Framework Laptop for Non Tech-savvy user (Review / Blog)

[Felix_Wu]

In a previous forum post (Speccing out a Framework Laptop for a Family member) , I specced out a framework laptop intended for a family member and I have just ordered it earlier today.

I will update this thread in the coming days / weeks as things move forward. But first, my ordering experience.

Ordering Experience

The experience of ordering a Framework laptop was actually quite straight forward. However I did encounter a few problems.

1. Credit card declined. The first card I tried got declined on Framework despite working fine in other places. I had to change to a different card to make the order. After a while the bank called because they flagged the transaction as possibly fraudulent and declined it.
2. “Too Many Redirects”. Once I changed to another card, the payment seem like it was going to go through, then my browser errored, complaining that the page was redirecting too many times. I don’t recall the exact details but it involved me switching browsers and multiple refreshes to finally get the thing ordered.

[amoun]

Could be where you are ordering from. Are you in a ‘sales’ location?

[Felix_Wu]

Yes, I am ordering in Taiwan and not using any VPN.

[amoun]

Just to note I do not encourage boycotting but I do promote
http://217.155.51.23/newdevices/framework/taiwan.php

[Charlie_6]

Framework Laptop

So battery charging being incredibly slow initially is not rare in Framework Laptop? We need more data to investigate this, maybe some of the battery packs need a recall

[Felix_Wu]

Update: Package Arrived

Framework sent an E-mail update last evening (May 9), notifying me that the package has been shipped. (E-mail sent 18:57 local time, tracking indicates shipped 16:20 local time)

I received the package earlier today in the morning.
The package was delivered by SF Express, a Chinese courier with a large local presence.

here’s everything laid out on a table:

Large Box: Framework Laptop
Small Box: Wifi Card (I forgot to order it with the laptop so had to make a separate order)
Crucial Box: SSD (Purchased from local e-commerce platform momo 購物網)
Crucial Plastic Thing: RAM (Purchased from local e-commerce platform Pchome 24h)

My sister isn’t home right now and I’ll post another update when she starts attempting to put it together.

[Felix_Wu]

Update: Assembly of the machine

I was out grocery shopping when she was putting the machine together. Before leaving, I grabbed my mother’s laptop and pulled up the Framework laptop 13 AMD edition quick start guide for my sister to follow, then I left to do my grocery shopping.

When I came back, everything was put together and she didn’t destroy anything, and the machine booted right up detecting all the hardware the first time. She even managed to replace the Wi-Fi card (from the factory RZ616 to a Intel AX210) without destroying anything. She even said that putting it together herself was fun.

We hit a little snag when trying to install Windows 11 as the media creation tool straight up craps out on her old laptop and I didn’t have any other Windows machine on hand. (My entir3 family except for my sister currently daily drive Macbooks and my non Apple systems all have Linux on them)

This was eventually sorted out with the help from Rufus, and she managed to install Windows herself.

A few of my sister’s friends were over at the time and one of them remarked that they didn’t expect that my first time seing a framework laptop would be in my sister’s hand. (They didn’t know that framework shipped to Taiwan) Another one of them jokingly said that this would be what you get if Ikea sold laptops.