At Christmas I finally transitioned to a Framework (the Ryzen 5 model) after much deliberation over choosing the 13 or the 16 which was ultimately decided by the cost of getting into the 16" ecosystem. The philosophy and repairability of the device had me head over heels for the idea of using one as my daily driver but it was a difficult pill to swallow to move away from my old XPS 15. A quick RMA and six months later and I have some thoughts I really want to express and hopefully hear back from the Framework team.
First off, I’ll run through the good:
Immaculate Thunderbolt performance. Even without the Thunderbolt certification, it worked flawlessly with my pre-existing desk setup through the Thunderbolt 4 dock I previously used with my XPS which used to have major issues outputting the correct resolutions and framerates to each of the monitors. I finally could enjoy the one-cable dream.
My foldable USB-C charger charges both my laptop and my phone at the same time now which cuts down on what I carry with me to the office.
The build quality all things considered is very good. Having used a Macbook Pro throughout school, an HP Spectre throughout university and an XPS at work, yes it doesn’t quite hold up to the top end but it’s better than the Spectre and far, far lighter than all three.
Battery life is great and I don’t even have the larger battery, I can spend a whole day of light use on it without charging.
WiFi performance is fast and stable which I know is a weird one to pick out but I’ve had some shoddy WiFi cards in some laptops.
I look forward to upgrading the mainboard so I can use the old ones as a Kubernetes cluster in my Homelab.
I loved building it when I received it, fantastic experience.
The bad:
Everything about the speakers. Downward-firing speakers are always a poor design choice, there’s rarely an excuse to design them this way and this holds true in this case, the space above the top row is perfect for them. Additionally, when you’re not using your laptop as a laptop and are on a desk, they’re not that clear, they don’t provide much richness and they suffer from the common problem of vibrating the keycaps which leads to an awful resonant tone.
Irrepairable keycaps/switches. This one surprised me, most keyboards I’ve used (laptops or otherwise), if you break a switch - an unfortunate ordeal but it happens - then you can usually refit it or replace it but alas not on the Framework.
The display. Similarly to the speakers, it leaves a lot to be desired. Thoughts on its aspect ratio aside as that is personal preference, it ghosts badly, isn’t responsive, has a low refresh rate and is the largest obvious downgrade coming from basically any other laptop aside from super budget ones. Yes I was treated with the 4k OLED on the XPS and prior to that my spectre ran at 120hz much like all of my monitors currently but it is just so jarring using any other modern display and then coming to this one. Especially as ASUS has budget laptops with 120hz OLEDs.
The Framework key. I actively do not want a button I can accidentally press and open a browser while writing code and attempting to press delete or backspace. Move the backlight key back up to the top row and remove the Framework key.
I can’t tell if this is a Framework or AMD or Windows issue but it locks up every so often but I haven’t dumped logs or looked into it too heavily yet.
The medium (things I want to mention but aren’t sticking points for me)
The trackpad is fine but a larger, haptic replacement would be fantastic (and totally possible).
The ethernet expansion card, I get it that you’ve got to get creative to fit it in but you can’t have a port protruding from the laptop if you plan on putting it in any bag ever as it will break eventually which makes it just as useful as an external USB to ethernet adapter (and more expensive).
The teased transparent bezel (and expansion cards) haven’t surfaced and I would love them.
I’m used to a touch screen by this point and it’s not an option here which is fine I guess but the hinge folds flat so why not allow for a touch screen so I can use the screen as a drawing surface.
Things I want to see in the future to keep me in the Framework ecosystem as I really support it:
Update the display with a higher refresh rate and OLED
Move and fix the speakers.
Larger, haptic trackpad
Repairable keycaps
Slim/foldable ethernet expansion card
SD expansion card
HDMI/Displayport combo port expansion card (they’re pretty cool, would fit in the expansion card and would mean I don’t have to carry both)
AN OCULINK CARD! Opening up the PCIe lanes I know is difficult as you’d have to bypass the Thunderbolt controller but if possible, would be fantastic with Oculink.
Remove the Framework button
Add a light for FN lock like caps lock
Touchscreen (possibly a 360 degree hinge while you’re at it)
Transparent bezels and expansion cards
Possibly the new lineup of Snapdragon ARM CPUs?
edit Added Oculink to the list, don’t know how I could have forgotten! edit 2 Added the crashing and the building experience.
there’s an FX sound audio profile that great improves the speakers. I have it on my ryzen 5 model and it’s a night and day difference. Improving perceived sound quality on the FW13. As for the FW key someone made a remapper tool that allows you to change the key to do certain things. if that’s not enough customization for you you can remap the F12 key using powertoys. Also what bios are you on 3.05b should fix the crashing issues. If a keycap breaks while you can’t replace just the sole keycap but you can replace the whole keyboard for 39 bucks which is better than nothing.
Just to note, Framework does offer an alternative speaker option that has worse audio fidelity but higher voice clarity, so if voice clarity is what you’re after you may want to check out the other speakers here.
Framework does suggest a way to remap the key using PowerToys here. IIRC some community members have also found a more involved way to reprogram it in the registry rather than external tools.
It did already surface, however due to poor yields (a lot of the ones they manufactured had major defects, generating a lot of waste) they discontinued it after a little while. They’ve stated that they are hoping to bring it back in the future when they can improve yields.
Already announced. Framework is having to design a custom SD card reader since no currently available card reader is compact enough to fit.
Normally when I see people wanting OcuLink they are wanting it in order to avoid the overhead/bandwidth limitations of USB4/Thunderbolt, however an OcuLink card that works through the USB4 port would inherently be subject to those limitations.
Edit: Although some of the overhead/bandwidth limitations is due to the overwhelming majority of USB4v1/Thunderbolt 4 devices not being able to take advantage of the full speed available. USB4v1/Thunderbolt 4 supports an intermediary speed between PCIe 3.0 x4 and PCIe 4.0 x4, however exceptionally few USB4v1/Thunderbolt 4 devices support greater than PCIe 3.0 speeds. An OcuLink card could potentially be designed to support the full speed.
there’s an FX sound audio profile that great improves the speakers. I have it on my ryzen 5 model and it’s a night and day difference.
Wild, I will definitely check that out but unfortunately it doesn’t solve the innate problems they have of firing into my legs and vibrating the keycaps.
Improving perceived sound quality on the FW13. As for the FW key someone made a remapper tool that allows you to change the key to do certain things. if that’s not enough customization for you you can remap the F12 key using powertoys.
I appreciate it, I knew I could remap it but it was very jarring when I first got it.
Also what bios are you on 3.05b should fix the crashing issues.
You raise a good point, I’m on version 3.03, I’ll definitely upgrade, thank you!
If a keycap breaks while you can’t replace just the sole keycap but you can replace the whole keyboard for 39 bucks which is better than nothing.
I know I know but it was just a little disappointing when I found out of all things that can’t be replaced, it was one of the things I’ve been able to replace on almost all of my previous laptops.
Just to note, Framework does offer an alternative speaker option
Yeah unfortunately it won’t be able to replace a a decent pair of properly enclosed upward firing speakers.
Framework does suggest a way to remap the key using PowerToys here. IIRC some community members have also found a more involved way to reprogram it in the registry rather than external tools.
I’ve seen this and will do it but I just think it shouldn’t be there in the first place.
It did already surface, however due to poor yields (a lot of the ones they manufactured had major defects, generating a lot of waste) they discontinued it after a little while.
Didn’t know that, I can’t wait to see if they get rereleased!
Already announced.
Can’t wait!
An OcuLink card could potentially be designed to support the full speed.
That’s the option I’m looking for, for the time being I’m using my GPU via a remote PC in my server rack when I plug my laptop into my Thunderbolt dock because I’ve had so many major issues with Thunderbolt eGPUs.
Just chiming in as the guy who made that FxSound preset.
It’s not magic, and unfortunately does not flip the internal speakers alongside a chassis redesign.
With that being said, for a software solution, it does (in my humble opinion) do a half-decent job of reducing some of the resonance issues. You may find that the keycap buzzing is slightly less annoying due to adjustments in the low-mid frequency band.
The Dell WD22TB4. I’ve got it hooked up to 3 144hz 1440p monitors, a USB hub for all the peripherals and it provides power to the laptop. I was genuinely surprised that it runs all the monitors with my Framework as I had to turn down the refresh rate on them all with my old XPS despite it being Thunderbolt 4 rated.