I think Framework tried to do way too much at once with a modular GPU and input. I was only interested in the Framework 16 for the additional screen real estate and ports. If Framework made a 15 inch version of the 13 with the extra ports, I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
Finally got clarification about the Dell. It’s last year’s model XPS 15 9530. The ram is absolutely upgradable in that one, there are YouTube videos of it. I’ve updated my comparison post again.
Only a personal choice, but I’ll take Framework’s “palmrest spacers not aligning perfectly” (with the hope that FW release a single piece, full width touchpad some day) over Dell’s “sticky palmrest that forces me to replace it every 2 years or cover it with a skin” 
If you want to return your FW16, I think that you’d find better alternatives from Lenovo.
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I’ve had my FW 16 for less than 24 hours, and I can say the visual lines from the palmrest spacers have already faded into the background as something I don’t notice. I wouldn’t stress too much about them.
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You have to love soft touch colours. Turning into a sticky, ugly gunky goo 
Everyone is different. I would never buy such a laptop. A larger laptop like the 16 should have all the bells and whistles the larger footprint allows. That’s why I bought it.
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I’m sympathetic to @Sean_Whalen 's position, and I’d say it’s 100% within their right to return the laptop. My opinion differs because the Framework 16 is modular/repairable. I was somewhat disappointed by the weight of having to lug around this huge and heavy laptop, but then I remembered that this is mostly because of the GPU. While having the GPU is nice, I don’t really need it all the time, but because I can change that module after purchase I went to the store and signed up to get the email notification when the regular expansion bay shell becomes available so I can tailor the laptop to my actual daily usage, not my ideal one. Now it’s just a matter of waiting
The Framework is very clearly a v1 product, but it still achieves its’ goals and is a fine laptop. For those of us who don’t mind the spacer issues or can deal with it until Framework comes out with a revised version, the 16 is what we want. For those who can’t stand it, that’s OK too, because it might be in v2 but you don’t have to wait for it if you don’t want to.
Most of my issues at this point are firmware/software related. I’d like to see a more aggressive fan curve for CPU temperatures since the entire chassis heats up, but it’s not worth returning because of. Same with some UI issues in GNOME; it’s not ideal, but I have a workaround until fractional scaling/VRR get resolved and implemented.
So, I have had my 16 for just less than a week now …
Personally loving it … I am personally having no issues with the keyboard … it feels fine to me, but I am not really that picky about keyboards …
All my accessories have connected without issue…
Things I love:
- The ability to change out the parts in the future
- Future GPU options
- being able to have customizable ports and swap them out as needed
- it is a nice upgrade from my Acer Nitro
- The thumbprint scanner is kinda of a nice addition
Some weird things/concerns:
- Some times Windows 11 Pro freezes
- The arrows keys are taking some time to get used to
- Minecraft Bedrock - I was hoping to use the Direct X Raytracing feature with the secondary GPU, however … not so much … Not a complete deal breaker…
- Having some hard times moving the trac pad/spacers around
- Finding a bag is a bit challenging
- Watching 16:9 movies is a bit weird on a 16:10 screen
Overall:
IMO, I find the 16 amazing … I am looking forward to getting upgrades (ie no longer have to buy a new shell each time) in the future …
Laptop Specs:
Configuration
- System: Ryzen™ 9 7940HS
- Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-5600
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
Expansion Bay System
- Expansion Bay Module: Graphics Module (AMD Radeon™ RX 7700S)
- Expansion Bay: Expansion Bay Shell
Customization
- Numpad: Numpad Module
- Power Adapter Region: US / CA
- RGB US English
Expansion Cards
- MicroSD
- Ethernet
- 3 x USB-C – USB-C Expansion Card
- HDMI (3rd Gen)
- 3 x USB-A
Accessories
- Framework Screwdriver
12 Likes
Just an update.
I’m running Fedora 39 KDE, and stability of the machine is top notch.
I’ve not had it crash/hang on me yet, It’s been rock solid stable. No combination of suspend/hibernate/running games/multitasking (and all at once) managed to get the system to become unstable. Kudos to Framework for actually taking Linux testing seriously during development!
Now I’m thinking many of the “buggy applications” I complained about on my old MSI was maybe more related to buggy firmware or a hardware issue.
I enabled the amdgpu.abmlevel=2 kernel command line option, but it’s skewing the display colours towards being over-saturated. Wish I could control that dynamically. Would happily take the ~½W power savings in battery, but when docked next to my external display, I would rather have the colours match.
I also had to bend the touchpad panels and added strategic tape to keep it from moving/rattling during use, and I have to say that after fixing those, I stopped noticing it.
I really like having a centre touchpad with a left-placed keyboard & numpad. It’s much less annoying than having the touchpad moved left as they always do in those cases. Makes using it on the lap much more comfortable.
One thing I noticed is that the fingerprint reader goes to sleep or in an error state (if too many fails, like my kid trying it) that it stops working, and I have to enter the password again.
The failure more seem silent, but it will recover after a few minutes by itself again. Not sure if that is a software or firmware issue.
Fan noise is… both great and not.
When under full load it’s quieter than my old MSI.
When idle it’s virtually silent… except when a bursty task happens (like opening a large project in PyCharm) where the 10 seconds of high CPU utilisation is met with the fans not turning on soon enough, and then going into a panic for 5 seconds to cool it down suddenly.
It feels like the PID algorithm is overshooting.
Summary: This thing is a perfect fit for me, barring a few minor things that could be better. Very glad I waited to get it.
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Small update after a week of use:
- Fits my existing bag without issues (bag was made for a 17" laptop)
- I wish we had an expansion card cover or a hidden USB-A card so I could put the wireless adapter for my mouse in it and perhaps a Yubikey although the Yubkiey cover could be pretty easy to throw together if I get time (print a blank and just plug it in underneath it)
- No issues at all on EndeavourOS (Arch-based).
- Battery Life seems good, but I limited it to 60% charge in the BIOS since I’m typically running while plugged in
EDIT: removed a comment about me not noticing something that apparently only applied to the FW13
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Don’t you need to press some button to make them work?
I wanted to get into hardware keys and was wondering what the nicest way possible with the FL16 is.
I might open a thread for this
I think your right. I’d almost need a recessed usb-C port for that then (which complicates things slightly)
Hi, cool to see arch-based distros seem to run fine !
As for the screen, isn’t it a 16:10 one ? (If I’m not mistaken the 3:4 screen is on the FW13 model)
My arch install works fine, yeah. Yes it’s 16:10.
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That may be why i didn’t notice any difference. I had thought I read it was 3:4 lol. Thanks
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In case you didn’t know about the two community driven projects for just that:
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Hey friends,
I received my DIY batch 1 FW16 (7940hs/7700s) last week and wanted to take the time to share my thoughts.
TL;DR - Pretty damn good as a laptop, not as a desktop replacement.
I’ve been generally happy and impressed with the machine so far. I really enjoyed the unboxing experience. As a long time fan of building desktops, this provided me with a similar level of excitement and nerdy enthusiasm. It was a joy to put together and the instructions were clear and concise. I provided my own RAM (64GB 5600) and SSDs (2tb 2230, 4tb 2280, 1tb expansion card). I did run into the no-display issue when first booting, but after fiddling with it (removing a ram stick, resetting some connectors) I was able to boot it up, install windows, and get everything set up with ease.
My experience using the FW16 as a laptop (on battery, on my lap, on the go) has been pretty impressive. The battery life seems good enough (at least for a guy who’s used to gaming laptops and ThinkPad W/P series), I never hear the fans during general use, and the keyboard and trackpad are serviceable. The screen is a pretty nice, bright IPS, and the speakers aren’t anywhere near as rough as I was expecting. They actually sound pretty nice, just don’t get very loud, which is an important distinction between speakers that sound objectively bad like the FW13.
Where things began to go off the rails for me was when I started using it docked at my desk for more demanding tasks. Before I get into the specifics, I should say that I’m probably an outlier with the way I like to use my computer. I’m tethered to my desk, with a CalDigit TS4, LG C2 42" OLED (+another monitor and a projector that’s not always on), audio interface, monitors, etc etc 75% of the time. I prefer to have one machine that can do it all vs a desktop and laptop for separate use cases. For that reason, I’ve always preferred big bruiser laptops that are more powerful and less portable. Though the FW16 kind of blurs the line between powerful workstation and thin and light portable, I don’t think anyone would put it in the desktop replacement class.
With all of that out of the way, the first issue I encountered, which is my own damn fault, is that there doesn’t appear to be any way to drive my 4k/120hz monitor at or near its full potential. I knew the HDMI expansion cards were limited to 2.0b, but in my ignorance, I thought there was definitely a way to utilize USB 4 or DisplayPort Alt from the GPU module to achieve this. I’ve tried a few different adapters at this point, and it appears that I’m out of luck. Not Framework’s fault, but a bummer.
EDIT: It doesn’t look quite right, but the following adapter has been able to provide 4k/120/10-bit!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BY3VS8LF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The second issue I’ve encountered has been hard throttling when attempting to game. There’s a separate thread about it with all of the gory details, but essentially it starts out pretty well, maintaining 120w to the CPU/GPU and handling 1440p admirably. Within a few minutes, however, it throttles down to between 50-75w to the CPU/GPU and grinds everything to a halt. This is while also depleting the battery pretty rapidly, in spite of being plugged in. The last concern here is that the bottom of the laptop gets absolutely white hot to the touch. As we’ve established, I’ve had gaming laptops and ThinkPad P series machines over the years, so I’m no stranger to laptops getting hot to the touch. This is new tier of surface heat. In general, I’d say it’s a very toasty boi, even on battery power, which I don’t really mind. The fans while gaming or editing video are quite prominent, as others have mentioned.
For short bursts, I have actually been impressed with the performance in high CPU/GPU workloads, but it doesn’t seem like the cooling system was designed to do that for very long. I have a suspicion that 240w power adapters might not be a magic bullet either, because right now it feels like they are threading the needle between not quite handling the heat generated from 180w while simultaneously not being able to maintain full load without borrowing from the battery. I’m very far from an electrical engineer, but I’d imagine more wattage would help the second problem and exacerbate the first.
As many others have pointed out, the trackpad spacers also just feel like a miss. It’s not even that they don’t align precisely, it’s the fact that they move when you press them (as do the corners of the trackpad). This makes carrying this laptop a little bit odd. If you carry it open, by the corner of the top deck, the trackpad spacers feel squishy (the seem to also occasionally pulls the hair on my arm while typing haha). the most natural way to carry it closed it by the ledge of the expansion module, but I’m not sure if that’s safe either with the connector/fastener setup?
I posted something to this effect on the subreddit after the specific hardware was announced but, I think a lot of us were really hoping that they were going to make a high-powered desktop replacement computer and that we could ditch our desktops/gaming laptops. That’s not what they’ve made here and that’s okay. Instead, it’s kind of a squishy XPS that you can repair and hopefully upgrade one day.
I still really like the computer, and I think if I was buying it to compliment a powerful desktop or if I didn’t want to game or edit video on it, it would be a solid buy. I’m going to be very curious to see how the platform matures, especially in terms of power delivery, heat dissipation, and beefier components moving forward.
I’m working with support on some of the issues I’ve encountered and am going to continue to try and figure some of the stuff out before making the call on whether to return it or not. To me, the big X factor for this platform/machine is still Oculink. Every eGPU setup I’ve tried in the past has been an exercise in frustration, but if an Oculink solution can alleviate some of the shortcomings of TB (bandwidth, stability, ease of use), it could potentially still make this the dream desktop replacement some of us were hoping for after all.
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Dissipation problems?
Battery running out while playing even when plugged into the mains?
Battery we knew would be an issue as they outright said that gaming could require more than the 180 can give, but the thermals dont sound great
They seem like two serious problems to me. And I don’t think this can be easily resolved.