FW 16 review: The good, the bad, the ugly

Framework Laptop 16
8

I have no words - you read my mind. I agree with every single word of this (except that I actually enjoy the speakers and find no particular problem with them. But I come from ThinkPad… it’s a low bar.)

You are the first person that I found who relates to the rattling. Do you also find that the keyboard just makes the laptop rattle badly or sound like a “spring” when in use and not typing super lightly? I tend to type really “hard” (necessary to reach my customary 120 wpm) and this is something that has been bugging the hell out of me.

I have gotten Support to RMA my keyboard and mid frame first. It was unsuccessful: the rattle is still there, and my new keyboard has a very inconsistent backlight - the middle area vertically is much dimmer, annoyingly so for such an expensive machine. And, as you said, the keyboard is inconsistent. The key to key noise error is really high. Pressing on the “Escape” key in particular makes whatever is down there feel flimsy.

I am considering buying an external keyboard and using that instead for whenever I need to do any long-term usage. For example, when I’m gaming, the keyboard tends to get hot enough to burn my fingers. I am using the base model without the Graphics module as I find the internal GPU more than adequate.

I am not sure if it is the mid frame not being supportive enough, the expansion cards rattling in their slightly oversized slots, the keyboard spacers rattling around or all those things.

My laptop was away in the repair center for a month and the situation was not really improved - but my hinges no longer sound so noisy now.

I’ll follow this thread. I would honestly love if anyone had a fix or mitigation for these problems because they have been driving me insane, and they really ruin the experience of what otherwise feels like a dream Linux machine - the performance is excellent and it works very well on Fedora 40 with the defaults (except a kernel command line pqrameter to disable the AMD Vari-Bright feature that was recently added to the kernel, but the user-space interface to control this parameter is not ready yet, so it requires this temporary work around.

For more info, my laptop is from Batch 11 of the pre order phase.

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9

Do you also find that the keyboard just makes the laptop rattle badly or sound like a “spring” when in use and not typing super lightly?

Not so much like a spring, but the keyboard sound varies between “premium laptop” (fn, super, alt) and “hollow plastic netbook” (esc, del). I’ve had similar experiences when I bought aftermarket “genuine Thinkpad T series” replacement keyboards from AliExpress that ended up being taken from E-series or worse, where not all keys were great and the general fit was a bit off.

I have gotten Support to RMA my keyboard and mid frame first. It was unsuccessful: the rattle is still there, and my new keyboard has a very inconsistent backlight - the middle area vertically is much dimmer, annoyingly so for such an expensive machine.

That sucks to hear. I haven’t noticed anything inconsistent about my backlight.

I am considering buying an external keyboard and using that instead for whenever I need to do any long-term usage.

You should probably do that anyway, especially if you’re using the FW 16 at lot at home/some fixed place. Great mechanical keyboards are quite affordable these days; e.g. the Keychron V/Q-series.

I would honestly love if anyone had a fix or mitigation for these problems because they have been driving me insane, and they really ruin the experience of what otherwise feels like a dream Linux machine

I agree for the most part. If all rattling and finish problems in the top assembly were fixed, there’d still be a lot of minor things I don’t like: The FW16 is slightly too heavy, slightly too square-shaped (especially with the GPU module), slightly too hungry for battery - but I can totally overlook those things in exchange for a long term viable system that I can be quite rough with because I know I can replace what’s broken - something other companies simply don’t offer.

To not make a second post: As Gmanny has pointed out, it’s pretty surprising to see how much time other people get out of the system. When I wrote the review I also didn’t factor in that I need to run a rather aggressive antivirus service, which probably cuts an hour off of the battery life. Also, by now it feels like the battery life got noticeably better after yesterday’s fedora update, for whatever reason.

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10

Just a few minutes ago, I received a mail with a link to order the “Keyboard deflection kit”, which is some sponges to apply to the main board that should mitigate the keyboard flex / rattling. You might want to look at your e-mail and place your request. Fingers crossed!

About the battery life, mine has actually been quite acceptable, though I am running Linux with no anti-malware software of any kind (if we do not consider SELinux).

Fingers crossed we get the rattle fixed. I am not sure if I should inquire Support again about it, but I am not prepared to ship my laptop out and be without it for weeks again. I have things to get done!

11

Who came up with such name and idea??!

Out of curiosity I checked the store but could not find it. Mind sharing the link?

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12

I doubt it will ever be in the store. It’s something they already implemented into production some time ago, and are offering for free via a request form, for anyone with an early FW16 that doesn’t have them.

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13

I wonder if they’re including them on bare mobos ordered from the marketplace. I’d assume so, but last I looked (not today) the marketplace photos didn’t show them.

14

I haven’t gotten that email. I ordered my FW 16 right after the batches ended, so it probably already came with the pads from the kit - which would explain why I don’t have any flex. Unfortunately that also means that I’m stuck with the huge inconsistency between keys.

15

Oof. Just to clarify: can you also reproduce the fact that the laptop rattles or makes a “spring” noise when you tap on the chassis, click on the touchpad or, sometimes, type? It feels more like a “vibration”, sometimes it’s from everywhere, sometimes it comes from the sides, where the expansion cards are.

16

Framework getting the ding for poor software tuning is inevitable with Linux I suppose, but it still feels like an unfair ding.

Thanks for sharing your review. A lot of it is subjective, but I think a good amount is good feedback for improvements. Framework is very interested in such things and has made numerous improvements on the 13 line already as evidence of this. I’m sure there will be improvements on the 16 line as well.

17

The Framework 16 has an amazing cooling solution… but no BIOS fan control to actually take advantage of it.
I’ve measured (with a non-medical laser thermometer) the keyboard hitting 102F while the fans just idle. When I start doing a render the fans will ramp up so I know they’re not broken. But why should the laptop wait that long (thermally) to actually start cooling itself? I have tried third party software to try and make my own fan curves, but it never really works.

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18

I’m running openSUSE tumbleweed (and also Ubuntu for testing), and have fw-fanctrl installed with my own profile “cool” to ramp up the fans earlier. This just works, but I haven’t gotten around to automate the start of the program. The keyboard stays cool to the touch, but the fans are spinning audibly with light load already.

       "cool": {
            "fanSpeedUpdateFrequency": 4,
            "movingAverageInterval": 10,
            "speedCurve": [
                { "temp": 0, "speed": 15 },
                { "temp": 30, "speed": 20 },
                { "temp": 50, "speed": 50 },
                { "temp": 70, "speed": 70 },
                { "temp": 75, "speed": 80 },
                { "temp": 80, "speed": 100 }
            ]
        },
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19

The repo includes a systemd service, so systemctl enable fw-fanctrl --now should work (it should start the service now, and make sure it is started at system startup every time).

Nice catch! I am going to give it a spin as well (though I am trying to see if there is any less intrusive way to install it than to run an install script as root).

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20

Wow, that actually works very well. Thank you!
I wish there were a good GUI way to do it, but this will work for now.

21

The systemd service is enabled automatically upon installation, so by setting the desired strategy as default in /etc/fw-fanctrl/config.json enables it on boot. I’ve done just that now, and it works :slight_smile:

The current version of fw-fanctrl has got a new command: print.

fw-fanctrl print current
shows the strategy that’s in use

fw-fanctrl print list
shows a list with all available strategies

fw-fanctrl print speed
displays the current fan speed in percent. fw-fanctrl running as a service means you don’t have to sudo ectool in order to read the fan speed.

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22

I’ve got a FW16 with the optional numpad. What annoys me is that 1) there is no scroll lock key (I used that to switch between kbd layouts) and 2) there are no LEDs for the fn lock or the num lock. Only the caps lock indicates its state.

Otherwise, I’m quite happy with the machine. Yes, it does not feel as solid as my Dell laptop and not as fast either but the price is rather better, the weight is a lot less, does not need a 300W monster of a charger and, most importantly, has no compatibility issues with Linux.

I put Void linux on the FW16 (not officially supported) because that does not use systemd and everything worked without problems.

I found the fan noise acceptable, but indeed the middle of the machine got uncomfortably hot at 100% CPU load. I personally found the kbd pretty reasonable (I’m a fairly light typer). The connector port modules are brilliant, I can configure them whichever way I need it; they are even hot-swapable. The display is very nice and quite bright.
Overall, I think the good outnumber the bad and as per the ugly, I can live with that.

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23

Welcome to the framework community :), thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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24

It has a good cooling solution, but at least in Windows there is no specific software to control the fans or the TDP that is accessible to the user. This could perhaps be entered in the bios

25

It’s not in the bios yet, but the desire for it is common enough I’m sure Framework is aware.

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26

I finally got my kit, but I haven’t had the time to go home and install it yet. However, I have seen some reports of people who got the laptop much later than the cut-off where the pads must have been pre-applied, but they were not. I recommend opening the laptop up and seeing for yourself - and, if they re not, oen a Support ticket and attach a few pictures of the areas that should be covered by the pads not being covered by the pads.

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27

On fan control (which has come up within this thread)

I bought a Framework laptop for (1) its modularity and repairability, and (2) in order to avoid precisely this sort of fix-the-OS-yourself nonsense. True, I’m on Mint, which is not officially supported, but the original poster is on Fedora, which, I believe, is.

Still, I’m grateful for the workaround provided by this thread. On that subject: I read, in the repo for the fw-fanctrl program, that the configuration files are stored in /etc, but it turns out they are stored in /etc/fanctrl.

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