Eeeey! CHARGED!
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You make some interesting points (and you are certainly correct about the review units delaying revenue), but…
I think you might be a little too generous with your assumptions regarding both reviewer ability and willingness to help improve the product. FW will undoubtedly run into far more issues after sending 1000 units versus the < 10 they sent to reviewers. They were too far along in the process to make any substantial changes to the product, so any feedback would have almost certainly been used to improve guides and instruction. And if they were actually counting on reviewer feedback, that would mean they would have to stall the rollout until all reviewers were done.
The most obvious reason for sending those units out was for marketing. If they were able to learn something in the process, I think that would be an ancillary benefit. It would have helped build their confidence, to be sure, but again, I can’t see that being the primary driver. I think they probably scrutinized the hell out of those early units to ensure the best possible reviews.
Regardless of their reason for sending upgrade kits to reviewers, I have a hard time rationalizing any excuse that they would potentially delay prior customers (who are arguably more deserving of priority).
EDIT: BINGO! Payment complete!
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shipping emails when 
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“What have you done for me lately?!”
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I would disagree. There have been multiple instances where reviewers have noticed issues and reported them to the manufacturer. And reviewers will generally do that to understand if that’s intended behaviour or a defect in manufacturing. Sometimes it’s not substantial changes that need to be made or even hardware ones for the matter. Each reviewer tests a product differently such as different OS, peripherals, and programs that Framework may not have tested. Framework can then lean into that feedback as they prepare the next BIOS update shortly. Obviously, primary driver is for marketing but reviewers do act as guinea pigs. I think it’s also important for people to have expectations about what the product is before it gets shipped out to them. It minimizes customer refunds and improves profit for Framework.
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Haven’t been charged yet but just as well, realized my default payment method is the credit card that was fraudulently charged yesterday and subsequently closed -_- updated and hoping it doesn’t cause any issues.
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Woo! Just got my confirmation that my payment was accepted! I’ve never been so happy for somebody to tell me out of the blue that they were taking my money!
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You’re batch 2?
I agree with you on that.
Still don’t think they are reliant on reviewers to act as legitimate beta testers; however, if they are, that’s not a good strategy.
The reviewer is under no obligation to say favorable things. They make money by generating interest in their videos, so if they could’ve proven the units were not ready for prime time, it would have been in their best interest to highlight that in their review (perhaps even in the title of their review).
Within that context, it would have been insane of FW to not thoroughly vet those review units as much as humanly possible (i.e., even beyond what they may ordinarily do for most units). I would not be surprised if they also ran all the common benchmarking tools on them as well, just to make sure they didn’t send out a poor performer. Remember: those reviews went up before anyone was charged, so avoiding even one bad review would have been crucial for them at that stage.
You’re not wrong that some or even most of the reviewers would be interested in helping, but there’s no way they counted on all reviewers acting benevolently. Just too risky.
You’re also right about the peripherals and to a lesser extent, the OSes, but I think very little will have changed between the review units and the ones that are making their way to customers now. Simply not enough time in between, and relying on reviewers for feedback is also not a great way to develop products. Too impractical.
If one of those reviewers happened to stumble on a ship-blocking bug, something that would have a significant impact on the product, I bet someone would be in danger of losing their job. Those are the sorts of things you need to catch during internal beta testing.
So, I think they’d be happy for the feedback, and do all they could to make use of it. But expect it? Wait for it? No. I just don’t see it, so we may have to agree to disagree 
On the off chance they really did just pluck the first ten or so units off the line and roll the dice, more power to them. I guess that would speak to the confidence of their processes. Wouldn’t have been my first choice though.
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nah I’m an OG batch 1er
Darn it
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It must really depend on where you’re located. I’ve never had problems with FedEx. Actually on the contrary, I’ve almost consistently been jerked around by UPS. They like to charge a percentage of the product cost just to pay your customs fees for you. They once tried to charge me $30ish in customs fees on a $60ish item. Fortunately I was able to self clear the package for only $8 and then I showed them the receipt so they’d release my package.
think we need to start a Batch 2 guild?
There is one, just not as active
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Thanks!
Not saying it’s the same issue as this was for 11th/12th gen Intel Frameworks, but worth checking this thread.
What other companies make skins for Framework laptops?
While they do seem to offer more selection, it appears to be more expensive than Dbrand.
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Thanks, life saver! band steering turned off and its sort of working, definitely still a bit buggy haha.