I was considering purchasing a Framework laptop, not so much for its modularity, but rather for the idea of a laptop that is open and easily compatible with Linux. After spending some time researching and discussing, I have to admit that the battery life concerns me. Although certain benchmarks suggest that the AMD and latest Intel Ultra models can last over 10 hours, I remain skeptical. The reason for my doubt is that these tests frequently disable Wi-Fi during video playback, or only use Windows, which may not accurately reflect real-world usage on Linux. Also, some of the people I spoke with reported getting an average of about 5 hours per charge.
So, here’s my question. If you have a Framework AMD or Intel Ultra and use Fedora (or any other Linux distribution), what is the battery life like (and under what kind of load)? How long does the battery last when you watch YouTube videos? I think that if I had more data, it would help me make a choice. The data I have now is often for older models, or for Windows.
I understand that the framework won’t provide the same battery life as a MacBook. I tested it with an M2 Air. Starting at 80% charge, after 30 minutes of YouTube on Firefox, the battery was still at 80% with an estimated 13 hours left (so, 16 hours at 100%). I don’t expect the framework to last 16 hours watching videos, but I think it should be at least half of it. However, according to my conversations, it seems to be more than 4 hours, at least on Linux.
Since this will be my main computer for a while, this is quite important. Unfortunately, if it’s not quite good enough, I’ll have to get a MacBook until a better model comes out.
Thanks!
It’s kind of an awkward comparison. Snapdragon X is available but doesnt have enough Linux support yet. You are stuck with Macbooks or Windows for ARM right now. Comparing to x86 isnt going to go well in the battery life department. You can chrck out notebookcheck’s framework reviews to compare between models
Of course, I know. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, there are very few ARM-based laptops available outside of Apple, and even fewer that can run Linux effectively. I don’t think the comparison is so awkward. Yes, it’s not the same architecture, but it’s still a laptop that runs an operating system. I know that framework isn’t at fault either. I really hope that they will have access to better chips in the future.
I have looked at the reviews you mentioned, but unfortunately, they are not entirely clear to me since they are done on Windows rather than Linux. However, it is intriguing to compare the different models.
It’s not exactly better chips but different chips. I think the Macbook hardware user experience wise is way better than the Framework laptops. Screen, chassis, headphone out and speakers especially, regardless of architecture. Last two laptops at former job were a MBP16 2019 and 2021 M1 MBP14. Very sleek and fast machines. Switching architecture wasn’t without many pitfalls including normal feature issues like not being able to set over/under scan on the gpu, software compatibility issues, hardware compatibility issues, etc. I think they must be pretty figured out now though. Not sure if I would trust their fanless design though with over 110c temps. Their fanless Macbook 12" all self destructed due to heat cycles with a lower upper temp and lower power chip.
This being said I find myself the owner of a Framework 13 AMD. I’ve had it for about a month. Battery life is pretty good running Firefox with hardware decoding enabled. 1080p youtube video, 60hz refresh, bluetooth off, dim backlight, gnome power set to battery life and I’ve got just under 10W discharge rate in powertop with an estimate of 6 hours of battery life remaining at 83% battery. That is with the 61wh battery. I reckon one could get more out of it with additional power tweaking. So depending on what you are doing 6-8 hours of 1080p Youtube without much tweaking.
Yeah, of course, the overall hardware and software integration are going to be better on a MacBook, but it’s obviously not a priority for me, since I was thinking about using a Framework with Fedora.
My primary worry was about battery life. Since I’m thinking about using it as my main machine, I don’t want to have to purchase a second one later because of its limitations. I will replace my mac desktop with it and even if it does 95% of what I want, it won’t be good enough, at least for now.
Your battery life estimates on Linux are not as good as I would like, but they are still within an acceptable range for me. The AMD models will ship in October, so I have some time to think about it. Unless someone has better results on Linux with the Intel Ultra.
Personally I will not be adopting ARM at least for a few years minimum. I may still have keep a second device to support older hardware and software even then. Definitely wouldn’t mind less suspend battery drain and much better battery life though.
If you get hardware acceleration working (which isn’t too hard) you’ll get significantly more than 4 hours.
I get ~6W of total system power consumption when watching videos on my 11th gen. I’m sure the situation is better on AMD/Intel Core Ultra!
I already use an M1 Mac Mini, which is totally fine for me. So, ARM isn’t a problem. I read the review. It seems that AMD is still better than Intel, but the results could differ on Linux.
There may be some significant improvements in the pipeline depending on what kernel you use, though the hw decoder still uses a bit more power than I’d like at this point it isn’t anywhere near as bad as it used to be.
That’s unfortunate. It really is a nice idea to have a repairable laptop with a good official Linux support and I wish Intel or AMD were able to make their chip a bit more efficient to compete with the new arm laptops.