So my 11th Gen FW13 DIY is sneaking up on its second anniversary in service. I am considering some upgrades and shuffling some parts down to my second mainboard that is my home router / NAS / automation server.
Does anyone have both the glossy and matte screens, used both side by side, or replace one for the other? I have the glossy now and the glare is still driving me nuts. My main concern is maintaining at least the same brightness, and not too bad of the “color speckling” effect that matte screen protectors are really bad about.
Same questions about the heavier hinges, 61Wh battery, 80db speakers, and CNC top cover.
61Wh battery : the improvement was significant, as the previous one was already 85% of it’s initial capacity. But the real improvement about battery life was to stop using the HDMI 1st gen…
3.5kg hinges : very happy with this change, it’s a lot more confortable now
CNC cover : I sense the gain of rigidity, especially with the 3.5kg hinges. But to me it’s a bit expensive.
80db speakers : a bit louder, but the overall sound quality isn’t really better. There’s still no comparison with my ipad Pro
Yeah I’m in the same boat. Tried to baby the original 55Wh battery using all the tricks I know from driving an EV for a decade, but mine is about in the same state.
Just put the new Matte on my 13…I’m loving it, better than the glossy and still decently bright. I also switched to the 3.5 hinges. I’m just waiting on my AMD board now and the 61 wH batteries to become available again. Hopefully December.
For me the lowest brightness setting is still too bright in some cases. I had no case where I ever had the screen brightness at 100% so far, because it seems to be much brighter than any laptop I owned previously. So that is “hecking bright” for me, because I always have it dimmed
I am also considering to replace my (original) glossy display on my 11th Gen FW13 by a matte one. However I wouldn’t need the glossy anymore, is Framework accepting returns of used parts? And if not, is that something you would consider in the future?
I just did this switch myself. In my case, I’m holding onto it as a backup if something should ever go wrong. The screen works perfectly so I see no need to rid myself of it just yet.
Ordered one a couple of days ago from brotect (was referenced a couple of times in the thread you linked)
Should arrive today, so i dont know yet, but according to the thread, i assume it will do just fine
How would it be wasteful? He could do what I did and hang on to the old one as a backup for now. As far as the quality, I love the new Matte screen. Nice and bright with minimal reflections.
I dont see the need to pay 179$, just to get a matte screen, when i can have the (more or less, needs to be seen) same experience for <20$, when i go with a screen protector.
As far as i know the two displays are the same, except matte vs glossy.
Having a perfectly working screen just laying in a drawer doing nothing, is imo the definition of waste…
I’ve upgraded the top cover (CNC’d version) and have upgraded to the 12th mainboard as well. All of that was super easy and exactly like Framework said. These AMD mainboards are VERY tempting. I have a Framework 16 on order, so I’m holding off for now.
Beyond that I have several Framework mainboards that I am using as a server, media center, and family computer. (3 different boards)
My wife’s 13 is still bone stock 11th gen. She does have the RTC battery replacement coin that you solder in one place. I did that, and it works really well.
I have a 13 gen Intel mainboard that I will probably swap into her laptop.
Gloss vs matte screen:
Very similar in terms of brightness, color rendering, etc. Matte might be just the tiniest bit less saturated, especially in the light blue tones. However, the matte is way easier to look at and use for a long periods of time indoors, especially using LibreOffice type programs. There are several places in my house that the glossy screen was nearly unreadable due to reflections, but there are no places like that with the matte. Matte is absolutely useable in a car under full sun, where as the glossy was don’t even open the lid. Matte has very very little of the “pointillist painting” effect on colors that you get with a cheap aftermarket matte overlay/screen protector product.
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Speakers
Not night and day difference, but a definite improvement. Far less case resonance and buzz at higher volumes with the new 80W version. Easier to hear dialogue. Both versions have decent stereo imaging and sound stage. Worth the upgrade if you consume a lot of media using the speakers, but still will not hold a candle to a proper external speaker set of course.
Top cover:
New CNC version is much stiffer, and gives a far more satisfying opening/closing experience with less flex.
2nd gen 3.5kg hinges:
These are a perfect match for the upgraded top cover, but are almost too strong for the older top cover. You can open/close the older one with one hand on each side, or if you are careful, one hand in the middle. One hand on one corner only puts a ton of flex on the screen, and makes me really scared that the screen is going to crack. With the stiffer top cover, one hand anywhere is perfectly safe for opening and closing from any spot on the cover.
11th gen i5 vs 13th gen i5:
Definitely more performant in multi core tasks, but pretty comparable in single core operations. My multi-GB sized QGIS projects definitely load and display noticeably quicker, less lag when panning around to a new area. Somewhat less heat when playing videos on YT, Netflix, Kodi media center, etc. Slightly better battery life, especially on video playback, but not earth shatteringly better. Tested with fully up to date arch installs on both.
