The hinges are relatively easy to replace, and we will be offering replacements in the Marketplace in the event they ever wear out.
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I’d also like to throw in my opinion that one-hand opening is an overrated “feature” that probably won’t be appreciated as much as a stable non-wobbly hinge.
The latest macbooks feel like a cheap toy compared to their pre-2016 versions.
Good work on the overall design though. I’m looking forward to becoming a customer soon!
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I support the opinion that one handed opening is overrated. Has anyone tried tightening the hinges?
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Hello @nrp sorry to bring this up again but it seems there are people asking about the possibility to tighten the hinges ourselves and there hasn’t been an answer (at least not one that I’ve seen).
I just got my Framework laptop in a couple of days ago and while I agree that there is no wobble while typing on the laptop on my desk, it definitely wobbles when it is in my lap.
I understand that there is this trend with YouTube reviewers testing one handed opening on laptops…but for the rest of us, can we tighten the hinges ourselves, or would it be possible that we could see a stiffer replacement hinge option in the marketplace in the future?
Thank you for your time!
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There is no method that we are aware of to manually tighten a hinge. It is technically possible to do a stiffer hinge as a Marketplace item if there is enough interest in that.
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Thank you for the response. Fingers crossed enough people will request this to warrant a new set of hinges in the marketplace. IMO it’s the only hardware quality issue I have with the laptop, although I do realize it’s a personal preference.
For anybody who doesn’t have one yet, Dave Lee touches on it in his video, I’ve time stamped it here:
I, for one, would greatly appreciate that.
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One thing I’ll mention here, which is just a hunch to me, but I would be wary of tightening my Framework’s hinges. I don’t think the display / lid are really thick enough to handle needing more force to open the screen. This is kind of a tradeoff for having a thin and light design. I love it though. I have no problems because I rarely use the laptop on my lap and when I do I don’t have a hard time not causing the screen to bounce or wobble.
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I have not used my frame.work on a plane or train yet, and haven’t noticed any motion with the screen when using it on my lap or table or couch. If I hadn’t read this thread I wouldn’t have thought about it at all. One thing I like is, the screen is pretty light (Comparing to a 15inch dell with touchscreen) so its less mass to have to hold still, so the seemingly lighter hinge, for me, still doesn’t move at all. What are most of the use cases where the screen moves? I’m curious to check against my use cases to see if I’ll ever run into a similar issue. I like that i can easily open the lid currently though. And compared to a few other machines I’ve used, I prefer it.
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Of course Framework will provide you with replacement hinges if you ever break them
The display receive the long-armature side and the base receive the short armature side. The display will be ok but I will be a little bit concerned about the chassis as the torque will be rather high.
Keep that in mind while adjusting the tension nut on the hinges. Of course you can adjust them to fit your liking. Just make sure they take almost the same amount of force to move.
The base side does have a bit more leverage in the form of a tab sticking out from below, which is better than at least some garbage hinge like on the GPD, but it could be better. For a 13 inch, though, it’s pretty adequate.
especially if this laptop have full metal chassis (lid, palmrest, bottom cover).
The display wobble is real. It’s not an issue you would have on a Macbook or a Surface. This is not a compromise we should have to live with. Let’s get a fix on this.
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Isn’t the surface a tablet though? 
I don’t think anyone is saying its not real @T5UN4M1 , more of, where does it occur? Not on a hard surface, or on a desk under general use. Whats the use-case here?
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@o_o Probably talking about Surface laptops.
The wobble is noticeable whenever the laptop is moved, or during normal usage on a lap. After adjusting the lid, it takes ~5 seconds for it to stop wobbling vs. on a Dell/Thinkpad which takes ~1 second.
I’d definitely be interested in trying out a stiffer hinge variant if it becomes available on the Marketplace!
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Thank you for the clarification. I don’t notice on mine, or haven’t yet. Now I probably will
scrap
The dell have a extremely tough hinge that literally breaks the palmrest in half if I did not install the back plate. As a result when I install my touchscreen assembly (as a upgrade), I intentionally loosened the hinge to such a degree that the display can just barely stand up.
Of course, because the rigidity of the machine, there isn’t a real wobble, since oftentimes the display will just either flip close on itself or flip wide open.
A Thinkpad will get away because the display is thin, and therefore lightweight. However I honestly have no idea how such a slim display can have any decent amount of rigidity. Sure, it’s not invincible like Dell’s slab of aluminum, but it’s quite sturdy.
This hp 15 inch have a plastic (in fact it does not have any type of a metal chassis) cover and it wobbles quite noticeably. But I don’t care about any of those scrap. Because I know Framework have a … aluminum bottom piece.
Oh, right. I think I know.
Because the Framework used a separate display with its own chassis, its quite a lot heavier and because the top cover don’t have a metallic bezel (like a Dell) to increase its strength, its obvious the thin top cover will flex when you nudge it.
This problem is also present in the Fujitsu UH554, which I had taken apart. It also used a thick top cover with a display sitting in it, and a paper-thin (not width) bezel to cover up the nasty bits.
In this case, you can solve this problem by loosening (the bolt, the tension or whatever damper/spring) of the hinge so the display will need less nudge to turn (and in case decrease magnitude of a possible flex). Just to make sure to do it evenly on both sides or you will wear things out faster.
I mean, it’s not as if the flex will eventually shake the laptop apart. Even if it will, the process will take 20 years and even if it did, it’s not as if you can’t replace the top cover yourself as a independent part anyway.
The last bit is quite significant.
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I saw a comment on reddit from I believe @nrp himself (can confirm?):
"Our new Marketplace high force hinge will have a 4.0kg nominal hinge force, for a range from 3.5-4.5kg."
So there will eventually be stronger hinges available!?!? To me this is absolutely key.
Also this springiness mentioned in: Apparently wobbly hinges - #16 by Mike_Kelly is extremely annoying–even if the hinges are stronger.
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We need to remember that stronger hinges does not mean less wobble.
Wobble is because the chassis and the screen flex when you put force on it to rotate it along the hinge. To reduce flex in this case, loosen the hinge.
If the display wobbles when the device is moved (e.g., on a train, etc), it indicate the chassis is not stiff enough, rather than having a not-storng-enough hinge.
If the hinge is loose, vibrations (and light nudges) might cause the screen to rotate.
If you didn’t realize already, framework laptop have a pretty weak chassis. Not that it’s not durable, it’s not stiff.
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I find that when I’m using it in my lap and the screen is past 90 degrees, any lifting and moving of the laptop makes the whole screen creep back to the 180 degree position.
I agree the chassis / screen stability is important, but I would definitely want a stronger hinge so this doesn’t happen. I could care less about the “wobble” but the unintentional opening all the way really gets in the way for me.
Edit: Also one-hand opening is really not a feature I use anyway, so while it might make the laptop seem super high-end, this screen-falling-back issue spoils that feeling for me.
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Yeah in that case you might want to manually tighten the hinges for a bit.
I will assume that the hinge is tightened to a degree where the laptop can be easily opened by one hand (e.g. it will not require a hand to hold the bottom part down during the opening of the lid), which is an debatable quality (e.g. xps 13, Fujitsu UH 554)
But again, as I pointed out earlier, you can tighten the hinges yourself (and on pretty much every other laptop. Macbooks included)