Strange request, but for anyone who has their Framework 12 already- can you attempt to flex and bend the chassis like CJ did in his review? I can check mine when it gets here
I just saw this comment saying their unit doesn’t bend like his at all, which could mean that the laptop’s physical build is fine… but Framework’s QC might be even worse than we thought
I can bend mine like he did with his, but it takes a decent amount of force. In use, it doesn’t seem like an issue.
It’s plastic. It can flex. It’s not as rigid as an aluminum frame. But as I use it and carry it around, it doesn’t feel floppy or anything.
Edit: If the screws for the top cover are loose, it will definitely flex more, just FYI.
He did look like he was giving it some strength.
Anything will be super flexible if you’re strong enough. :]
Damn, now the bezel and trackpad will start to come off… 
It’s not like he had to be He-Maning it. It is plastic. Personally, I don’t think it’s floppy enough to be an issue. Certainly not for me. But it’s definitely not as rigid as some nicer machines.
Now, being flexible doesn’t mean it’s a disadvantage. I’ve had metal chassis notebooks that have been bent … and have not returned to their original shape.
Flexibility absorbs energy that could otherwise lead to permanent deformation.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t want to bend my notebook like that because I would be afraid that solder joints could break or contacts could be damaged.
Plus having a li-ion battery flex back and forth like that seems muy no bueno.
I wasn’t really. I was basically just twisting my wrists. If you go back and look at any of my other Laptop reviews, particularly my first FW13 review I was using much less force than I do with metal body laptops. The screen is more of an issue. The display cover is flimsy enough and the hinges tight enough that if you continually lift the lid from the same corner there is enough twist that you could eventually damage the LCD panel. Considering mine was separated out of the box it doesn’t seem to be the most robust panel.
I don’t have any loose screws! My mother had me tested. 
QC issues shouldn’t exist in any Generation or product. Hardware and firmware issues may be discovered, but regardless of generation a product shouldn’t leave the factory with components improperly installed or displays falling apart. That is the entire point of a Quality Assurance process and Quality Checks.
I’ve got a Batch 1. I get about half of the flex before I think “this is far too much pressure”. In real world use, the laptop feels solid. Important things like keyboard deck flex feel fine.
We’ve seen plenty of FW13s which have been dropped and permanently damaged. Some flex in the plastic means that’s less likely to suffer the same sort of permanent damage in a drop. If it does, a new bottom cover for an FW12 is £49, half the price of the Alu FW13 bottom cover.
I’ve not had problems with the trackpad as yet, but £39 replacement, and unlike a Dell I can replace it without having to go through the bottom and pull out all the components.
Oh, I wasn’t suggesting you were. I definitely have a screw loose, but not in the FW 12.
I only made the point because a lot of people will be putting these things together and if anyone finds excessive flex, it’s something to be aware of.
Edit: Oh, and I hope you are able to get Framework to sort out your issues. You obviously had some pretty serious issues.
Apple sucks for USER repairability. Apple customer service and their technical support is the best I’ve experienced since Dell back in the day when they were good. And I’ve delt with ALL the major manufacturers at least once over the past 5 years. Within the past year I had a broken display replaced on a MacBook Air for $99 while I had lunch next door, and a logic board replaced in a MacBook Pro (damage I caused myself) for $299 in a few days. If I broke the display on my FW13 I could replace it myself but it cost $300 and take a week to get here. Replacing a mainboard is super easy if I mess up and break it but it cost $700 if it’s even in stock. I definitely prefer to repair my own things, but even I will usually prioritize cost and convenience first most of the time.
I’m more concerned with pogo pins or contact points shorting.
My bad, the N305 or N355 device I have coming is a passively cooled Mini PC. I can still use CPU performance results but it’s not a mobile platform.
They are toward the center of the machine where the effect of the flex will be the lowest. My guess is that if it flexed enough for the pogo pins to short out, other things would have already gone very wrong by then, lol. But I suppose time will tell. So far, mine doesn’t flex all that much in use, and I probably got a little overly enthusiastic and twisted mine even more than you did while it was on and nothing went wrong…so far.
I plan to do some durability testing soon. So we’ll see how it holds up. Cheers!
Fess up - you crush walnuts with your bare hands, right?
Kidding, in case that wasn’t obvious. Please keep calling it like you see it, and have a great day!
Ah, Fair. Thanks for clearing that up!
Yeah, especially when pogo pins tend to have a decent contact range (between fully presed and fully depressed), that in itself is a fault tolerance mechanism.
Agree. I was going to point that out as well (didn’t get the time to respond sooner).
It’s the user / self-service repairability that sucks when it comes to Apple. But as long as you can find an Apple store, and you have the money, and the model is not EOL, then you’re pretty much golden. Similarly with HP, Dell, Lenovo…etc (they can come on-site).
On the other side of the repair spectrum, Framework gives you the self-service capability, if you have that capability, and if you want to. The downside is that there’s no ‘Framework’ Shop for you, from a general end-user perpective, to have a no-fuss repair experience.
It’s like, I own a car, a fridge, an oven. I love repairability, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I want to self-service the repair of everything I own.
Rather than one or the other, we need both ends of the spectrum to meet together, so that the repariability model can cater for the masses, regardless of who the product owner is.
And when it comes to laptops, even though I can and don’t mind doing the repair myself, at times, life happens, I need to have an option to offload the repair to a shop at any random instance.
People have been looking at repairability as some kind of a unicorn…where in fact, it’s always been there, just not fully at the end-user control. What Framework brings is user repairability, but it’s dropping the whole chunk of depot and on-site repeatability UX coverage.