George Hotz recently did a short livestream reviewing the FW16. It may be useful for the Framework team, as he highlights several issues already familiar to the community.
Link to the stream: https://youtu.be/XqX8USYNc84
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Isn’t he the hacker who hacked the PS3 back in the days?
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Yeah, that’s Geohot! Hadn’t heard his name since back then, wow.
So… that was an interesting review. Some things I agree with, and some things I don’t. But, that’s the thing: everyone has different needs and wants.
He doesn’t care about the modularity? I do.
He cares about the screen flex? I don’t.
It isn’t to say his concerns (or anyone else’s) are invalid, just that we have different needs.
Like, I definitely agree with him on the touchpad spacers…. as MANY other FW16 owners have complained about. Hence why I got a 3D printed replacement that’s full width: Full-width palmrest - 3d printed files released - #53 by BPM
But, overall, I’m not too bothered by the build quality. I expected some flex due to it being modular. And I’m glad that it is, especially with the keyboard. I’m part of the 50% that wanted a numpad, and clearly he’s part of the 50% that doesn’t. It wouldn’t be possible to please everyone, or even a majority, with a single solution.
But even then, the modularity of the FW16 does open up the possibility of future solutions for this, like a single full-width keyboard module that either has a numpad or doesn’t.
I’m happy with my purchase, and there really isn’t an alternative for me, since it’s the only laptop that makes it easy to repair and upgrade. It’s far from perfect, sure, but I’m at least hopeful that Framework cares about improving.
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I can agree with different wants for different people. I have yet to recieve my first unit but I am hoping the screen is not as bad as he seems to make it out to be.
From another perspective I guess, while a screen as nice as my Macbook Pro would be cool, given the lid flex maybe I would rather stick with a screen which (I naiively assume) is less expensive to replace if something were to happen.
I couldn’t agree more. The FW16 is not for everyone, but it’s certainly for me. I think the build quality is good (initial qualms about the touchpad spacers aside). The screen flex thing doesn’t bug me a bit, I’m thankful for my numpad, modularity and repairability are extremely important to me, and my batch 4 machine has been wonderful since I received it in March 2024.
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This would be my exact feelings about the FW16 as well. I also really like the led matrix modules and designing stuff to use them. I hope they continue to release new stuff for this laptop.
I watched a bit of Hotz’ “review”, if you can call it that. It was more of him trying to follow the build instructions while complaining about it. He just parroted the same complaints (bendy screen, touch spacers) as every other “influencer”. Regarding the bendy screen, honestly, who opens and closes it by the corners on any laptop over 15”?
At least he was using Omarchy, that’s a plus.
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I mean, he’s entirely entitled to his opinions, but the goals of Framework and HP & Apple (as he kept comparing it to his ZBook and MacBook) are completely different.
With HP, Apple, and most other hardware manufacturers… they really don’t want you to do whatever you want with the computer you bought. If something goes wrong with it, they want you to buy the extended warranty, bring it to authorized repair centers, or ship it back to them to fix it. And when better hardware releases? They want you to buy a whole new system and toss out the old one. “Don’t ask questions, just consume product, and then get excited for next product.”
For all its faults, YOU own YOUR Framework computer. You can get spares of EVERY single component and just replace it yourself. They even released the CAD files for the touchpad frame so people can 3D print their own full-width replacement (which I did, as previously noted). Who does that? Not Apple, not HP, not Lenovo, etc.
It’s not perfect… currently. I do have several ways in which I wish the Framework 16 was better (an OLED touch screen that’s either 1200p or 4K, a better discrete GPU without needing to use an external GPU, a full-width RGB keyboard with numpad so Alt+ codes work, etc.)… but even with my complaints, I still feel this is the perfect laptop for me. I’ve had a history of breaking laptop hinges (despite how careful I try to be with them), and finally having a laptop I can easily repair myself is a godsend. But I believe most (if not all) of my wants could be fulfilled at some point.
And, it’s not like his review is all negative. He has stated that while he doesn’t like the FW16, he likes Framework and wants the company to succeed. Plus pointing out how anti-consumer Apple is (and they have been for a long, long time).
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GeoHot has always strong opinion but the interesting part is that he’s not an influencer like you might think. Maybe he is on the very technical part (he’s working with his team on a AI framework à la CUDA from scratch very low level after all - go look after TinyGrad) So he might not even be aware about the fullwidth palmrest made by the community since he only cares about schematics and hardware ! And the main points he “found out” live is the main issues of the laptop so far (high powerdraw, whobbling screen, thick design, moving parts…) is interesting as you see his reaction live like a kid opening his new toy.
The mentionned pain points are still an issue today and I fully agree with his conclusion (I have batch3 FW16 first gen for quite a long time now) : the FW16 might interest few niche persons but it’s not ready yet for the gamer/pro market yet.
I would love to take my FW16 like I take my MacBookPro: using it almost a day long on battery on light usage. The FW16 would run out of battery in less than 4 hours with powersaving enabled, and it’s really and heavy device to take by hands from meetings to meetings. Even the dock at my working place does work randomly on my FW (and of course run fine with all the company’s devices Mac and PC) … well that’s too much to be trusted by the mass.
But, as Georges said, I also think Framework Team can fix those issues, and I’m also pretty sure that in few years, Framework’s laptops (or any potential FW16 new version with those fixes… and/or fixed parts) might be a thing !