[POLL] Framework 16 Review Reception - How do you feel about the reviews?

True, cause my current gaming&windows device is steam deck

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Same. I’m just wanting a device that can play the games that don’t work on Deck. That’s where the FW16 is going to fill the gap for me (outside of it being my work computer as well…minor detail)

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My only worry from the reviews is the keyboard but looks like a fairly easy fix. Assuming Framework doesn’t fix it before i get it.

Dude, which one did you voted to?

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If you mean which FW16 I got, I ordered the Ryzen 9 with the GPU add-on. 32 GB memory

I posted this in a related Reddit thread, but just some more detail:

We’re certainly committed to making sure Framework Laptop 16 is a solid product. For the total list of issues that we’ve resolved on customer units since the press units we manufactured in December:

  1. High frequency noise from Mainboard - We identified an incorrect capacitor value that results in a high pitched noise during high load while using a 28V or 36V power adapter. This is resolved on customer units.
  2. Buzzing or chirping noise from Graphics Module - We identified a scenario where the inductors on the Graphics Module can buzz under high variations in load. We’ve updated the Graphics Module inductor assembly on customer units to resolve this.
  3. CPU thermal module performance - Our thermal module supplier improved their vapor chamber soldering process, which reduced thermal resistance. While this was only intended to improve manufacturing yield, it actually ended up improving thermal performance too. All press units passed the same pass/fail criteria that we use for CPU performance on customer units though, so we consider press unit CPU benchmarking to be a fair representation of what customers will receive.
  4. Liquid metal barrier adjustments - We made some adjustments to the liquid metal application process to prevent any leakage risk on customer units.
  5. Cold GPU performance - For GPU benchmarks, on a cold first run the scores may be lower than subsequent warm runs. We resolved this through a BIOS update that we provided to reviewers partway through the review cycle, which some reviewers may have benchmarked on older BIOS. We know that LTT was on the newer BIOS in their benchmarking.
  6. DPC_Watchdog_Violation blue screen - There was a system stability issue that occurred primarily when scrolling the touchpad that could result in a blue screen. This was the issue that The Verge ran into, and we’ve since resolved it in the BIOS that is on customer systems.
  7. Speaker weighted to left or right channel - There is a bug in the smart amp DSP in which the left or right channel may be attenuated at certain times. We saw a reviewer specifically call out that audio sounded shifted. We’ve found the root cause of this, and we’ve resolved it in the driver on customer systems.
  8. Touchpad Module sliding friction - The mechanical structure that the Touchpad Module slides into is slightly deformed on some press units, resulting in higher sliding friction. This is resolved on customer systems.
  9. Display alignment - On some press units, the display was slightly misaligned in a way that resulted in the bezel covering the edge of the active area. We bypassed screening for this during press unit manufacturing, but are checking this during production of all customer units.
  10. Minor fit and finish in the Input Modules - There are some mechanical alignment refinements in customer systems that improve the alignment of the pins in the Mid Plate to the alignment holes in the Input Modules, as well as reduce visible gaps along the top edges of Spacer Modules. There are also minor improvements in the flatness of the Touchpad Module and Touchpad Spacers in customer systems.

Remaining open questions:

  1. Keyboard deflection - This is an unusual one, because we’ve seen pretty consistently positive feedback on the input deck feel from most of the reviewers, but also specifically saw LTT’s video and the workaround they applied. We’re investigating whether there could have been either an issue on that unit, or a scenario that can result in the mid plate not being flat. In either scenario, if we find that there is an improvement we can apply on this, we will do so, and ship out any parts necessary for that to customers.
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They absolutely have to do with build quality, it’s been addressed in numerous places, including the reviews the selves, the spacers are supposed to have less gap, be flatter, a bunch of stuff, they have a whole bullet list of things they fixed, and it’s literally every single thing except the keyboard, and they addressed that here

Just a note on this one. The keyboard mechanical parts are actually the same ones as the Framework Laptop 13. That is, the key caps and scissor mechanism come off of the same tooling. What we saw LTT call out specifically was flexibility in the mid plate resulting in keyboard deflection. We’re digging into this, because the feedback we’ve heard from our testers and most other reviewers was otherwise similar to what we’ve heard on Framework Laptop 13, which is positive.

I noted this in another comment, but we are committed to finding the root cause of what LTT saw, and if we determine it was not an issue unique to that unit, to make sure we deliver on fixing it for both future production and any units we’ve already shipped.

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This is exactly the sort of update I love to see, thanks for addressing these issues so directly!

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We always offer review units to Phoronix because of how thorough their Linux reviews are. A couple of other reviewers like Andrew at Ars Technica usually test on Linux as well, but Phoronix goes deep.

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Yes, we actually have foam blocks that are adhered on both the Mainboard side and the underside of the Mid Plate for rigidity, and we chose these specifically because they aren’t thermally conductive. We are digging into the LTT feedback though to understand what they experienced on their unit and make sure we can resolve it if it wasn’t unique to that unit.

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It never fails to impress me how transparent the FW team is, I absolutely love it! I expected these things from the update email you guys sent out before which is why I am definitely going to be waiting to get mine in hand to make my own decision

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The display is indeed 100% DCI-P3, and other reviewers like Notebookcheck were able to measure that: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Radeon-RX-7700S-performance-debut-Framework-Laptop-16-review.790807.0.html#toc-4

In initial OS image that was on the press units, the color profile for DCI-P3 wasn’t present, and we had to provide it as part of an updated Driver Bundle. We found that for some of the reviewers though, applying the color profile didn’t work. This is something we don’t expect to occur on customer units, since the OS image for pre-built units comes with the color profile, and for DIY Edition it will come through the initial Driver Bundle installation.

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yeah that kinda threw me off especially because that one review from Dave2D from an earlier DVT unit actually had a lot of praise for the keyboard especially so I’m thinking this was probably a one off on the LTT review unit but definitely worth investigating

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Hey, if we can live up to Steam Deck, I’m willing to call that a win (though obviously we want to start out less bumpy).

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Thanks. We always want to hear how we can do better. We read every review and as many comments as we can, and we use that to understand what we need to do and what information we need to share.

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None of what they mentioned in the reviews really surprised me or deterrs me from my preorder as an enthusiast. The only thing that might actually bother me is the complaints about the keyboard, as i plan to be authoring a book on my framework… but they also say its better than my razers keyboard so I know ill be able to manage. It just might not be as nice as my thinkpads.

Im very please so far with what I’m seeing about battery life though.

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I hope there are plans to bring the dci-p3 profile to linux in the future.

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I was worried after first seeing the reviews, but I don’t see any reason to cancel my batch 4 order. Still extremely excited to get my unit!

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We found that an “off the shelf” DCI-P3 profile actually fits the panel pretty well. I can’t remember whether it just worked out of the box in Linux or whether we needed to provide additional steps in our setup guides to get it working.

Edit: It seems the color profile should get loaded automatically off of the EDID, but you may need to do additional work to have applications take advantage of wide color gamut.

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