I don’t think the weaker CPU would affect my use case. My main concern is the smaller keyboard and the build quality (the cracking cases)
So the question is: Is that a stupid idea? Has anyone done this switch?
I made the switch and sold my 11th gen. I too am a big fan of the form factor and was a long-term user of 2-in-1 convertibles before FW13.
Switching from 11th gen i7 to 13th gen i3 was an upgrade to me. I am lucky that I didn’t experience any cracking issue.
The keyboard definitely feels different if you’re used to the FW13. But the size wasn’t noticeable to me. I got used to the key travel and surface texture in a day or two.
Something I haven’t seen mentioned a lot was how different the touchpad feels—it’s more glassy on the FW12. I also got used to that quite quickly. But that could be due to my particular touchpad habits—I tend to not use the full pad and set the acceleration high. I also don’t use the touchpad buttons and prefer to use gesture instead.