This is quite an expensive device so I want it to feel like one. My other options include well polished laptops from brands like lenovo and apple, which offer a better price to performance ratio than framework however I’m willing to pay for framework in the hopes that this device will last me a long long time without me tinkering a lot.
For owners of the FW13, how would you rate the build quality? What do you HATE about it? How does it feel against something like a macbook air?
Nobody has any of the AI 300 ones jet
didn’t the earlier batches already ship out?
As far as it looks not even reviewers got any jet.
Like @Adrian_Joachim said, none of the ai 300’s have shipped yet. However, we can speak to the build quality as all 13’s share almost exactly the same chassis. I would say the build quality of the current 13 is top notch. Early versions had a slightly bendy top lid, but that was fixed years ago.
Apparently they’re updating the spacebar so it’s less ‘ring-y’, even though I never really noticed that on the old one. So this is to say that the form factor is really dialed in at this point and they’re tweaking extremely minor things. This is in contrast to the 16, where I hear there are major fit and finish issues that need to be addressed (like panel gaps) on the modular input deck.
Hopefully this helps!
Im batch 1 and I havent gotten a shipping email yet. Any day now 
That said, its the same chassis as the older ones so the user-facing build quality should be identical to the older gens.
I currently have a 12th gen 1240p framework 13 and build quality is excellent. I dont notice any uneven gaps, keyboard is a joy to use, touchpad is as good as any non-mac touchpad although mac is still touchpad king, etc. There are no sharp edges (in this way it feels more comfortable to use than my macbook pro).
Overall i would describe build quality as being somewhere between a lenovo and a macbook, closer to the macbook side of things.
My understanding of the updates to the keyboard is that they are actually to improve the speaker sound quality at higher volumes. I have noticed this problem slightly.
As someone who has an FW13 that has gone through several updates (originally 11th gen Intel, now AMD 7840U, replaced top cover with new version, replaced hinges first to heavier then to second gen, upgraded webcam, just replaced the screen with the new 2.8k screen, which was probably a mistake):
Thank you for the review, especially regarding the screen! I’ve also seen this one other reviewer on youtube say that while it matches the srgb 100%, it is still very very behind on dci p3 and adobe rgb. I don’t want to buy a color calibration device for this honestly.
The problem with the 2.8k screen isn’t just gamut, but calibration entirely.
Just to give a sense of how far off the screen is, here’s the screen compared to a Dell UltraSharp U3223QZ, without any ICC file for the 2.8k screen.
Here it is with the notebookcheck ICC file, which suggests to me that there must be significant screen-to-screen variability.
As far as I can tell from other discussions, this is not a defect, this is simply the level of QC with the new screen.
I realize that this is a comparison to a much more expensive screen with higher expectations on accuracy, but the difference here is beyond anything I have seen before for a new screen: I’m not someone who directly needs color accuracy or specializes in a field requiring it. Grays are so obviously off that it the calibration problem was noticeable from the moment I turned on the laptop and the Framework boot screen came up.
I don’t have time to reinstall my old screen and do comparison photos, but the colors, with or without an ICC file, were not far off enough to be distinctly noticeable in a dual-screen setup.
I’m waiting until I can use a calibrator I think I have somewhere before I decide whether to try to return the screen.
people are going to start receiving their units soon and your questions will be answered!
I got mine last week and have been tinkering with it daily. I am very happy with the build quality. It feels identical to my 12th gen which also was a very sturdy-feeling laptop, but now with more firm hinges which is a welcome improvement. It’s a worthy macbook competitor from a physical design/consruction standpoint in my eyes.
I agree with the criticism of the screen calibration, it is a bit greenish but I mostly just program and play games on this so I don’t need great color accuracy and don’t notice the inaccuracy unless it’s side-by-side with another higher-quality display showing the same content.
I do have some glitches sometimes, like my display will very briefly (maybe 200ms) go black ~once per day or so for no aparent reason. I haven’t opened a support ticket about it yet though because it’s very likely to be a software problem. I’m on nixos-unstable, using cosmic desktop alpha 7, on kernel 6.15-rc.3. So pretty much everything about my system is bleeding edge at the moment, and some bugs are expected.
Were you able to calibrate the screen?
What calibration tool did you use. Just in case i have to calibrate mine when I receive it.
Can confirm the glitch on mine with the Ryzen 5 AI 340 on Arch Linux with Plasma. I have the cheaper screen and there colors looks great to me. Also agree on overall very nice built quality.
I am pleased with the build quality. The stiffer hinges are nice, but we shall see how long they last. Fitment/alignment is perfect on my unit.
The only issues I have seen so far are some ghosting on the 2.8K display (leave a white window open for a while, close the window, and a faint afterimage of the window remains for a surprisingly long time) and the fan occasionally ramping up to very loud for maybe 10 to 20 seconds.
I’m not having any trouble with the keyboard (ver. 2) nor with the trackpad.
This is why I didn’t buy the FW16 and instead chose the FW13–I waited for FW13 to get a few model years/iterations to work the bugs out and then bought. FW16 is too “young” right now. I’d wait for at least 3 or 4 iterations before buying that.
I’m pleased with the build of my pre-built FW13 AMD AI 370. It arrived four days ago. It’s comfortable in my hands. There are no defective exterior seams. I’ve yet to open it up; I’m busy getting used to Windows 11.
Regarding comparisons I’m Rip Van Winkle given the laptop it’s replacing is more than a decade old (a Dell Latitude e7250). I’ve no quibbles with FW13 technology which others on this forum say is a few years out of date. It’s all new to me.
I’ve been using my FW13 AMD AI Laptop DIY Edition for over a week now, I’d say the build quality is OK. There are some imperfections, but generally, it’s fine.
In my case, the most noticeable issues are:
I’m also wondering about the practicality of using plastic in the housing to hold a threaded insert for a screw. In my previous laptops, the areas where the threaded insert was embedded in the plastic housing tended to break off. I don’t recall a similar problem occurring in laptops with a magnesium alloy casing. Perhaps doing without plastic would be a significant technological challenge?
Overall, I’d give it 7.5 out of 10. Normally, the price is a bit too high for this level of build quality, but I’ll give some credit to a small company like Framework.
As for the keyboard, the good news is that the issue is fixable. If you’re experiencing the same problem, be prepared for a bit of work:
before:
I ended up using a used x-rite i1 pro spectrophotometer; really far beyond what would be necessary for screen calibration, but it worked reasonably well, and I’m now reasonably happy with the screen, just rather disappointed with Framework for selling such poorly-calibrated screens.
I do alot of media consumption on my laptops when I’m not working. Would you say after calibrating the screen, watching Netflix, YouTube and other media is good. I also have never used a 3:2 display so I don’t know how I would feel about that for media consumption.
