Hello! Please bear with me as I’m not very familiar with computer hardware and what exactly all the stats mean, so I’m hoping I can get opinions/ explanations from people who might understand what they’re talking about more than I do. I’m in the market for a Windows 11-compatible 2-in-1 right now, so Framework announcing this laptop is perfect timing for me. I just need help evaluating whether this would be a beneficial purchase for myself, or if I’m getting excited about an idealistic product that isn’t quite for me yet.
I currently use a 5-year-old Surface Pro 6, with Intel Core i5-8250U (which is 8th gen), 8GB RAM, and (I think) 256GB of storage. For my new computer I’m looking for 16GB RAM, 512GB storage or more, and highly prioritizing battery life: I’m on the go a lot for work but my current laptop is useless for this since it dies in like 2 hrs. My main uses would be watching YouTube videos while multitasking with casual gaming (like Solitaire or a number drop-type game), other internet usage, Microsoft Office apps, connecting to a remote desktop for work, and some video capturing/ editing (infrequent but if it ran smoothly that would be a plus). Before I discovered Framework, my ideal laptop was the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1, with an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS processor; it reportedly gets 9 hrs of battery life, and I could get it for less than $1,000 USD.
Here’s my thinking: I know that if this product is successful, hopefully in the future Framework would release more efficient AMD mainboards/ maybe more powerful batteries. As long as the current Laptop 12 is okay enough for my type of use (which I’m not sure about, I’d love opinions on that) I’m willing to sacrifice the extra quality for a few years; and it would still be an upgrade from what I have now in terms of processor, RAM and memory. My biggest concern is: What do we think the battery life on the 12 is going to be like? That’s the main reason I need a new laptop, and if it won’t hold a charge I might be better off getting the Lenovo. From what I understand, the 12 battery is supposed to be 50WH, and the i5-1334U base power is 15W. Does this mean the estimated battery life is 3.3hrs? I’m sure once more information is released within the next month we’ll have a better idea, but that number concerns me. Maybe I’m doing the calculations wrong though, like I said I don’t quite understand how this works. I so hope this laptop would work for me, Framework seems like such a cool company and I love the idea of fighting back against planned obsolescence in the tech market. Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!
A processor with a 15 watt design power (it could draw more than this for brief periods of boost) won’t draw 15 watts all the time. Most of the time, the processor will draw far less power. When performing light tasks, the display is probably drawing as much power as the processor.
Unfortunately, until the machine is out, it’s tough to give specifics. It’s very possible it will work for you. The processor isn’t super powerful, but it should be quite a bit faster than what you have now. But it’s not as fast as the 8645HS. Depending on the configuration, the 8645HS can have up to a 45 watt design power.
I’m sure the FW 12 will have much better battery life than what you have now, but it’s tough to say whether or not it will match other options. Even though the processors Framework chose aren’t the most efficient designs ever, they are still fairly low power chips, so it should have decent battery life when performing light tasks. But until they get out in the real world and people start using them in typical scenarios, it’s tough to say for sure.
No, absolutely not. The processor for lenovo’s calculations isn’t at a constant max load and if it was the ideapad would have a projected battery life of 1.06-1.63 hours. Since the i5 1335u used in the FL12 has an average idle (the workload that you would be using it for would be idle-ish) system power draw of 5.6w in video playback and 3.8w in web surfing. (for the whole system idle according to my calculations), and the average power draw of the Ideapad 5 2 in 1 is 8.9 watts. The math checks out to 8 hours for the Ideapad and a little over 9h for the FL12 in video playback and 13 in websurfing. Again, these are mildly educated guesses from a tired speculator, take these with a bucket of salt.
Impossible to say, but the ram on the Ideapad is soldered (and not much faster than the sodimm compared to other lpddr5) and the processor on the ideapad could be more power hungry, however, the battery on the ideapad would be 12% higher capacity (but not longer lasting). Battery life really depends on what youre doing rather than what a manufacturer says you’re doing. Additionally, the smaller display of the FL12 would probably draw less power than the 17% bigger display of the Ideapad. Bottom line, the Framework likely (my educated guess) have longer battery life than the Ideapad and the Framework would be much more durable than the ideapad considering its individually replaceable keyboard and screen.
I’m starting to get nervous about the potential specs, particularly battery life and multitasking/ graphics capabilities. I’ve been looking at reviews for laptops with the i5-1334U processor, and most of them seem to have complaints about battery life (with maybe 40-60 kwh batteries?). Whatever specs we get on Wednesday, I’m afraid the advertised battery life will be overestimated Also, in looking at CPU comparison websites it seems like the single-core performance is great but multi-core performance is pretty lacking compared to AMD chips in alternatives I’m considering? Can someone explain to me how relevant that might be for the usage I described? I’d assume multitasking would use multiple cores, but I haven’t found a clear answer on when threads vs. cores get used and it seems too theoretical to make guesses about.
Side note: In trying to evaluate what I’d need in a computer I’ve been looking at my current Task Manager and I noticed that when I’m watching YouTube my GPU Process’s power usage skyrockets to “very high”. That definitely explains why my laptop won’t hold a charge lol. The graphics in the 1334U also seem to pale in comparison to AMD competitors… but my current computer is so bad that maybe I’ll be content with the middle simply by never knowing what I don’t have. I don’t know, it’s annoying how many unknowns there are when shopping for a new computer. Thanks for all your help so far, much appreciated!
Adverties battery life numbers are usually worth about as much as the paper they are printed on.
The 12 is getting a budget platform, you are getting an older mid range intel platform (with gimped memory) so comparing it to moder high end amd platforms may be a bit unfair.
The graphics are not really in the same ballpark as a modern amd or intel platform, espceically with the gimped ram but it does have very nice hw decoders for stuff like youtube that bit should be fine. I would not worry about the gpu for video playback, the hw decoders in this platform are probably still better than the ones in the new amd platforms (though the amd ones have improved a ton lately) but for gaming or other gpu intensive stuff you are certainly a lot more limited.
Also, in looking at CPU comparison websites it seems like the single-core performance is great but multi-core performance is pretty lacking compared to AMD chips in alternatives I’m considering? Can someone explain to me how relevant that might be for the usage I described? I’d assume multitasking would use multiple cores, but I haven’t found a clear answer on when threads vs. cores get used and it seems too theoretical to make guesses about.