My Framework is easily the best laptop I've ever owned. I purchased the original 11th gen model from a local friend who was "bored" of it
Other than the rather "meh" speakers (which they offered a replacement for after releasing the largely compatible 'Chromebook' model) I've yet to really have any major complaints about the device
I went as far as pre-ordering the 13th gen i5 upgrade board, complete with a Windows 11 upgrade (rather than reinstall). Amazingly the machine actually feels faster than it did with the original top-end 11th gen i7, along with having significantly improved battery life due to the newer more efficient chip
I've got an open pre-order for the AMD model due "Late Q3" that I'm extremely excited for. I could upgrade piecemeal to it as I've done with the 13th gen model but it seems easier to simply purchase the whole machine outright and then use the older as a source of parts if needed
If Framework could finally get Coreboot support it would quite likely be the perfect laptop for me. Until then though it's the only laptop I'm willing to personally recommend to friends
I really want to pre-order but there's two things stopping me.
1. It's really hard to judge the performance of the GPU (RX 7700S) right now.
There's no easy benchmarks or comparisons out there to find.
I want to know where it lands in the spectrum of laptop GPUs and desktop GPUs.
I also want to know what the performance of the GPU is going to be while plugged in, and on battery (and how long that battery will last).
2. The squashed arrow keys really hurt the usability of the laptop.
The keyboard does have QMK firmware, so if someone makes a patch where holding CAPS plus pressing one of IJKL triggers an arrow key press then it should be fine.
I wish they had made orders available here in Taiwan since it is made here. Would buy one right now. Of course, with the current interest, they don't need extra markets to saturate their order book, and I am not keen to order to another country and ship it back here, so gonna remain Frameworkless for a while.
Super fascinating to read the user experiences so far, really excited and cheering them on!
Bonus points that you can still use English for the interface (ie. decoupling the currency and region).
Originally I thought the keyboard printing would be a sticking point for them not to ship there, but now that I just tried to customise a Framework 16, they do have Traditional Chinese keyboard (the usual English + 3 Chinese writing system on each key), and that's great. The 13 doesn't have it (yet?) though.
Already sold out for Q4 2023. Looks like there is a lot of demand for customizable full-sized laptop. Unlike the Framework 13, there's not Intel option (yet?) but an 8-core AMD 7940HS ought to be sufficient for most potential users...
I kinda regret getting an m1 macbook pro last year. This seems like a much better machine for my purposes. :( Hoping framework will contusion updating this line by the time I need another laptop.
Other than the rather "meh" speakers (which they offered a replacement for after releasing the largely compatible 'Chromebook' model) I've yet to really have any major complaints about the device
I went as far as pre-ordering the 13th gen i5 upgrade board, complete with a Windows 11 upgrade (rather than reinstall). Amazingly the machine actually feels faster than it did with the original top-end 11th gen i7, along with having significantly improved battery life due to the newer more efficient chip
I've got an open pre-order for the AMD model due "Late Q3" that I'm extremely excited for. I could upgrade piecemeal to it as I've done with the 13th gen model but it seems easier to simply purchase the whole machine outright and then use the older as a source of parts if needed
If Framework could finally get Coreboot support it would quite likely be the perfect laptop for me. Until then though it's the only laptop I'm willing to personally recommend to friends