No mention of stiffened bottom chassis. Likely unchanged.
The lid is ironically okay, I dont have a problem with it. Same with the palmrest. It’s .. not amazing, but I wont be spending $80 for new ones.
And I also do not think they added support for my 2-lane touchscreen.
True that. I am more wondering if the bottom cover could also benefit from the tolerance improvements in the manufacturing process as a byproduct, fixing it.
But, if it’s a design issue, that won’t fix it.
And, with both my original unit, and the laptop returned from the Repair Center with a replaced bottom case that suffers from the same symptoms, the cases are two, and neither is pretty: either the tolerances are so bad that the defect rate of this part is so high that you can reasonably get two bent ones in a row, or there is a design problem with this chassis. I’m opting for the second one so far.
Another data point, the severity of the corner bend does not seem to be static. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less. So I think there is some kind of heat expansion at play as well here.
It is getting worse again, even on the new chassis. I am at the point where the screen wobbling is too much to bear.
Support offered to send a new chassis, but I am visually impaired, so I am unable to install it myself. Once this concern was brought up, Support basically told me to just let someone else do it. Which means, in my case, pay a repair shop to fix Framework’s defect.
I am very sad to say it, but, 1.5 years into owning this laptop, I really wish I had bought a Dell. My company Dell does not suffer from any such issues.
Yes, unfortunately Frameworks support is really poor. I was in the original batch 1 of the Framework 16. I have noticed a bend display frame and support doesn’t want to do anything about it, implying that it was my fault, that it’s bend. Even though the existence of a second version of the display frame is implying for me that Framework found v1 so unsatisfying, that they released a second version.
I have a 5 year old Lenovo Legion 17 inch and it has nowhere near the flex that you guys seem to have. And it’s “Plastic”. We will see when I get my version 2 FW16. See if there has been any improvement.
Sadly, after almost two years of using the framework 16, the verdict is that this is the device that taught me an important lesson: you don’t want to be an early adopter of anything. It is almost never worth it to take the gamble. Wait it out, let the dust clear, and then decide.
So mine has arrived and its actually far better then expected. I have none of the problems that some individuals appear to have with the hardware. Mine is a DIY and careful assembly plus being a Gen2 gave me a laptop with zero hardware issues. All my little problems that are being resolved one at a time, are all software related, having returned to the Linux fold.
The 5 year old Lenovo Legion is build like a brick compared to the FW16. Far thicker both at the body and double the thickness of the screen frame. The FW16 despite that has only a slightly more flexible screen frame, while the main body is just as stiff as the Legion, despite being thinner and lighter. So far I am very happy with my choice and time will tell if that will change.
In regards to 1st Gens….All our new cars in the last years have been 1st Gens. None of them had any major problems. Just little annoying stuff that all ended up being resolved in the 1st 12 months with little inconvenience to us. So we appear to have been one of the lucky ones when taking a risk.
This is how it’s done. To be fair I’m very happy to see Gen 2 has fixed everything, but I cannot help but be angry at myself: I did need a new laptop in a short notice, but buying something used to hold me through and wait a year or two for the next iteration would have made sense, for a machine that you need to keep for a decade to justify the price. Mine still has enough problems that, while I am holding onto it tight during the current memory apocalypse, I have already quickly gone from my original idea of “this cost a lot but I’ll keep it forever” to that idea of “I’ll just gracefully take the L from trying out a first generation product for a primary machine and upgrade prematurely when I get a good deal or when mobile laptop computing makes a big leap”. If anything, it is nice to know that I can indeed consider Framework again for that next upgrade that is sort of planned a few years down the line. Perhaps, by the time that happens, enough revisions and iterations will have happened that it will be even better!
I really want to see this idea win out and I really want to see the sales skyrocket. I just wish I had waited a little longer to hop on.
But indeed, nothing new. Very seldom in computing has anyone ever regretted waiting a little longer to make an upgrade. Well, save for exceptional unforseen events like the RAM apocalypse at least.