Framework 16 Review

[Nick H. Supervisor]

After a Month With Framework 16’s Laptop, Am I Happy?

Disclaimer: My previous laptop, a Dell 7886, had served me incredibly well and reliably for about 10 years. During that time, I only upgraded from a mechanical drive to a SSD, and also went from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.
Added disclaimer: My opinions of the experience with this laptop are primarily through running Linux. Windows users may have different experiences.

I still remember the morning I got the notification on my phone: “Your laptop will be delivered later today.” I had placed my order in July 2023, and we were now April 2024, so while I had been able to put it to the back of my mind during this time, all of a sudden I was a child on Christmas day. I was staring out the window, and the one time that I left the house to walk the dog it was very brief, making sure to leave a sticky note on the front door saying, “walking the dog. PLEASE phone this number and I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

When there was a knock at the door I’m not sure who shouted louder, the dog or me. The transaction was quick enough, and I was able to walk away to open up my new present.

 

What Did I Order?

There are many options when it comes to order a Framework laptop. I won’t go through all of them (you can find that here) but here is what I decided to go for:

• System: Ryzen™ 7 7840HS
• Expansion Bay Module: Graphics Module (AMD Radeon™ RX 7700S)
• 2x 8GB RAM
• International Linux Keyboard (US)
• UK/IE/HK/SG power supply
• 4x USB-A expansion card
• 2x USB-C expansion card
• 1x HDMI (3rd Gen) expansion card
• 1TB expansion card
• 2x LED matrix

And finally, I went for the pre-built option rather than the DIY option. This will become a point in a moment.

 

Unboxing

So first off, the box was large and chunky. I thought that was a bit surprising given that I had asked for a pre-built machine. But at the same time, Framework throw in a few extra bits and bobs as a thanks for the purchase, so it should be fine, right?

When I opened the box, the first thing I saw was the paperwork and freebies. The freebies are just a few things like a poster, sticker sheet, and a patch. I’m not generally someone that wears a patch to show the world I support something, and I don’t append stickers to my laptops in case I plan on changing something in the future. The poster is fun, but I can’t see myself putting it up on a wall.

Moving those items to the side, I found a box. Inside the box was my laptop’s keyboard. “Didn’t I ask for pre-built?” I thought…

Underneath the keyboard box, I found the laptop:

I picked the laptop up, opened it and noticed something odd – things were missing. My laptop when open was missing the keyboard, the trackpad, any kind of interface save for the power button:

My heart dropped for a moment. I thought “pre-built” would mean that I can just open it and go? I didn’t realise I would have to do some DIY right now, I thought that would come later down the line when I decided to change things like the internals…

 

Putting It Together

This is where the genius of the project comes in. I wanted to be up and running in 5 minutes, and looking at the laptop as it was I thought, “this will take a while.”

Nope! A quick check on the Framework website and they provided a 2 minute video showing how to attach the various items. From what I can tell, all the pieces are magnetic, so you put topside items where you want them and they just click into place!

Within 5 minutes, I had my laptop looking like...well, a laptop:

Except for one small thing...what if I changed my mind later on?What if I wanted the trackpad to the right or left? What about the keyboard? What if I didn’t want the LED matrix tabs? Well…

I can move them around according to how I want to use the laptop. If I had the extra bits and bobs, I could remove the LED parts completely, and instead replace them with a numpad or some customizable hotkeys...pretty neat.

 

Booting

There’s not much to say about this. I had opted for Windows 11 Pro (you can get Home if you like) but unfortunately they don’t offer a version that comes with Linux pre-installed. I think that makes sense, since if you do fancy buying a new laptop with Linux you probably already know a distribution that you want to try. There’s too much variety, I wouldn’t expect them to cater to each distribution.

I pressed the power button, it booted up and I went through the setup process. Something that I had forgot about though: because I went for Windows 11 Pro I was able to set up a local account without being forced to sign in with a Microsoft ID. It doesn’t make a difference to many people, but I was very happy to have this option.

 

Using the Computer

What is there to say? It’s a laptop with a dedicated GPU.

As mentioned in the disclaimer above, my “ancient” laptop didn’t have a dedicated GPU, so gaming on the Framework 16 is a dream. I’ve played Fallout 4 at 120+ FPS without a drop – even on battery – and I believe even X4 ran at a decent 80 FPS when I accidentally played in power saving mode.

Other day-to-day tasks are no different.

 

The GPU

This is an interesting follow-on from the previous part. All-in-all, the computer is silent...until you run a game for the first time. Then it sounds like a F-16 jet for about 10 minutes, although I was playing Inscryption for an hour or so and the fans didn’t calm down during that time. I didn’t think that Inscryption was particularly intensive as a game, but whether it was Linux or the hardware itself, something was kicking the GPU into a bit of a frenzy.

Something that does irk me about the dedicated GPU component though is the backplate. Most of the laptop feels quite solid, but that section at the back that sticks out feels light and sounds plasticy. There is a reason for that – it’s not to hold the GPU, but to add additional ports to get the airflow going. We’ll find out in a moment, but the ease to get into it and have a look showed me that the only reason it is there is to add further ventilation. I appreciate the ventilation, but the rest of the pieces feel solid and the backplate feels like I could snap it if I hold the laptop the wrong way.

 

Battery Life

I must admit, I haven’t fully tested this. On full performance, using the GPU to play a game, it looked like I would get about 2:30 hours. Outside of a game, that went up to 4:30 hours, although I’m not sure if I still had the laptop on performance mode or if I switched to battery saving. I will assume the former, but it is a gaming laptop so I also need to consider that my decision on hardware has resulted in reduced battery life.

 

The Ports/Modules

Now, this is one of my favourite and most useful aspects of the laptop.

A laptop is restricted by how many ports it can have while maintaing a “slim” form factor. And I don’t want the Macbook Air-type laptops that force you to carry around adapters/dongles in order to do a job.

This is where I find that the Framework is amazing. If you look above at what I bought, you will notice that I bought 8 modules - 4x USB-A expansion card, 2x USB-C expansion card, 1x HDMI (3rd Gen) expansion card and 1x 1TB expansion card.

So that’s 3 modules on the left, and three on the right:

8 modules don’t fit into 6 ports, so I’ve bought too much. Except that I haven’t.

I started with a configuration of 4x USB-A, 1x USB-C and 1x HDMI. That went well for the first week.

One downside I didn’t factor in was the fact that there needs to be 1x USB-C if you want to plug in your charager and charge your battery. So that’s 5 available ports.

But then I realised I wasn’t using my HDMI port all the time. I don’t hook up to an external monitor on a daily basis, and given that by this point I was dual-booting, my 512GB SSD was getting cramped with all the tests I was performing.

A quick solution? Get rid of the HDMI port, switch it for the 1TB expansion slot. Yes, I could pay to upgrade the internal storage, but within 30 seconds I had upgraded my storage for data that wasn’t the operating systems. As long as I only use it for personal media or video game storage, I’ve freed up all the space that was being occupied on the internal storage in 30 seconds:

What if I need the HDMI port later though? Because these modules are USB-C connectors, it is as simple as pulling out a USB key and replacing a module. I can plan for my day, remove the unnecessary ports and put in the things that I think I will need. And just like a USB stick, the other ports fit into my bag without any issue so they can travel with me if I find myself needing something.

 

Upgrades

There’s not much to say on this. Nothing – and as far as I can tell, I literally mean nothing ­- is soldered down. I thought I should have gone for 32GB of RAM, but it’s not an issue for me. Like a desktop, I could just buy an upgrade later down the line if I need to, pop open the hood and do the replacement. Same goes for the SSD, motherboard, GPU…

 

Oh, Neat!

• The display is nice. Again, comparing to my previous 10 year old laptop this one doesn’t give me any of the glare I was getting before. And it’s much brighter, allowing me to work outside without having to squint to find the cursor. The screen resolution is 2560x1600 (16:10)
• I only learned about this the other day. The power button has a fingerprint scanner on it. I’ve never used one before, and even now I’m only using it to enter Windows or Linux (or with Linux, entering sudo as well) but it’s something that came with the system and I’m very impressed with how it works. Security-wise, I’m a newbie on that so I’ll continue to look into it.
• The touchpad is really responsive. A friend tested it with Fallout 4 and said that honestly, if the touchpad were a bit over to the right – which I could do – he would be easily able to play without worrying about targeting. A FPS game like Counter-Strike might be different, but the trackpad...tracks well.

 

Oh, No…

• The keyboard is fine, but it does dip down when you type around the center of the board. However, just the other day I saw a video where someone suggested some thermal pads under the center area, and they say that does make a big differencce. It doesn’t affect me for the moment so I’m fine with how things are.
• I've noticed more recently that the modules can be a bit temperamental in Linux. Most of the time it recognises if I connect my mouse, but occasionally the port seems to short circuit and I need to plug into a different port. I am putting this down to an issue with Linux though, since I have not experienced this when I boot into Windows.
• When the laptop arrived the camera had a very red hue to its picture. I was in a call and people thought I had been out in the sun too long. Apparently this is a general issue, but I was able to correct the software profile for the camera so that it looks normal on both Linux and Windows.
• Don’t bother with the LED matrix cards unless you want to get into some programming. Thinking now that I’ve played around with it, they don’t really offer anything that I need. I thought I would use them for monitoring battery life or RAM usage, but that’s going to take me a while to get into (and would also eat into the battery life). Instead, look into a numpad or customisable-hotkey extension. You may as well make use of the space that you’re given.

Is It Worth It? Am I happy?

Let’s put a bit of perspective on things. This laptop cost me about £2,400. It is not cheap, that is for sure. But the way I think of it, my previous laptop lasted me 10 years. Doing the maths, that would mean this laptop will cost me £240 per year for the next 10 years. But I have the added advantage with this laptop in that everything is modifiable. If my GPU starts getting outdated, I can upgrade. Need more RAM, SSD space? Upgrade. Heck, I can switch out the motherboard if I really wanted to!

I can see this thing lasting me 10+ years. So in closing, yes. I am immensely happy with what I have.

 

 

I don’t know if anyone is interested in my thoughts on this, but I figured I would throw it out there. If you've got any questions or comments, I'll try my best to address them.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Nice review! The only thing I don't particularly like about the Framework 16, for that money, is no touchscreen and no 2-in-1 option.

I bought a second-hand Surface Laptop 3 last year when I gifted my HP x360 (7th gen) to my nephew and I really regret getting it. I didn't think I would miss the tablet function of it, but I do miss it. So my next laptop will definitely be a 2-in-1, just got to see if I can sell my Surface Laptop 3 first 😛 

Enjoy!

[+Good Bot, Bad Bot Subscriber¹]

You should have gone with the DIY model and saved yourself some dollars. You are not willing to plug a couple of components together at setup but will upgrade/repair parts later?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

they keyboard sag is about the only consistent complaint I've heard about the 16; and like you, I give this a pass because I know it's due to the modularity.

I think the only thing soldered is probably the CPU, and even that can still be upgraded, would just be upgrading the mainboard as a whole when that comes up.

If I had not just recently gotten a new laptop, and if I could justify the price, I would totally get a framework, simply to support such a good group/concept

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 03/06/2024 at 17:18, Steven P. said:

Nice review! The only thing I don't particularly like about the Framework 16, for that money, is no touchscreen and no 2-in-1 option.

My previous laptop was a touchscreen / 2-in-1. At first I thought that my replacement laptop would have to have that functionality, but the more I thought about it the more I realised that I almost never used it.

 

On 03/06/2024 at 17:36, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

You should have gone with the DIY model and saved yourself some dollars. You are not willing to plug a couple of components together at setup but will upgrade/repair parts later?

I guess I could have, although the DIY option doesn't include a Windows Pro licence. As much as I try not to use Windows, I do need it for the occasional work task. Given that the difference in price between DIY and prebuilt is a few hundred pounds/dollars, and Windows 11 Pro is $200 (not looking for discounted licences) I only lost out on about 100 pounds for it to come pre-built. And as I pointed out in the review, I thought pre-built meant that I would literally open the box, press the power button and be up and running. It didn't take long to put the topside in place, but if I had known that was part of the pre-built process I may have reconsidered and gone for the DIY option.

 

On 03/06/2024 at 17:42, Brandon H said:

I would totally get a framework, simply to support such a good group/concept

Yeah, their concept really hooked me. As I said, I was able to make some modifications to my previous laptop to keep it going, but everyone seems to be taking a leaf from Apple's book these days. I don't like e-waste (my previous laptop will become a home media server when I get round to it) so this kind of modularity is perfect for me to keep up with things without having to replace the whole damn machine.

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

We have been considering moving to these at the company I work at because we continually have major issues with the Surface Pro and have a wide array of employee types with different requirements. Our IT Manager purchased one to play with and seems to be really enjoying it. 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 20/09/2024 at 17:03, Kyle said:

Our IT Manager purchased one to play with and seems to be really enjoying it. 

Did they purchase it themselves, or through the company? Because if it was through the company I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in one day and says that it "went missing."

While I'm here, I may as well give a small update. It'll be coming up to 3 months that I've had this laptop now, and I do not regret anything. There are some points that I've come across though, so I'll put them here:

• The side modules are just incredible. Obviously I'm not chopping and changing on a regular basis, but to know that I can is brilliant. As an example, this weekend I've been visiting family and I found that I needed a USB-C port on the laptop. No problem, take out one of the USB-A modules, slot in the USB-C and off I go.
• The battery life is impressive - although as I mentioned in my original post my previous laptop was about 10 years old so the battery only lasted maybe 90 minutes. So far I think I've spent about 4 hours listening to music, playing a couple of videos and browsing the Internet, and the laptop is telling me I still have another 2 hours of battery left. This is in power saving mode on Linux though, so it might be different for you. I also appreciate that even 6 hours doesn't cover a full workday for most people, but for me this is perfectly fine.
• The edge of the frame have become a bit scuffed. But appearances don't really bother me too much which is why I didn't bother buying a laptop cover for it - I just chuck it in my rucksack and go.
• The screen is showing some signs of marking where the keyboard and touchscreen touch it when the screen is closed. So you can see the edges of the keys and touchpad on the screen in the right light. But if it bothered me that much I would just take a cloth and wipe it off, it's no big deal.
• The microphone and camera privacy filter switches are a bit of a pain in that they are tough to switch on and off.
• Linux Specific: Sometimes when my Linux OS boots, it can fail to recognize my internal Bluetooth adapter or the touchpad. But after a reboot it's fine. And again, this is specific to Linux - I haven't had the issue with Windows - so I would imagine it's something software related rather than hardware.

As mentioned, even with the little niggles above I am still more than pleased with it.

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

On 22/09/2024 at 09:29, Nick H. said:

Did they purchase it themselves, or through the company? Because if it was through the company I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in one day and says that it "went missing."

It was through the company. We had some bad luck with the Surface Pros so we started switching our Windows users over to Framework.

IT manager did end up going back to a Surface Pro lol

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 22/10/2024 at 20:14, Kyle said:

IT manager did end up going back to a Surface Pro lol

Interesting. Have they said why they moved back to the Surface Pro? I imagine the slim form-factor would be a plus, but I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head.

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

The 16" Framework is just a hefty boy