Framework

See lots of complaints about speakers, personally speaking from my experience with my Framework 13 Ryzen 7 this just doesn't seem to make sense.

I have a few other premium laptops for my various businesses, some costing more and with B&O speakers. None are great. I have used Macbooks too (in the past just want to add), and equally they were poor too, just with a very high price tag and shocking customer service.

I'm keen to see what laptops people think have good speakers. I have never come across any that are exceptionally better than these? If there are any, post below, I could use a device for my kids that has good sound.

Battery life has never been an issue for me, I limit the CPU and it holds a charge for at least 8 hours. What is a problem, however, are the speakers. The speakers are very bad—but I will say that the speakers don’t matter much to me. I rarely play stuff out loud, and if I do, I am usually connected to speakers. So, that’s my one criticism really, although it doesn’t impact me much.

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.

speakers are mediocre

the 13.5 could be a tad lighter, like 50-80g - or a lighter version

Chassis is aluminum, it will easily get dents - it looks really nice though - the ThinkPads I had were more resistent to dents due to it (magnesium case?)

Missing OLED option...

Screen is bright don't know what ppl complain ,400nit in an 2140*1800 screen is really good!

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.

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.

2 main concern.

Firstly the battery is really not good as it should be for this price range. Do not expect the battery to power the laptop for the entire day.

Secondly, the framework is quite fragile. I mean, carry it in a good sleeves. Unfortunately even if you put tte laptop inside a good sleeves, you can easily bend it if it drops from a small height. I'm always careful when I carry my laptop.

My only complaint is, that when I'm using it, I'm the most interesting and coolest person in the room

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.

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

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.

• 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 Fn key for home end pgup pgdn is 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 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.

The keyboard isn't great, it feels cheap for the pricetag. Also the layout is a little daft in places.

It's too nice and I don't want to put stickers on it.

So I don’t have any concerns and I am a Framework AMD Ryzen 7 user. Was in batch 2 and been happy since delivery. My observations:

Is it loud under full load? No louder than any other laptop.

Does it discharge when powered off? Not any more than any other laptop does, and the battery life I get is great. Lasts a day for general use (word processing etc). All batteries discharge when not being used.

Display brightness is very good, aspect ratio is the reason I purchased it.

Hinges - don’t really understand the issue, they are good and secure (think people talking about hinge issues are referring to previous/older versions. On the AMD version this is not an issue at all).

Speakers, sound ok, no worse than my HP 840G which itself is an expensive laptop (work) and they on my HP are B&O speakers.

Is it an investment? No laptop is, but its upgradeable fixable and when you're really done with it, its environmental recyclable credentials are very good. I like that.

Is it expensive? No, I don’t think so compared with my HP laptop, which is very poor in relation to being upgradeable/fixable. I broke the USBC port on my HP 840G and it cost £250 to fix. With my Framework laptop, I can just buy another port for around £10.

Is it a great laptop? Yes, I think so.

Are there better laptops on the market? Probably, it depends what is important to you. For me its important primarily that its not a Mac, their "ecosystem" is boring and their treatment of customers is shockingly bad. Apple's supply chain has very questionable human rights issues and their right to repair is too little too late for me. Being flexible and repairable is a win win for me.

My thoughts :) let us know what you decide to do.

For me

• The speakers are quiet, I quite often have to have my volume at max to be able to hear anything clear
• The speakers are poor quality, I wouldn't listen to music on my laptop, or watch a movie through the speakers
• Battery life on Linux is poor, I can't get through a work day without having to charge

A minor complaint is that I find the trackpad kinda mid. It isn't bad by any means, probably the best non-apple trackpad I've ever used, but the Apple trackpad is better by a mile still

Consider a laptop out of the outlet store, if price is your issue

I have a 13 inch/11th Gen Intel from them. So far, I like it a lot more than my previous laptop purchases.

I do not use it for gaming and it is often hooked up to a dock with two displays using one USBC/thunderbolt 4 connection. It's been stable and no complaints with it this way.

The complaints I have, though, are:

• trackpad is a diving-board style for button pushing (I prefer it to be stationary but the sensitivity is great and gestures with 3-4 fingers work great)

• I want a matte/anti glare screen (wasn't an option when I ordered my device)

• battery life - but it's never been a problem since it's mostly plugged in and an older Gen CPU. The newer gen is better with battery life and you can get a more dense battery now than the one I was able to purchase

• case flexes when I pick it up quickly. It causes the trackpad to click and that has clicked on stuff before

Keyboard leaves a mark on the screen after a while. Can't think of anything other than that. On Linux, if you're mindful of your power usage you won't run into any issues with battery.

For the Framework 13 Laptop AMD Ryzen 7040 Series, you need to be mindful of the following for Fedora:

- Step 6 matters. Specifically, the link off to this page (scroll down). Follow our guide, it's a great experience. Fedora is constantly improving things.

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Others here will have their own feedback, but this is mine.

Probably the touchpad and the display. Both are kinda average, so at this price probably below average. Also the edges for me on the front are a bit sharp where the keyboard and the case meet. Sometimes the speakers will buzz my esc key.

The fan curve isn't optimized for the AMD, but that's software.

Little things, but batch 1 and don't regret it yet if that helps lol

Since upgrading from Tiger Lake to the AMD 7640U, my two biggest gripes (loud fan and short battery life) have been resolved to my satisfaction. That leaves only the more minor issues:

1. Speakers are not great. Generally not an issue since I'm usually on headphones (thank you, FW, for including the 3.5 mm headphone jack!), but when I do use the speakers, they often sound pretty muffled.
2. After two years, I have still not gotten used to using the Function keys in order to page up/page down. A six-key layout for the arrows would have been far superior.
3. Trackpad button click is still unreliable. Yes, you can tap the trackpad for the same effect, but that feels unintuitive to me and I would still greatly prefer physical mouse buttons that I can feel.

• shits out battery faster in sleep than running
• probably is self aware of this fact, since it likes to wake itself up and cook itself in my backpack
• gaping security holes, 12th gen already abandoned in terms of bios updates (read: none)
• Awful support that reply once every 48 hours, and ask you to repeat things from the last message you sent
• keyboard scratches the screen
• loud fans
• runs hot
• framework stans are annoying
• expensive
• shipping costs take the piss (still)
• they expect you to buy new shit (so very sustainable) when they ship broken HDMI and DP ports
• many promises made that were never made good on

11th gen i5 owner here. my main (and only really) criticisms are the speakers and battery life.

I'm on day 8 of AMD R5 onwership and it's my first framework. I run Windows 11 and Linux Mint on it. Mint is only used as a clean os, so if I'm at a client's site and need to double check a clear setup i use Mint.

My biggest issues are...

Battery life - today with Windows 11 in power saver mode I got 6 hours with 25% left. I often will work from places with no steady power or just moving about. So battery life is important to me.

Lack of ports - I love the concept of the expansion cards. There just aren't that many slots.

Fans - When plugged in, with the case open. They ramp up really quickly.

To give a balanced opinion things I love...

Build quality - Is excellent. Keyboard - Brilliant. Best I've used in quite some time. Screen - Couldn't ask for better Performance - For the R5 I have. I can play all the games I want (Left for dead 2, GTAV) at better than my previous desktop that admittedly only had a RX470 in.

My previous was a R5 5500u Dell Inspiron 14. The battery on that was better than the Framework and it was 1/3 the cost. I could be on the train from 7am until 4pm without plugging in.

The AMD variant is still very unstable. I've seen more than a few people speak about repeated bluescreening, in my own case with no discernable cause (no dump files being generated).

When it works, it's seriously amazing between the performance, battery life and noiseless operation under day to day use. But it is a first gen product. On the chassis and handling side, I'm extremely happy, though I would have preferred a 14" 16:10 display but that one is a preference thing - the 3:2 is still very nice, if with a pretty high latency.

I hope they manage to figure it out and make the platform stable sooner rather than later because I want this to be my only computer, and the only thing stopping it is the growth issues. Wouldn't have minded if they'd kept it in the oven a while longer to figure it out tbh.

Not the product, but company: they don't accept foreign bank cards. The laptop is awesome!

- Battery life is below average, seems to be around 6-7 hours on my 7840U w/ Fedora on 25% brightness (Still quite bright)
- Speakers are tinny at high volume
- Seems there is no hibernate mode, so I lose about 8-10% battery overnight if not plugged in

The pros outweigh the cons though

Mostly my personal points, but also some I do not personally care about. And only criticisms

• While FW goes further in Linux Support than most manufacturers, I would not say they are making sacrifices to Windows functionality in order to increase Linux compatibility or open-source-ness of the device (I like it that way, users using mainly Linux may not)
• The modularity of the outputs and modularity in general also brings with it negatives. In terms of power consumption, performance, compatibility (additional adapters involved for the outputs. While it should not be a problem, it still makes things more complex and by its nature prevents certain stuff, like the functionality of native HDMI outputs, DP++, power efficient USB-A outputs.) Early problems with power efficiency have been improved. It remains an open question for me how much of the remaining difference versus competitors is simply result of a not very specialized product (can run as desktop for example), the modularity or design experience. For example my device seems to wake up from Modern Standby so much more frequently than other Intel devices I have seen, causing higher sleep power consumption than seems necessary)
• a particular problem of the system design: device does not power up from hibernation if lid is opened (unlike when power is plugged in). Kind of needed when you lift the keyboard for disassembly, but far less convenient on Modern Standby devices that automatically switch from suspend to hibernation dynamically.
• fan grumbles at lowest speeds (you basically hear the motor in a really quiet room) and fan control has an audible step at that speeds that just pisses me off. Staying at higher speeds would be better. Less of a problem the more power efficient the CPU is. Intel CPUs seem to output enough heat in power saving modes and on desktop to necessitate running the fan at least on lowest speeds. So it is rarely completely off.
• The particular way the outputs are modular takes up a lot of space that limits the space the laptop has for other components
• still playing catchup with other manufacturers features: (small points, I would not have expected in early devices or on launch, but that could be available as upgrades)
  • HDR screen
  • auto-brightness of keyboard backlight instead of having it to do manually, auto-timeout so it won't stay on forever for example when watching a video
  • BIOS supervisor PW does not apply to boot-order changes / boot-menu unlike EVERY other device I have owned. I'd consider this a security issue
  • no option to disable automatic booting of any BootROM behind USB4/TB
  • no ReBar support
• either unwillingness or inability to provide software updates (firmware, BIOS) in any acceptable amount of time. At least for older products. Includes some issues officially announced as security issues that are outstanding for almost a year now. They say they are improving and not silently dropping support for older generations. That improvement can not yet be observed and plans have not been detailed enough for me to trust in that improvement before I see it. What they stated makes it seem like they new they did not have the resources for doing software support for more than 1 device if at all. Who knows if the current plan will actually add enough resources to support all generations still being sold (which are still all of them)
• Remains to be seen, how much of the stated goal of producing longer lasting devices can be achieved, if there is no way for software upgrades over time, when the hardware is technically capable of it, without replacing the entire mainboard, the most expensive part, with a newer version. Their board design shows FW trying to think of a lot of things for future possibilities (non-notebook use on limited power, touchscreen support etc). But I think a longer lasting device can only reach its full potential with ongoing software support including some software feature additions like mentioned above. While I think they have a good record for making revised hardware available, fixing flaws / disadvantages compared to competitors, like the hinges, speakers, more rigid lid for what I think are fair prices, they have not done any of that for the BIOS/software. For example the simply nice-to-have GUI is tied to the 13th gen FW board and newer, requiring an upgrade of the entire board (just an easy example not sth. I care about. I'd much more care about the software points mentioned above). They have stated, that they don't want to ship software feature upgrades. That, together with the questionable ability to even ship security updates, makes me estimate how long I am willing to stay on one FW device significantly lower than I initially hoped for.

My only minor complaint is that I wish I had more battery life. What I have is certainly adequate, but an additional 2 or 3 hours is a dream of mine. As I understand it, I can get an additional 10% battery life with Framework's higher capacity battery, which I will do when I notice my stock battery starting to fail.

The battery life isn't great, but I'm pretty sure the issue with it discharging while off is fixed. But yeah battery life is probably my biggest complaint, but if you carry a good usb-c charger most places like I do it's not a big issue.

Linux support is really good tho. Fedora specifically is officially supported (as well as ubuntu) but people have gotten all kinds of distros working great, usually with little to know issue at all.

Weak speakers, simple cooling solution (a big issue on Intel models imo) and a dated design