Hi all, I just wanted to check if others are seeing these annoying build/design issues, too.
Touchpad and wrist rest panel alignment and concavity mismatch:
The NVME hold down screw makes the SSD flex when tightened (minimal tightening):
I’m going to guess based on the following topics, that others are seeing the same sort of things:
There are many threads and posts about the spacers and touchpad.
There are several mentions of stripped or broken hold down screws for the nvme drive, but I don’t remember anyone complaining of drive flex.
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The disk seems really weird tbh. I don’t recall there is anything underneath it upon what it can be bent
Right, there isn’t. It seems to simply be a mismatch of the standoff height and mating surface angle. As I would tighten the bolt, the SSD would being to bow upwards in the center.
Which SSD are you using please? Does it have unusual dimensions?
This is WD Black SN850X 2TB NVME that was supplied by Framework in the DIY kit. There is no second ssd in the machine, just that single ssd.
When installing, I removed and played with this ssd for a while, since I was pretty uncomfortable with this flex. I took a video of the tightening + loosening the hold down bolt:
Your video is not working for me, The link brings me to an empty album.
I should be getting my batch 16 this morning. Depending on the timing, I should be able to do an apples to apples on your problem As I have the same SSD also supplied by framework in my kit.
The worries here about build quality and tolerances is founded. Personal experience.
They are replacing my laptop (Batch 5) right now, so hopefully the newer ones went thru more QC/QA processes to ensure better build quality and tolerances.
Update: The gaps is… better…with the input modules. Display is slightly better, (and it performs the same on either laptop, so it’s not the lid). I decided to keep the new laptop over the old just because of the input module/spacer gaps.
Both are performing below par (getting 14.6k Cinenbench R23, should be 16k). OG is 3/2023 built, and this one is 10/2024 built.
Honestly think the display QC is trash. The best display I received so far is the 2nd (that they scratched at the repair center). This is my 4th. I wish I had that display back and they didn’t scratch it. It was a unicorn.
The RMA replcement display is slightly better than what I have now - still light bleed or glow or whatever you want to call it in the corners, but at least bezel pinching is not as bad (same bezel, they didn’t send me a replacement bezel).
I know people want to say that’s normal on all LCDs, but it’s not. I have a lot of LCDs and none look this bad. Even the cheapest 15 inch laptop don’t look this bad with the light bleed. All dark (expecially pitch blank) content on screen shows those annoying gray corners too well and it’s distracting. Not so much with other LCDs (Dell, Asus, Viewsonic, HP, and System76).
I’m going to give up on this. It just seems most of Framework 16 inch displays have this issue, and I don’t feel like to keep getting it replaced. I can’t unsee it, but I also can’t keep going with this.
For a laptop over $2k, it’s really not worth it, even with the aspect of upgradability/sustainability - at least not with this generation. If you feel that the cost justify the ideology, then go for it. But I went for both the ideology and was hoping for a good product that doesn’t make me regret my purchase.
I may get hate for this comment, but unfortunately this is my experience so far. Batch 5, bad spacer gaps, bad displays, and on top of this, I am losing my dbrand skin since I will be sending my old laptop (about $70 worth). The skin cannot be reused.
Stability-wise, I had it mysteriously shut off without any warning and couldn’t reproduce it. No error log since it just shut off out of nowhere, which doesn’t build confidence it its ability to not lose any work in the middle of use before saving.
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