@LjL I had both an X1C9 and Framework for about a week and was able to directly compare them. I’ve written fairly in-depth reviews for both and you’ll see a ton of X1 comparisons in my FW review:
Here’s are some photos I took of them both side-by-side (scroll down a bit):
https://imgur.com/a/w3S8N5I
In the end I returned the X1 because of these main factors:
- Inferior thermal capabilities–you’re only getting 15W out of the CPU, whereas on the Framework you’re getting 28W.
- Astonishingly awful webcam quality (this was important to me; FW for comparison)
- Soldered ports. You’re only getting 1 extra port on the X1 vs the FW, and I would argue that the ability to hotswap any of them on the FW evens this out. Charging on any side is a dream.
- Inferior display. The higher-res, taller display was surprisingly much better for me given that I always preferred matte. Details, information density, and colors are noticeably better than on the 1200p X1. (you can see a bunch of comparisons in the imgur album)
- Soldered USB-C exposed to wear-and-tear. IMO this is one of the most likely reasons for a $500+ motherboard replacement on the X1. FW effectively solves this with its expansion card system.
- Open source firmware. You are never ever ever going to get this with a ThinkPad.
Those being the main reasons, a bunch of smaller, nitpicky reasons also influenced me to go with the FW:
- Useless skype function keys on the X1 that I’ll never use
- fn-ctrl keycap ordering is annoying
- Trackpad issues (no 3-finger mclick) with smaller usable area and niche keyboard combos I use (
shift+caps+x) didn’t work on the X1 - Unreliable fingerprint reader and Windows Hello IR login. The latter completely erased any disadvantage the FW had for not having an IR camera.
- Soldered RAM and WLAN. I got 32GB RAM to alleviate some of this but I still would rather have socketed components.
- I felt infinitely better supporting Framework as a company vs. Lenovo. If I kept the X1 it would be like voting with my wallet for all the terrible changes they’ve made to ThinkPads as a whole in the past few decades.
These were the only things holding me back from returning the X1:
- Trackpoint!!! I miss it every time I use the FW. Such a killer feature on ThinkPads.
- Worse battery life (though I’m usually plugged in) and sleep drain (hibernate is quick enough) on the FW
- Wobbly lid on the FW
- Squashed arrow keys on the FW are annoying but home-row hotkeys alleviate this.
If battery life is a deal-breaker for you, then my whole wall of text was for naught lol. But I hope it helps you consider some of the pros and cons you may not have thought of before.
Oh, to answer your questions:
Seems like no, at least on Windows: http://community.frame.work/t/random-screen-blanking-in-windows/7989/8
Technically yes but not in any significant way. The main power draws are the screen and CPU.