I was curious if anyone else noticed this problem. I’ve seen complaints about wobbly hinges, but my Framework doesn’t have wobbly hinges. Well, the moving part of the hinge (pin + knuckle) doesn’t wobble, it requires a decent amount of force to rotate.
What causes wobbling for me is that the entire top cover assembly flexes quite a bit. When opening or closing it, the top cover bends by about 1cm (measured at the top of the screen), before the hinge starts to rotate.
Whenever I move the laptop, the screen wobbles for a couple of seconds. But the hinge is not rotating, it’s entirely because the cover is flexing then bouncing back and forth.
By comparison, on my T480s, the cover bends only 1-2mm before the hinge starts to rotate. Its hinge is a little less tight, and its top cover is more rigid. The part of the hinge that attaches to the top cover is also beefier.
So the problem as I see it the combination of a fairly tight hinge with a not very rigid cover and/or relatively weak hinge leaf. (I can’t really tell how much it’s the cover itself bending, or the leaf part of the hinge.)
If anything it seems to me the hinge should be looser, not tighter (as some other discussions have mentioned), though that may introduce other problems.
It’s not a huge problem, the laptop mostly just sits still on my desk anyway, but it worries me a little bit for the longevity of the screen when I see it flex that much every time I open or close the lid.
You’re right maybe it’s just my hinge, there can be variation.
To be clear what I’m measuring is how much the top of the screen travels before the hinge “gives”. Like, I can move the webcam 1cm towards or away from me, without rotating the hinge - it returns to initial position when I let go (after bouncing a bit). Most of the flex seems to be at the bottom (but that would be the hinge bending, not rotating), the screen bends / curves a bit too, but less than 1mm for sure.
I’m sure it’s fine! It’s good to have the hinge nice and tight so you can move the laptop about while the screen is open and it doesn’t drift open or shut.
I’m sure it’s fine under normal use, and if I have to replace one part 3 years from now because of it, at least it’s repairable since it’s a Framework. But it doesn’t feel great, the rest of the laptop is so solid, the screen just feels a bit flimsy in comparison.
Flex in a thin and long piece (even carbon fiber sheets) is quite normal. Even glass flex. Let alone the aluminum backed “top assembly”.
To reduce flex, you can reduce the stiffness in the hinge, which cannot be done on the Framework because the hinge is not adjustable. However, a hinge too loose will, well, not stiff enough to prop up the display in a appropriate angle.
The Thinkpad have a less tall display (16:9/16:10) compared to Framework’s 3:2, which reduce the length the force have to travel to get to the hinge, but also the center of mass, which means the hinge can be more loose without affecting its ability to hold the display against gravity.
Most carbon pieces (on cars, bike, drones) are made inflexible, extremely rigid, and brittle. However, if you order sheets (rather than tubes/brackets/whatever), you can see that you can flex the sheet ever so slightly (without any permanent damage/deform) because, as I mentioned, a thin sheet of (anything) will be able to undergo elastic deformation. Ok, maybe beside ceramics and concrete.
Yes it won’t. Metals are highly elastic, especially thin sheets of them. Especially given the small magnitude (e.g. 1cm per 20cm of material)
Maybe after 10 million times microcracks will start to form. But by that time its probably been through the third-hand market already.
Getting really off-topic. Alumnium isn’t brittle, that’s it. Regardless of your years of… Add this to the knowledge base. (Experience and knowledge are not grown linearly)
The concern really is to address hinge stiffness and cover flex in a coherent manner. (Just so you know, there are aluminium alloy springs, by design, made to flex with a given load, over and over. i.e. Just because something is made with aluminium, it doesn’t immediately means it’s unsuitable to flex)
I think it would be nice if the hinge were adjustable. If there were a user-accessible screw or bolt, people could tighten or loosen it to whatever extent they like. This might be especially useful if the hinge loosens over time, as some have suggested.
Aluminum alloy (e.g. 6061, 7005) are more brittle (they can flex less and, as a result, can crack, as you mentioned) while steel is much more flexible.
However, aluminum is much less prone to rusting (which is why they are used on electronics, where applying paint become an annoyance).
Imagine having to apply paint to metal parts on a laptop, and if you accidentally introduce dinks and cracks the entire thing start to rust. Eeeehhhhh… …
And their “brittle-ness” mean that they keep their shape better (rather than bending), which is beneficial in thin structures (e.g. display assembly) where minimum flex is desired and being relative lightweight.
Ideal bike frames are titanium as they are rust-resistant, strong, lightweight, and flexible. But they cost a bomb, which is about the only downside
