I have had my FW13 for around 6(ish) months now and I absolutely love it! There were only a few things I didn’t like about it when I bought it, and the FW12 had just been announced and solved those, but I wasn’t ready just yet to buy a product before reviews had come out. Well now its been out for a while and it looks awesome so far. I am considering based switching based on my use case, but wanted to hear some other opinions on whether I should before I did.
Context: I currently have the AMD 7840U FW13 right now and the processor I would likely get on the 12 is the I5. I want the 12 because I really like the size and love the new colors, and I would use the tent mode often since I use an external keyboard. I also like the idea of a touchscreen and stylus for taking notes in school. I use Arch/Fedora Linux and I primarily use the laptop for coding and some frequent light gaming. The coding workloads aren’t any concern and I could probably use anything for that. The gaming however is what’s concerning me a bit. I mostly only play lighter/indie games that aren’t super demanding like for example Hollow Knight, Celeste, Terraria, Balatro, etc. The only few games that worry me are Minecraft since I run a few servers for my friend group and we play pretty often, and I’m normally playing with fabric optimization mods too. Also I play sim racing games like AC and Automobalista 2. I’m also fine playing games in 720p and low settings or so to get a playable fps and experience.
So I guess I’m just trying to ask if the FW12 would be worth switching to and if the pros outweigh the cons in my case. Also if anyone could provide some benchmarks or performance numbers, specifically in graphics since its hard to find stuff on that online, that would be awesome. Thanks y’all!
Why not just keep your 13 and get a 12 for the less demanding tasks? :]
The 12 can run most of the games you listed well. I use it to play Vintage Story and it keeps up just fine. Minecraft is a less demanding game last I checked especially if you’re using optimization mods. Automobalista 2 requires at least a GTX680 which is about double as fast as the graphics in the i5 so you might be able to barely squeeze by at 720p.
The 12 is a fantastic machine and I love it for the stylus alone. Just make sure you wait about a month or so before buying one so you can get the (hopefully) cracking free case they are currently working on.
Hmm… I’m also going to +1 the “why not both?” unless finances are a concern. Otherwise, you could trial the 12 and if you love it, then you could sell the 13.
The size and form factor of the 12 are pretty appealing for a student, or anyone who works on the go like myself… but it’s also a significant expense when you already have a new laptop you love that does what you need it to do.
Since you’re already using an external kb, you could get a foldable stand for your 13 and tilt the screen up for a similar experience to tent mode (with better ergonomics). Additionally, if you’re planning to just take notes, a stylus would run you an additional $30-$60 depending on what you get, and a screen protector is an additional cost too. Meanwhile, paper notebooks and pens are readily available (and fun if you get into the stationary hobbyist stuff).
Ultimately, I think it’s down to whether the financial investment would be worth the conveniences you’d gain from buying a 12 now. I do love mine, for what it’s worth, but Framework will probably be making these for a while. So no need to jump into switching now if you’re not sure
Yeah I was planning on selling my 13 to buy the 12. I also just prefer to only have one machine to maintain.
Thank you all for the input! I will likely switch within the next few months as long as the cases get fixed. Also If anyone has both machines and could benchmark some of the games I listed, that would maybe make me a bit more confident. :]
I bought a 12 for one of the kids that needed a new laptop for school. I almost decided to give him my 13 and keep the 12 for myself, but in the end he wanted the 12 more and I didn’t want to have to move or replace my sticker collection…
The 12 is a very nice machine, a little dated in the CPU department, and I prefer AMD to Intel in most cases, but still a very nice machine for what it is. I apologize that I won’t have a chance to benchmark Hollow Knight as I’ve already handed the 12 off, but while I cannot quantify it, I can qualitatively say the 12 felt slower than the AMD based 13 I use as my daily driver. I might suggest you keep the 13 until you’re up for your next motherboard replacement and make the leap then, though I certainly couldn’t fault you for moving early. I almost did.
Thanks for the comparison, that really helps! I am starting to think I should just switch once the 12 gets an upgrade. Then I wont have to worry about downgraded performance, and surely the case issue will be solved by then… Either way though I’m going to be patient and wait for the case fix to come out. I’ll just see how my 13 does for me until then.
I just took the plunge on the 12 and I have really enjoyed it so far, especially the touch screen which works out of the box on Linux (depending on your distro). As for a touchscreen and tent mode, I doubt you’re going to find that on the FW13 for a long while, but you’re also likely a while away from a faster CPU on the FW12. As far at the case, that’s my biggest complaint, though it’s a small one. While I think it’s probably very durable, the plastic case isn’t going to feel near as solid as what you have on your FW13.
If you’ve got the spare change and think you can make up most of the difference selling your FW13, I’d say go ahead and take the plunge.
