I’ve been a long time XPS 13 user running Arch. (I’ve bought 3 of them) I’ve been extremely happy, but my 11th gen is starting to show its age and there’s no longer an upgrade path with Dell. I use VIM daily and the thought of a touch bar ‘esc’ key is a deal breaker.
I’ve been window shopping for months, and Framework is about my last hope before potentially getting a Mac. I’ve been running Linux as my DD since '98 and I have zero desire to enter the corporate world of apple.
The keyboard on the Framework looks nice enough, touch pad too. The thickness looks comparable. Weight is good. I’m excited at the prospect of running 64GB of ram with an AMD chip! The port situation looks like a breath of fresh air.
My concern is the screen. I’m a bit spoiled leaving the XPS 13 with a 3840x2400 500nit mat screen and almost zero bezel. How does the framework screen perform? How has fractional scaling been? The bezel looks small enough to be acceptable, and the videos I’ve watched makes the screen look pretty okay too. I really hate the idea of leaving 4k behind. It sounds silly, but I’m getting more and more anxious that there is no great upgrade option when my laptop finally meets its end; either from 16gb of ram no longer being adequate, general age or the horrific accidental drop on a hard floor.
I’d really love to hear there is a 4k option in the works I could just upgrade to when it drops. Hear that from a reliable source would trigger me buying the a new laptop ASAP.
Thoughts / experiences are welcomed. Thanks and excited to hear from what looks like great community of DIY’ers
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@Luke_Dupin Also an XPS 13 refugee here.
The screen and keyboard on the AMD Framework 13 are nice. The touchpad might be bit less polished, but that could be down to personal preference.
There is a bigger problem though: the battery life is pretty horrendous by default. There are guides and various hacks to (possibly) improve it, but it’s a frustrating trial’n’error process.
The software side (and even perhaps the BIOS) is definitely a work in progress. For example:
So far it seems that there are no clear and proven solutions that “just work”. It’s also not clear what the Framework developers are doing to ameliorate this situation.
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What do you want the Framework folks to do about it? hardware is hardware. They already identified BIOS issues on extension ports etc.
But a fact is - battery duration is a matter of running applications.
I had user complaining that their batteries in latitude 7400 was lasting merely 3 hours. After checking their devices, they were running cypto-mining software on them.
So - it is always a matter knowing what software runs on the laptop, and what not.
To be honest, you know what you do, how you run your laptop, and you can gain a max battery life out of it (I’ll check the details when I receive my FW 16).
From experience with users, family, you can get a Linux last way longer than any windows installation because of the antivirus running on it. But it is a matter of configuration.
As xps 13 9350 user myself,I feel the display is quite good with slightly better blacklight uniformity that my xps , although I had the mad full hd one. Even battery life is similar I get around 10 hrs on windows. It was less on linus on the xps but haven’t used linus on the framework.
One thing I wish people would do is look at Windows run time only. Linux is such a mixed bag and the hardware on Framework laptops is newer. Framework focuses on Fedora and Ubuntu and these distro works very well. I have personally gotten Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to eek out longer run time under the same (relative) workload than Windows 11. How you arrive there is finicky.
Still the way I use my FW is not what I would describe as lite computing. I have 6 workspaces open with about 16 programs also running. I see anywhere from 5 to 7 hours of battery life under both Linux and Windows 11. Hibernation performance though is infinitely more superior on windows. I have a 64gb RAM system and under Linux we are looking at close to under a minute to turn off. Lot faster to turn on though. Under 30 seconds. But on Windows 11 about 15 seconds to turn off, and at login prompt on power on in under 12 seconds. They are using some fancy compression or smartely noticing that ONLY ram in use needs to be written to disk.
Anyway, I have only used a XPS 13 for about 5 hours. I think the FW 13 is better in every way but one. No touch screen. BUT, the video connector that is being used supports it. So I hope Framework continues to grow and can offer touch panels to us in the future, when their clout can swing a custom panel like that.
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I’m also coming from an XPS 13 running Fedora. I haven’t done any battery tweaks on either laptop, as I mostly use it plugged in, but the battery life of my Framework is better with around 5 hours for random web browsing and YouTube compared to the 3 hours i had on my old XPS. Of course the battery degraded a bit over time. But the Framework is fine.
The screen is nice, but the resolution is not as good as my XPS was. The smaller bezel and the glass touch front also was very nice on my Dell. But other than that, the Framework screen is bright enough and looks good.
The Performance of my Framework is awesome. My Dell struggled with its soldered 8GB of RAM and the iGPU was pretty mediocre. My Framework 13 AMD is super fast and even handles many games no problem.
The build quality of my XPS case was great with the magnesium alloy case and carbon fibre parts. It felt softer and a little bit more premium than the simple aluminum body of the Framework.
The keyboard, touchpad and webcam of the Framework are very nice and probably better.
All in all, I prefer the build quality and solid feeling of my XPS and the speed and repairability of my Framework. I don’t regret buying the Framework, but both models have downsides. Had Dell moved more towards repairability and upgradability instead of introducing that absolutely stupid touch bar, I might have gotten a Dell again.
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Thanks for all the great responses!!!
It sounds like the battery is a mixed bag. I’ve never gotten much over 3 hours with a laptop reliably and all the durations listed above are longer.
It sounds like there is nothing to worry about. Perhaps the XPS feels a bit more “premium” but not in a way that would prevent me from falling in love with the FW13.
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The hinges in both my XPS13s eventually failed, and they’re not easily replaceable, if at all.
I like the display on my FW13, and am now completely spoiled by the vertical aspect ration. It’s crisp, and the backlight is crazy-bright when I need it to be. (e.g. in the field in Grenada or Belize).
I get about 6 hours with the battery.
Neither the XPS nor the FW are built as solid as my Thinkpad X1 Carbon, but when my last TP dies, I’m replacing it with a FW.
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3h on the framework would be 20ish W constantly, you can do quite a lot with 20W.
Hello there,
Just switched from a XPS 13 9370 (8th gen Intel, Full HD, no touch) to a Framework 13 AMD for my work laptop.
There’s obviously a big generational gap between the two (2019 → 2024). However:
- I have the feeling the battery life is way better than it was with my fresh XPS. I limited the Framework battery to 80% and I feel confident in doing almost all my working day unplugged (I do a lot of Google Meet which destroy the autonomy).
- the screen is OK, but I must admit Dell’s one looks more appealing, but less neutral I would say.
- webcam is far better (and not at the bottom of the screen
), microphones seem better as well and the speakers are way better
- overall, the design looks a bit “cheaper”, but that’s the “downside” of modularity and reparability (and I definitely don’t care at all)
- I had issues on my XPS because of Linux (big fan of open source but… c’mon, the experience on Windows is so much better), I have issues on my Framework because of Linux (Ubuntu 22.04). However, the community and support is undoubtedly better on Framework.
- hardware switches for camera and microphone is something that should exist on all laptops and smartphones
- performance is day and night, but again, big generational gap
- my biggest concern at the moment is several graphical glitches (screen capture make my system unstable from time to time, and I do it a lot, multiscreen is messy). But I was on x11 on my XPS, Wayland on Framework, so not comparable
- keyboard is WAY better. Framework’s is super comfy while Dell’s was… OK. Touchpad is similar (bigger on FW).
- screen ratio (3:2) is something to get used to, not a problem.
My employer offered to give me either the newest XPS 13 or Macbook Air in replacement of my current XPS. I refused (for ecological and social reasons) and asked for a Framework (as a beta tester for the company). I have absolutely zero regret so far.
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