hi,
pretty much the subject… I am trying to choose my next laptop and I am tempted to buy a framework 13 AMD. I saw this post from one year ago : https://www.phoronix.com/review/framework-13-amd
and while the review is impressive, comments are not. how things have evolved since then? any experience?
EDIT: you convinced me, I just ordered mine. Thanks for the incredible answers !
NEW EDIT: I use arch (btw), and Gnome. For the answers, I do not think this will pose a problem but… what do you think?
(and yes, I ordered mine before reading last comment of paequ2 who doesn’t like it… for reasonable reasons, maybe. I hope I will have more luck ;) )
Yay, It’s always gonna be Yay
I’ve been trying to sell mine. Went down to 60% of the original price and no takers.
Don’t take funny-colored borders or funny keyboards unless you’re 120% sure you don’t want to sell it in half a year.
Still trying to sell? Would you ship to aus?
I have the AMD edition and overall the laptop is nice but since I received the laptop about 9 months ago the screen broke 4 times. I only got it back 2 or so weeks ago from the repaircenter so I have only been able to actually use it for a few weeks. So my experience is pretty terrible so far. I honestly have no faith the screen is durably fixed this time but let’s see, I’m pretty done with it.
I can actually game one the AMD one pretty okay. Couldn’t with Intel. Battery life also increased by 30 minutes.
i have the intel one, i love it.
it matches with my definition of laptop, portable, 2k screen, the battery lasts a lot and a bit touchpad.
i have kde 6.x so i also have TouchPad gestures.
It’s probably good if that is the sort of thing you are after, a laptop just isn’t something I want to spend real money on myself.
I have both the 13 and the 16. Absolutely love them.
Yea*
It’s spelled Y-E-A.
I currently own a Framework 13… and… after daily driving it for a year, I decided I don’t like it.
The deal beaker for me is the high dpi display. Linux just isn’t 100% compatible with hpi displays. I’m tired of my apps either having blurry fonts or tiny text. Ironic because hi dpi displays are supposed to look better.
With Framework, you’ll be pushed into using Fedora (it doesn’t solve all the scaling issues) or pushed to stop using apps you like because they’re using older GTK (some times there are no alternatives). You’ll also have to dive into debugging scaling issues.
I just switched back to my Dell XPS 13 9310 FHD and it was a breath of fresh air having everything just work. Any distro, any apps, no scaling debugging, text is readable and crisp, app UI elements look properly sized.
I only ever switched out the modular ports once, but honestly it would have been better to buy a dongle instead because that would work on any computer.
Oh, and I tried the higher resolution screen. It didn’t fix the scaling issues.
Oh, and, I actually had a display fail on me! After like 8 months, half the display went black. Thankfully, they were nice enough to send me a free replacement, but it definitely left me feeling like the Framework isn’t that sturdy or durable.
The shell also dents easily. I dropped a small music player from desk height onto the top lid and it left a small dent. (I have like 3 dents on the lid.)
Repairability is the one feature that the Framework beats everyone else on, but to me the cons outweigh the pros.
I had the same display failure, but 4 times in about 9 months. It made me pretty done with the whole thing. I only got the laptop back from the repair centre 2 or so weeks ago but I have no faith the issue is properly fixed now. Let’s see how it turns out, if it happens again I’m going to throw this thing out of the window.
I have a linux desktop with dual 4K screens and I don’t have problems with high DPI? The only problems I’ve come across is with Wine which is easly fixed within the winecfg.
I’m on OpenSuSE, using KDE in X11. I DID have scaling problems with Wayland which I avoid until it is fit for daily use.
Of course 4k is 4 times 1080p (or twice in X and Y dimensions) so maybe it’s much easier to scale to? 2K on the Framework is an odd resolution so maybe scaling would be more troublesome? 1080p to 1440p would be 1.3x scaling.
I don’t have problems with high DPI … only problems I’ve come across is … I DID have scaling problems with Wayland
This is exactly my point. You did have problems with high DPI. You had to fix some random config and avoid Wayland.
I don’t want to deal with this. I want to be able to use whatever software I want and have it work with minimal or no extra “fixing”. I value this over slightly neater pixels.
Then you shouldnt have picked wayland, period. There is a reason its still experimental. And in general, hearing you talk, im not sure linux is your thing in general. Even in linux mint i have to poke in cli once in a while…
Wayland is not experimental.
Wayland hasn’t been experimental for a while. Both KDE Plasma and GNOME have defaulted to Wayland for a while now indicating it’s ready to be used. And in fact, scaling works better on Wayland than on X11 but I suppose ymmv.
Framework 16 with the same display and linux mint user.
Pushed towards fedora? What? I also have no issues whatsoever with the screen or igpu of amd, so i wonder what you were using there and with what chipset.
Ive been daily driving mine for nearly a year now ( amd chipset and igpu) and none of those issues at all…Here’s a screenshot I just took from my Framework 13. Notice how some of the text is clear, but the entire menu to the right is blurry.
Common “fixes” are “move to Fedora” or “just enable some experimental flag in some random config”. This all misses the point though: I don’t want to have to do any of that. I just want a system that works with the most amount of apps.
Of course, it depends on what you specifically value. For me, I value broader software compatibility over slightly neater pixels. Some people might like it the other way around. That’s fine, but it’s something important to know.
I’ve got a 13 with Intel Ultra and it’s a good machine.
I have a Framework 13 AMD running Linux Mint. It works great and I love it. Modular IO ports are super nifty.
Here are the downsides as I see them:
- Price
- No touch screen
- No wifi 7
I expect 2&3 will come in the future and I can upgrade! The fact that I can upgrade rather than throw it away in the future offsets 1.
Can you not use an M.2 wifi card? Or do wifi 7 cards not exist yet?
According to Framework support, there are no supported models as of yet.
Does anyone have experience running the 13 with linux and an eGPU by any chance?
Via TB4? If I’m not mistaken Oculink eGPU adapter is only possible with the Framework 16. It may worth waiting to perhaps get the new Arrow Lake with a discrete TB5
yes, that would be via TB4 for now…
I can confirm the Intel version of the Framework 13 works amazingly with an eGPU (Fedora). 11th gen was my daily driver until I upgraded to a Framework 16 😎
I can speak to longevity - I have a gen 1, batch 2 (humble brag?) - and absolutely love it. Got me to switch over to linux, and the quality is there. Minor gripe about the trackpad sticking intermittently, and had to have the hinges replaced (both known issues, resolved). 10/10 great laptop
Minor gripe about the trackpad sticking intermittently
Aaaah!!! It’s not just me! I used a track pad on another computer and realized the Framework’s stickiness wasn’t just in my head!
Oh dude no, it’s a headache! I wrote to them once and they said it was an issue with the balance plate/sensor.
Apparently the quick fix is to click the bottom center of the trackpad 5x, then test it (I do so by clicking top corners). I find it hit and miss haha. Going inside, you can adjust the placement of that plate, but I never found that useful.
Did you notice if it seemed to improve a bit with time?
Did you notice if it seemed to improve a bit with time?
Mmm… no. I just more violently drag across the trackpad until it works and then resume what I was doing. 😅
I recently picked up a Framework 16 (AMD with GPU to replace an aging gaming laptop used for travel) and love it. Linux (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed) works wonderful. Thinking about picking up the 13 when I need to replace my other laptop when it’s time for that.
I have had that laptop a couple weeks and have been loving it. On fedora, everything pretty much just works flawlessly with no effort. I had a small issue figuring out how to turn off secure boot at first (f2 at boot time I think?) because that menu was separate from the rest of bios.
Other than the speaker not being great (not surprising) and the battery life being meh, it’s a very impressive machine. Mac laptops for me have always been the gold standard for smooth operation but I despise apple, so when I got this machine and it felt mostly like the smoothness of a MacBook pro with the freedom of Linux, I was super stoked about this laptop. It feels very snappy and the keyboard and touchpad are great.
