For owners of the FW13 AMD AI 300 series, what would you rate your build quality?

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

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didn’t the earlier batches already ship out?

As far as it looks not even reviewers got any jet.

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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!

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Im batch 1 and I havent gotten a shipping email yet. Any day now :crossed_fingers: 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.

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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):

  • In general, the build quality is fine. I’ve had better and significantly worse. Some aspects of the build quality are tradeoffs for ease of access (eg, the magnetic bezel, some of the internal cable routing, the visible but tight line between some parts that come apart, which makes it very easy to disassemble, etc). The change to the top cover and to the hinges were significant improvements; early versions were quite flimsy.
  • If the finish on the new keyboard is the same as the old one, it isn’t great in terms of longevity. I’ve lost the paint on 17 keys so far, especially vowels; once the paint on a key starts chipping, it degrades rapidly. I’m not enormously disappointed by this because, when the paint comes off a key entirely, the look is not actually that bad - I’ll eventually have a clear keyboard (I use Dvorak anyway). However, the keyboard is amongst the better laptop keyboards I have used, and better than many Apple keyboards that prioritize thinness.
  • Some quality control does seem problematic. I’ve had one of my USB ports on my AMD 7840U mainboard stop working at full speed (allows one high speed lane, but not two, and not displayport alternate mode). The colors on the new 2.8k screen seem to be all over the place, and the one I just received is so disappointing that I may end up returning it: I initially thought it was defective, until I saw some other posts here. Color calibration files online only help slightly, which suggests to me there’s significant per-unit variation; I would not be happy about needing to buy a calibration device at around the cost of the screen just to fix the bad quality control.
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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.

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people are going to start receiving their units soon and your questions will be answered!