180W is great but being able to go up to 240W is super cool. Are there plans for framework to design a 240W charger and cable in future or any chance of having an approved list of compatible wall chargers and cables that support 240W?
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My question is, what port would you plug a self-supplied 240W adapter into? That’s the sort of brick that an Alienware laptop will ship with, but it uses a barrel charger, not USB-C. 180W over USBC is only possible with the bleeding edge standard, and I can’t find a USBC 240W adapter that isn’t “240W but split over four ports” or something similar.
I think adding a barrel to the Graphics Module might be a smart play considering how much demand there is (and also because from my experience, no one likes knowing that their battery is draining while it’s on charge).
On the opinions side, I’m a little worried about the eventual reception of the 16”. People were very excited at the announcement, but there are more and more little theoretical gripes which have been confirmed that are piling up. I’m still buying in, but there are definitely going to be people who see that accumulation and stay away as a result.
@Be_Far I kind of agree with you about the reception issue. I’m super excited for this product and lurk on this forum quite a bit, and I see so many people hoping that this machine will be exactly the laptop that they would dream up if they made a modular 16 inch performance laptop, then getting disappointed when one or more specs differ from what they had dreamed up. I don’t think it’s wrong to hope for something, but it’s important to keep in mind that Framework is a relatively small consumer electronics company, and they can only do so much. The Framework 13 really didn’t do that much new, but it had very clear goals, and reasonable compromises in all areas such that it turned out to be a very usable laptop that was just ambitious enough to be something new, while still being a reasonable price, and allowing Framework to follow through on its promises of upgrading the mainboard (twice now).
I fully expect the Framework 16 to have compromises too, and not every spec is going to match exactly what I would have wanted. If they are able to make some reasonable compromises though, and deliver on the specific goals that they have promised (ie, the modular, USB based input modules, and the flexible GPU modules), then I’ll consider it a success, and decide whether the other components actually meet my wants and needs. It’s just counter productive to get overly invested in a product that likely has most of its key specs and features set in stone. It’s worth expressing what you want for future generations though, I’m just not kidding myself into thinking they will add major features 6 months before shipping the device.
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Wooo PD EPR in the wild.
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This is the issue I’m referring to, this has happened a LOT over quite a few different areas of the 16. It’s almost like the culture of the forum surrounding this laptop, and it’s going to drive people away.
I’m mostly shocked by it because of how little FUD-alike there was for the 13 as we were doing deep dives for it (people only started to gripe once it started shipping and thus early adopter problems arose). It’s almost like FW set the bar too high by doing everything right for their flagship, haha.
All I can remember being a major prerelease complaint about the 13 was the lack of a TrackPoint.
To compare the 13’s blogs to the 16’s, since day 1 on this forum Linux users have been asking about either a 1080 or 4K class display on the 13 for better integer scaling vs the 1440p-ish one it has.
All products have their compromises, and its not accurate to say that the 13 didn’t have many critiques.
240 W would also be over USB Type C. Power Delivery 3.1 Extended Power Range allows this, with 48 V at 5 A. However, I don’t think any production implementations exist yet.
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Yes, that more or less confirms it’s grounded. I would still appreciate an official comment on this though, because of a recent experience with an Anker that also has a ground pin but doesn’t use that with its USB outputs. Used it with the Framework 13, a Macbook, and a metal-body Pixel phone, got leakage current “buzz feel” on all three.
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Just read the new deep dive and I have some questions.
Would using a 100 watt charger still charge the 16? (without the dgpu module)
Rather not have to have another power lead when I already have a dock if possible
Very likely. The new adabter is still usb-pd so as long as power in > power used you will have charging.
Unless they pull a dell and just refuse to charge off chargers they don’t like but that doesn’t sound very framework like.
The 16 should work with any PD source like the 13 does, so 60 and even 27W modes should be supported.
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If they’re targeting a gaming audience with this laptop, I’m curious why they went with only 180W. A gaming session can easily go for several hours and push all systems into high power draw. This was an issue I had on an old Sager laptop with a GTX 770m, it would end overdraw the power supply’s capabilities and then would draw from battery. Nvidia would then detect the battery being in use and kick in battery optimizations, i.e. killing the framerate. I hope they provide a list of suggested 240W adapters that are known to be compatible.
I would also like to know if the 60W can run the FW 16 at full power without a dGPU, because as someone who plans to hot swap between a dGPU and extra battery I’d love the option to carry a smaller power supply while traveling without a GPU and a bigger one when I am using the dGPU.
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One of the biggest points of USB is that if it follows the spec, it works. You just need to buy a USB PD 240W power supply from a reputable brand.
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I’ve had a lot of compatibility issues with usb-c power supplies in the past… granted Dell was involved. So I’m trained to hold some reservations.
I’m pretty sure, that most configurations for the laptop don’t exceed the 180W limit they’ve set. Maybe they won’t even offer one in the first wave that’ll need more. They just want to make sure they don’t have compatibility issues for every single build they want to offer.
Also not sure how much thermal power they can realistically dissipate. We’ll have to wait for another deep dive for that.
Certainly understandable.
Framework might at some point sell a higher wattage adapter for those that need it. But them creating a list of suggested adapters, I think it’s a little problematic. Framework is a still currently a small company. Besides the time and effort it would take to vet 3rd party adapters, it could be a liability for them. Someone buys an adapter based on Framework’s suggestion, and it malfunctions and burns their house down. They may look to sue Framework. They may not win, but fighting a lawsuit would still cost Framework money. Not something they need.
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That’s a fair point. I imagine the community will create a thread of known working adapters anyways, and that would be sufficient for me. So I guess there’s no real need for them to do it anyways.
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Unlike some OEMs like Dell, Framework follows USB specs very closely (though the type-c expansion card is technically not allowed). The USB-IF maintains a list of products certified to conform to their specifications, so any 240W adapter on that list will work.
Interesting to note- the WT6676F PD controller in the new adapter was certified just a week ago.
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What’s said is that the laptop will support USB-PD EPR up to 240W power adapters. What’s not said is how many can be plugged in…and utilize simultaneously.
In the past, there’s been laptop implementations with 2 barrel plugs for charging. Can the FL16 take in 480W (over 2 x 240W)?
If so, this can be a first in the industry where the laptop’s power circuitry has been designed to scale up into the future needs.
Hm, so I’m going to need very specific max Watts specs for the CPU and GPU combos because I definitely plan to do video compression\editing and that can take a while