The Framework Laptop 16 is a dream come true for me. It’s not perfect (yet), but everything has its caveats. Being a first generation product, I expected it to have some issues, and so it did. The numpad was doa, the touchpad spacers stood out a bit, the fingerprint cable connector got deattached by the fpc cable, the screen has a bunch of stuck pixels, but hey… don’t forget the fact, that if this weren’t a Framework Laptop, the whole laptop would’ve had to be sent in for every single issue.
I am glad to be able to repair it by myself, just needing the replacement parts. As for the widely criticized touchpad spacers, I bent them a bit by hand and voilà: problem solved.
Also, I like the possibility to be able to customize it by developing my own expansion cards or overcoming its limitations.
Yes, it is quite big. It wouldn’t be able to fit it in my backpack with the GPU installed. Gladly, I’m not a hardcore gamer and even if I were, I’d prefer a GPU with at least 12GB VRAM and configurable power usage to not drain the battery too much. It is too big to use on economy class flights, but I had no problems using it elsewhere.
The only regret I have is, due to its hefty price tag, I can’t get myself to order a second one to have one dedicated for tinkering and the other as a work machine, so as a temporary workaround I dedicated one SSD for work and the other for entertainment, both dual-booting Linux and Windows. I wish for a dual SSD board for the Expansion Bay to be released soon, already prepped a second Expansion Bay Shell with fans and a GPU Interposer for it. 