I am considering a purchase as a student although it is really expensive.
What are your major criticisms of the framework laptop?
E.g.
- I have heard that it discharges battery even while powered off (a very serious issue IMO).
Also, I will be using win10/11 and fedora most likely. So any Linux-related issues (e.g. hardware support) I would really like to know.
Thanks for any ideas.
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No high refresh rate screen option.
Intel based battery life is underwhelming
I would like to see a MagSafe like dedicated charging port not thing up the I/O
The fan curve is beyond obnoxious I would just prefer throttling then the machine sounding like a 20 year old think-pad with half a cat stuck in it.
It’s pretty heavy for a 13 inch laptop.
Top panel feels kinda of flimsy.
I get really weird keyboard lockout issues to where I have to pull the expansion ports out to fix it.
Doesn’t support windows hello.
A magsafe is withing reach if you are willing to DIY. There are suitable ones on ali and with a small 3d-printed collar it even looks sturdy.
For anything else I think apple still has the patent for that for a few years so it will be a while until we see that feature generally in laptops.
The hinge that came with the first couple batches of 11th gen is too weak to hold the monitor in place past a certain angle.
I don’t like how much ghosting the screen has. Night mode scrolling is really bad. Besides that, I like everything else.
Love my framework laptop. I would have liked coreboot as a firmware (get the chromebook edition if its a must) or wait for ever and someone will port it (there where some folks trying)
When swapping internal nvme, the bios loses custom bootnetries for those stored on the nvme. Unless the default boot efi filename and location. Guess grub or windows bootlaoder by defualt works fine. My custom arch install is a pro move, so yeah. The bios itself is fine enough. Incan recover from this.
More bios updates? DONT browse the forums. Tons of negative ppl that complain useless statements. We may get a nice update on 12th gen (the one i have), amd and newer and first FW did get uodates or still getting many. Mine, someway have 1 beta and i wish they had time (the third party and FW, to test and distribute the newer bios) as if my laptop would die, NOT. Its still a safe laptop anyway
I sat on it, its bended now a bit. Guess what, she still works nice and a replacement part is CHEAP compared to some highend other brands. Im just a cheapskate ans waiting till im convinced i need it and the network adapter (a aliexpress dongle 2.5g dongle seems fine now too)
get your nvme and ram elsewhere. I got a nice deal.locally and dont buy windows, just get your university license somehow or activate using hardware based activation (naughty) i ofcourse uninstall windoes when im finished with uni.
Id like no shipping costs. Its sad at ghe moment, or shipping from europe.
R7 on win 11. I upgraded from 12th i5.
I upgraded screen, battery, speakers.
My primary concern was the speakers, abysmal. The 80db are very loud, I wasn’t expecting how loud they are. Maxed out they sound terrible, but they cover a way more reasonable volume range than before. Even if they have overall slightly less sound quality, I’m not listening to music on it, I’ll use headphones for that. But YouTube videos or the odd game, 80db highly recommended.
Next concern was the heat. The i5 did not do well for me. R7 is substantially better. For performance, let alone heat and noise. And even now, after another users report, I may repaste.
Sort of wish there was a higher refresh screen but that’s not picky, 60 is good enough and the brightness is great with the matte.
I personally dislike the front left and right sides in the wing shape. I much prefer the MacBook style body shape. But that’s personal.
It’s too nice and I don’t want to put stickers on it.
Get a second top shell from the marketplace and sticker up one of them and swap to the clean one for ‘professionalism’.
How much time and effort does it take to exchange the top shell?
No idea.
It doesn’t have buttons on trackpad like thinkpad.
My main complaint is the fans are loud and they seem to ramp up to full speed quite often.
That being said, I’d rather deal with noisy fans than thermal issues.
The common ones I’ve seen are weak speakers, display hinges (much more infrequent), the case being made of a softer aluminum, display brightness (not quite sure why this pops up, but it does), trackpad quality, and battery life under Linux.
display brightness (not quite sure why this pops up, but it does)
Can you explain? You like the brightness?
I managed to get a significant dent in the bottom of the case on my first day carrying it to work. I’d never dented a laptop before. I have a hard case for it now.
I would like to buy a hard case too. Where did you get it from?
I literally used the display in direct sunlight on a bright day, how the hell did screen brightness come up.
Everything else i either agree or can confirm
Also the up and down arrow keys being miniature, and the page up/down and home/end requires both the arrows and the fn key from the opposite side of the keyboard.
Consider it an investment, you’ll save money in the long run if you upgrade the hardware, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to repair. Fedora support isn’t that good according to their graph, but windows support is nice from what I’ve experienced so far with it. Maybe one criticism I have for it would be the lack of a touchscreen/stylus option? I used to own a surface and aside from the maddening hardware issues I had with it, I did enjoy stylus and touch support
The only reason why I would consider a framework is because of the community. I am a tinkerer and thus far, in the last 15 years kf laptop ownerships. I have never encountered a laptop that did not have an issue. Take for example the thinkpad x1 extreme gen2 that had its display brightness cut in half over a driver update that was never fixed. Lenevo in that instance never cared to fix that issue and burried it among a sea of laptops they sell. However, framework has thus far two models, and when something does work, it shows. So expect support for major issues from both framework and the community. Also, if you happen to come accross a major issue with your build such as a desing issue, you dont need to scrap the laptop on the long term. You can simply upgrade when ever another part becomes available. It is like the other redditor said, it is on the long term that it becomes interesting.
I got my AMD 13 two days ago. Using Fedora 39. The most disappointing things for me so far are the touchpad (it’s nowhere near the macbook ones) and the battery life. I would absolutely pay for a higher capacity battery. On the other hand, FW is light and maybe it’s time for me to invest in a powerbank.
My only complaint is when using the device on my lap or holding it with one hand from the front corners the trackpad likes to “click” due to flex in the chassis. This isn’t the only laptop that does this but it is super annoying.
I did not put this system together. It was a refurb 11gen that was pre assembled.
- the optional ethernet adapter sticks out a bit (the RJ45 connector would be too large otherwise)
- the earlier models have a reflective screen
- having to use the
Fnkey forhomeendpguppgdnis more of an annoyance than I expected coming from a ThinkPad with dedicated keys - it’s sort of spoiled me for working on other laptops
I also miss the dedicated
pgup/pgdownbuttons a fair bit. It’s nice to have universal physical buttons for reading, works in every app.I also miss dedicated mouse click buttons, especially for middle click on linux. But I can get over this.
Missing home/ end/ PgUp/ down keys is actually the biggest reason why I still haven’t bought one. I just don’t want to take the risk.
I am curious, what is your use case for those ? When do you use those ?
Not to speak for the previous poster, but I use these all the time in my web browser and in PDF-viewing software (evince). They’re pretty useful.
All the time in programming. Jump to the start/end of the line, quickly scrolling through logfiles, source files, documentation etc.
Yes, most of them can probably be replaced by some other key combination. But it will be a different shortcut for each tool, and I don’t feel like remembering multiple combinations just to navigate a file using a keyboard.
Acccount gone, weird. Fn +those keys and you have them again. With linux yiu maybe can swap em. Wonder if my framebook bios allow to swap the default.
I have no issues with my framework keyboard. Love it. I dislike ghe windows logo, could have been a gear or tux but ow well
I think you replied to the wrong comment. I was asking what was the use case for Pg Up/Down and Home/End that prevented OP to buy a Framework
Personally, I tend to use vim modes everywhere so I don’t really need those but I always thought that on a laptop they were too far away to be useful anyhoo.
I know, sadly that user is gone and wanted to reply. Its a good question you have, cause i have a fw and my left hand holds Fn, right hand does what page up or home or end i need to press. You know what i miss? The pause button. Kinda wish i could swap default fn function but at ghe same time, im ok with this arrangement. Nonidea why OP of this subthread doesnt go for a dedicated keyboard or ghe FW16 with full keyboard mod.
Ok ok. I thought you were the another account of the same person
Uh, I have a fw13 12th and f5 is actually a play/pause button
I don’t find it that expensive compared to other high end laptop, for similar specs it seems to me Lenovo Thinkpads or Apple products are more expensive.
For me the only problem is that I’ve been used to Lenovo Trackpoint in the middle of keyboard, and going back to a trackpad where you need to move your hand out of the keyboard when you want to use mouse is a big setback. So many non necessary hand an arm movements.