times. And they made sure the mainboard can work without a battery (not exactly a high bar, but it's better than most), so your old mainboard can pop into a small case and get a second life as a NUC
What really excites me is the prospect of 3rd party mainboards and other components. This ecosystem is still just getting started though.
It seems like this is the beta product, I'll wait for the finished one.
Ryzen 340 mainboard: $450 https://frame.work/products/mainboard-amd-ai300?v=FRANTE0005
Ryzen 340 laptop: $1100 https://frame.work/products/laptop13-amd-ai300/configuration...
Yeah it's certainly the single most expensive component, but it's still cheaper than a whole new laptop and, more to the point, less waste than a whole new laptop
https://slickdeals.net/f/18984394-hp-omnibook-5-16-fhd-ips-r...
HP OmniBook 5 16 with an Ryzen 350 for 439$.
This is actually less than the framework mainboard for a full laptop with a better processor.
This actually
I brought my friend an HP because their PC wasn't booting for someone reason and it's more than enough.
If we really want to compare, I bet a refurbished Thinkpad would probably be about the same price as the typical Framework mainboard of similar performance.
If you like framework, thats great, but it's not really about saving money.
And a used laptop is cheaper still! Which is all entirely irrelevant to the original point and the goal posts aren't even in view anymore. Finding cheaper products that aren't equivalent isn't exactly hard. If the singular thing you want is CPU performance then a laptop is a bad idea in the first place.
An upgrade like that does mean I need new (DDR5) RAM too though, which tightens the gap a bit (or a byte, at the moment).
* 11th Gen Intel Core
* 12th Gen Intel Core
* Chromebook Edition
* 13th Gen Intel Core
* Ryzen 7040 Series
* Intel Core Ultra Series 1
* Ryzen AI 300 Series
There are a couple of third party boards from DeepComputing too.
https://maxrozen.com/replacing-my-macbook-m1-with-thinkpad-t...
and a quick buyers guide here:
https://maxrozen.com/getting-your-own-good-enough-laptop-for...
My big beef with Macs is I need BIG ssds. If I want to get a 4TB SSD on a Macbook it starts at around 3000$. Recently I purchased a laptop with 2 SSD slots, although disappointingly only one is easy to access.
I'm tempted to go to Microcenter and tell them to replace the stock SSD with a 4TB( the stock SSD is the one behind a difficult to remove heat sink), and then I'd put another 4 tb ssd. Alternatively I could just pay 800$ for a 8TB SSD, install it in a laptop that cost around 1300-1500$ and I'm only spending 2300$.
On a Mac that's about 5000$. I make music and hate external drives with a passion.
For me, what found attractive about the Framework is that I just don't like the idea of replacing my laptops wholesale. I like the little piecemeal upgrades that Framework offers. I like my tech to stay as unchanged as it can. I don't want to adjust to a new keyboard and touchpad and screen and charging situation all at the same time. I prefer the route of doing little upgrades over time, where things only change a little bit, when I'm ready for them to. Maybe next year I will upgrade the screen; maybe the next year I'll drop the USB-A module for something more useful; a couple years after that maybe I'll get a new mainboard; and all through this it's still the same laptop I've known and gotten used to. This is how I manage my desktop, and Framework lets me do the same with a laptop.
It's just a personality thing I think. Framework's piecemeal upgrade story is more attractive to me, but I agree there's other routes for people with other priorities.
Because PC gamers often buy desktops. And console gamers buy consoles while handheld gamers buy handhelds and smartphone gamers...
Then there are other kinds of laptop users... the various Macbook users from the lightweight travel Air to the beefy desktop replacement 16" Macbook Pro, and the Windows business laptop users, and the Linux laptop users.
(I think we'd all do well to remember the variety in computers and computer users...)
So yeah, I've rarely bought anything but a gaming laptop that could easily be upgraded via RAM or SSD, and when I've bought non-upgradeable laptops (a tiny Asus 2-in-1 touchscreen) I found it just wasn't for me and I ended up selling it.
My favorite gaming laptops... Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, Acer Nitro 16. My spouse uses a Legion 5 Pro. My sister uses my 5+ year old Legion 5. They've all been a combination of good or great screen, great keyboard, good hardware, pretty quiet except when cranking up for demanding games, and so far all have been reliable, upgradeable, etc. We don't tend to use them on battery, but I've found that they tend to do 4-5 hours easily for basic usage. I wouldn't expect them to do well at all when pulling 100+ W for gaming. (My sister had an older Nitro and the quality was lacking, but I've been impressed by my 2023 model.)
I currently own a Lenovo Legion laptop. Still, a very powerful machine, but the screen now has a spot in the middle with multiple dead pixels, the topcoat on the trackpad is peeling off, and the main body has spots where palms rest. I'd happily buy replacement parts and install them, but I can't.
While I understand what Framework is doing and the repairability aspect, somehow this conversation always seems to make it seem Laptops are similar to Ipads or something. It's not.
I don't think it's fair to compare Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Framework. The T14 range is a much better comparison. While Lenovo took a few steps back a few years ago the last couple of generations seem to be much better in regard to being repairable. The T14 Gen 5 [0] gets a 9/10 score on ifixit. Parts are easily available globally, while Framework is still somewhat limited in this regard geographically.
That said, it's great we have a choice! If it were not for Framework, I don't think Lenovo would have made an effort to make the Thinkpads repairable again.
- [0] https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Lenovo_ThinkPad_T14_Gen_5
If the expansion slots were larger then they could have maybe facilitated something like getting 2 usb-a ports in exchange for the one USB-C which feels like an actual thing to consider. As it is, it just doesn't feel like you're gaining anything. If you're carrying any additional expansion cards with you you lose the only advantage it has over buying a hub, which can turn that one usb-c slot into multiple usb-a ports, ethernet, hdmi, audio, sd card reader, etc.
I get what you're coming where you're coming from though. For me, the whole package was worth it, but that's probably not true for everyone.
That covers all of my frequent needs. (My main monitor has usb-c input, and I have a couple of inexpensive adapters/hubs for HDMI, DP, Ethernet, etc. - all of which are used infrequently.)
I was a little concerned before buying it, and four is probably the minimum number of ports I could be happy with. But in practice I've been very satisfied with my port selection, and if you do need more ports, there's always the FW16.
To me their software story is compelling. To use the wording of the article, I like that I can be a weirdo running Linux on a laptop and not be a fringe use case. I had no interest in either of their supported distros but their support forums had the necessary hints needed to get a different distro up and running (plugging in newer firmware from the Linux kernel git).
I like that they’ve given some support to the FreeBSD community and I’d like to run that on a future Framework.
The old motherboard with the coolermaster case is tucked between two books in my library and is now running my home proxmox.
64GB RAM 4TB NVME 4C/8T 2.5G ethernet and ... 2 Watt idle.
I did run "proxmox in proxmox" with ceph and cloudinit/live migration for a conference I gave on this old motherboard:
video https://jres.ubicast.tv/permalink/v1268c650f5d41v26pt0/ifram...
PDF https://conf-ng.jres.org/2024/document_revision_2424.html?do...
Can you just plug usbc directly into them without using the expansion things?
The cooling seems to travel 90° corresponding to in the bottom and out the back of a laptop. How do you have it between two books?
Granted, it was their first ever shipping product so I gave them a free pass but I thought they would atleast issue a recall or have a repair program where you send in the laptop to get it fixed. Instead they first denied it was even an issue, later on when enough people complained - they started a battery program where they send you a new ML220 coin battery that will also eventually stop working.
I was told buying a new mainboard (12th or 13th gen Intel) would fix it, but I decided to just buy a new ZenBook instead.
We still provide the RTC substitute module free to any 11th Gen owner who requests it.
It was and is totally wrong that Framework requires users to repair a component that was faulty from the factory. You should ship the laptops back to your facility and repair them, at your expense. At worst, offer a substantial discount on a motherboard replacement.
This experience is a big reason why I went from a strong Framework proponent to a strong detractor. You do not support your products, and users cannot trust you to do the right thing. You now bask in the idealistic haze of nerddom but your actions show that you're just a business for whom repairability is a sales strategy to justify premium prices.
For users, that were still under warranty - they offered free RTC batteries (which also stopped working later).
Either way, I won't buy anything from them going forward.
> Plus I prefer intel for TB support for an egpu.
lol you and nobody else prefer Intel in a laptop these days. But FYI framework has TB support on their Intel skus and AMD has USB 4 (aka, thunderbolt 3++)
Apart from thinkpads and maybe framework, I don't think there is any other reliable laptop brand with reasonable prices.
I was talking with my mother about buying jeans pants that would last for a long time, and a 200 euros jeans would have holes on its 6th year or something. Everything is built to last "just long enough".
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375174
I think the Framework model (OTC/commodity parts + mainboard) is neat, but what Beelink and others in the MiniPC space are doing is much more useful and compelling for someone who needs a modern, extensible system.
My work doesn't require a lot of local compute (or repairs), so there's nothing really a Framework offers that I'm not already getting on a 5 year old $150 4GB Chromebook.
I have a custom built PC (been building my own since 2008). In that span, I had many minor upgrades and 3 entirely new from-scratch builds. I could not imagine it any other way.
For my laptops though, I never bothered. I want something that “just works” when I’m on-the-go, it’s fine if it’s not new hardware as I won’t game on them, and my primary concern is how light they are.
And then a few years ago I got the iPad Pro which became my only device I’d take while traveling.
I’ve looked at framework as a potential next laptop but it’s expensive, some of parts are expensive, and the other parts I’m not sure I’ve ever had issues with in past laptops. I think I’m better off buying multiple used thinkpads over the course of my life, or even a used MBP (refurbished m4 MBP goes for ~$1.3K from Apple, base configuration w/ 16GB ram for framework 13 is ~1.2K), than a Framework; the thinkpads would be cheaper and more eco friendly with good build quality. I’m not looking for a ship of Theseus laptop, I’m just looking for something that works a long time, is good enough, and I want to keep my lifetime expenditure on hardware on the lower side. I look at my laptop cost as upfront cost divided by number of years I expect to use it for and I have a spreadsheet with past laptops (and phones) tracking historical usage and costs to better inform my next purchase. Framework looks attractive but the costs don’t seem to align with my goal.
I doubt I will order more. We’ve had small and large issues.
My Linux machine will drain the battery completely if you don’t perform a full shutdown, and even then the quiescent drain is too high and I can expect it to be dead in a week.
The dream of repairability is great, but the reality just isn’t there.
That said, I was able to replace a damaged screen with no effort at all. A far cry from the MS Surface I had previously, but any vendor could sell a screen or keyboard without the “full modularity” that FW pushes.
https://community.frame.work/t/the-snack-drawer-store-now-ma...
> I could finally watch 480 YouTube videos instead of 360
What’s meaningless about this big upgrade in quality?
So with that and the misconceptions like "You can't change the RAM /SSD" (you can, but for a smaller set of laptops than before), the thesis is rather muddy (unless you literally plan a custom printed snacks tray, but even then other laptops have pluggable side bays, so could also plug in there?)
Many laptops do still have replaceable RAM and SSDs, but it's not a sure thing these days.
From what I read about the 16 though that sounds like a lot harder of a sell.
I'm pretty sure the 13 is still paying Frameworks bills...
I'm returning my Framework 16 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375174 - Dec 2025 (576 comments)
> You can't change the SSD on laptops now.
> You can't easily repair the screen on laptops now.
I can do all of that on my Thinkpad E14.
First: Remove the internal CDPD wireless modem, remove the internal 56k POTS modem/10/100 Ethernet combo card. Wire the TTL-level UART from the CDPD port over to the RJ11 jack so I could now hack on embedded devices using a simple RJ11-to-bare-wires cable.
Second: The modem/ethernet card removal freed up the MiniPCI slot. Obtain a MiniPCI-to-USB2.0 card (4 downstream ports), and desolder the tall headers (it was meant for embedded machines with more internal space). Then verrrry carefully desolder the machine's external USB1.1 port pins from the mobo, and wire them over to one of the USB2.0 host ports. (Ground stayed, but D+/D-/Vbus moved.) Ta-daa, faster external devices.
This is the only bit I seem to have a photo of: https://flickr.com/photos/myself248/255205625/
Third: Carve out some stiffening ribs from under the palm-rest, shuck a USB-Bluetooth adapter, and mount it in there. The palm-rest being plastic means this puts the radio outside the magnesium shell, but still "internal" from an ergonomic perspective. Sneak some wires past the touchpad opening and solder them to the now-freed-up USB1.1 host port on the mobo, since bluetooth doesn't need 480Mbps.
Fourth: Shuck a 2GB USB flash drive and wire it to another internal USB2.0 port, and run EBoostr, a third-party implementation of Readyboost for WinXP, which gave flash-cache functionality for severely RAM-limited machines like mine (192MB mobo max, sadly!). Tuck it up by the RAM, ironically, because there's plenty of room up there.
Fifth: Shuck a USB2.0-GigE adapter (one with separate magnetics and jack, leave the magnetics but remove the jack because it's too tall, also remove the USB port), and wire it to yet a third internal USB2.0 port. Wire the Ethernet side out to the RJ45 jack freed up by the 10/100 card removal. The speed boost from 100Mbps to 480Mbps (GigE bottlenecked by USB2.0) isn't nothing, but the real benefit is that GigE is Auto-MDIX so I never have to carry a crossover cable, and that's worth it all by itself.
Sixth: Shuck a USB-Wifi dongle, and wire it to the fourth and final internal USB2.0 port. Do the world's hairiest coax splice to the CDPD modem's antenna lead, so the 2.4GHz RF now goes out to the 800MHz-tuned antenna mounted on the screen. Split the antenna open and trim the active elements to 1/3 their length, raising the resonant frequency accordingly. Without access to a VNA at the time, this was as good as I could get, and it worked just fine.
At that point, it was pretty much the perfect laptop, except for the brutally-limited RAM, which eventually forced its obsolescence as browsers bloated without bound. I used it heavily during 2006-07, and to this day I still miss that perfect little keyboard.
I’ve never been brave enough to modify my laptops beyond the one time I sprayed a new (hard) topcoat on an Acer Aspire 5520g… which turned it from a flimsy piece of garbage into a slightly less flimsy piece of garbage.
I feel like running a Thinkpad x201 these days would be a lesson in frustration (for the browser bloat you mentioned) but that was my perfect laptop. If I could do a mainboard swap I would continue to use it.
For me personally, weight doesn't matter that much, and neither does configurability (I guess by now they have data on the most popular port choices for example).
But size (as small/minimal as possible for a given screen and keyboard size – minimal bezels for both) and strength (no flex, solid hinge) do matter to me.
I understand these two things conflict with themselves, and with the framework's repairability and configurability.
Still, I'd like to see some true innovation there. I'm just afraid they painted themselves into a corner with their current mainboard design, and won't be able to diverge from that to bring us something truly solid yet compact and repairable.
And it's disappointing because Framework is the _perfect_ company to offer such an option.
I bought a Framework 13" in 2022, Intel 13th gen with 32GB ram (probably not as stupid as expensive as it is now) and 1TB drive.
It has good intentions but falls short. I would say overall it is a mediocre laptop in terms of quality.
Will it last longer than any other laptop? I would think so, as it has a strong story of available parts and upgrades. Similarly I believe it would last longer than any other laptop, since you can essentially do a Ship of Theseus with it.
Pain points:
- display hinge problem, picking up the laptop would make the screen lie flat 180 degrees, which is really annoying - this has been fixed in newer versions of framework, but to get a new hinge kit costs $39 AUD plus $30 AUD in shipping, so I'm not willing to make that purchase due to the ridiculous shipping price,
- the modular ports are nice, but I'd rather just have fixed ports and more of them, of course that'd obstruct the repair/modularity story,
- sometimes the modular ports do not work after resuming from a hibernate, I have to eject and reseat it,
- the display is okay, I notice mine has a small granular line of off coloured pixels - i don't think this is due to any physical damage but rather a defect in the screen as I've never had this kind of issue with any other laptop and I've handled the framework fairly carefully; but this line of off coloured pixels is very faint and virtually unnoticeable unless using very dark colours, so it's not a huge deal as I make it out to be,
- the keyboard works great, but I was hoping for an upgrade to something along the lines of an apple style layout with half height inverted-t arrow keys and fn/ctrl swapped; the idea of a marketplace for custom parts never really eventuated save a few niche things like RISC V,
- Battery life of about 3-4 hours of very average usage,
- Speakers are trash.
I needed this laptop because I needed 32GB of ram for compile jobs (c++ programmers on large projects knows such pain). I have since got a macbook pro 16" with >32GB of ram and it can compile what I need using Rosetta 2 for Linux (so amd64 compiles). Since my mac can now do everything I need, I haven't really touched my Framework; I just keep it spare when I need a bare metal x86-64 in a pinch. I loathe the idea of having to use it over a mac laptop.
The good news is since my post a year ago, Apple has since released the m4 chips which allow the Macbook Air range to drive up to two external displays using thunderbolt.
I also find their design very boring. I am not asking for a MacBook, but even ThinkPads are way more sexy and you can actually identify with that design. Framework just comes off as another 2015 MacBook Air design knockoff.
I've ordered a Framework 16, though. Not for any of that crap, but just to be able to customise it. That's what I love. They should really lean in to this.
Once the eco and repairability nonsense has faded - and it will, because it's marketing fluff - you still have a laptop that is extremely versatile from a company that doesn't hate you. It's not bloated with spyware by default, the checkout process isn't full of dark patterns, they support and encourage you to use it how you want to use it.
Lean in. Make more modules. Make better modules. Assist the community more with new and varied modules. It's crazy that eGPU and dual USB modules are primarily driven by amateur forum volunteers rather than being major priorities for Framework's engineers. Design a low-profile mechanical keyboard, I don't care for your excuses. Give us proper touchpad options with buttons. Keyboard modules with scroll wheels and panning for CAD.
These are what makes Framework special. In 3 or 4 years it's going to be thrown on the same pile as all of my other old laptops, never to be upgraded or repaired again. I don't care for that. I just want a laptop customised for my needs over that time, rather than fighting against the antagonistic whims of Dell et al.
Especially for the keyboard: 2~3 years of heavy use will have a clear impact, and I'd hate to get a replacement second hand (so already with a limited life span) or from a random vendor I have no idea if it will fry the motherboard.
Otherwise I was surprised by Framework's keyboard supporting QMK. That's the kind of nice things that make them standout IMHO.