Framework Laptop Batch 3 - Almost 1 Year Update

+1 here, batch 4 and my hinges weren't great. I replaced them with the 4.0kg hinges and it's been good ever since

@Ten Minute Tech Mine was from batch 4.

Thanks for the comment! What batch did yours come from? Maybe the touchpad issues were cleared up after the first few batches. I'm happy with the 11th gen as well. It's neat that it can be upgraded, but its very expensive to do so right now so I wouldn't really advise that it was worth it. I had that same idea using the 11th gen board though, it would make a really nice "AIO" kind of PC strapped to the back of a VESA mount on a monitor too!

Thanks for the comment and watch! I think Framework is doing a great job, but it's really just too expensive to get people into it on a larger scale. I think that issue may be partially mitigated by offering just a low priced bare chassis and offer used last gen boards, screens, etc to fill in the pieces and true DIY it. Having a marketplace like I mentioned where people who upgraded can put theirs up (maybe with a Framework validation etc) would fit nicely into this model.

Hey thanks for the comment. I did submit a ticket about the hinge, but not the trackpad because I figured it was a similar design flaw that wouldn't be corrected in old models. When I asked about the hinge, which is now sold with new models as a "fix", it was ignored by the marketing company (Neology Concepts) FW uses and they instead said join the newsletter and didn't respond further. Tbh, I expected Framework to have a least a little bit of support- oh well. That's something that certainly can't happen if they want to become mainstream though. That's an idea, good call. Thanks for the tip, not something I considered for whatever reason.

@Ten Minute Tech (I don't know why I only see your reply now) From what I understand, those flip door things are fairly fragile once you get to scale and some people use the thing daily. At least with this chonker of a design the risk of breaking the port is small. Although this means people will swap cards much more often, so the benefit seems minimal. Maybe in a future design of a bigger one they will put larger cards on the backside

I agree. It seems like they went with the first design they came up with without going through any other consideration to the expansion ports. Maybe it was a low item on the feature stack? One of the first things I noticed was I would have preferred to have two type c ports on a single expansion card because 4 ports total, including a charger, is pretty minimal. I've seen thin and lights have ethernet ports that have a little flip down door, so I'm really confused why they're making this big ugly expansion port for ethernet when a better design already exists. Hopefully they redesign down the road!

@Joshua Ham hmm, I guess I could try again then

@Ten Minute Tech they should replace it if you send them a video and show that it is faulty.

Thanks for the comment. I asked they did not offer to replace my hinge and directed me to purchase a replacement. There are 2 hinge options, 3.3kg standard which was what I was referring to and is included in laptops now, and 4kg as you stated as a different option.

Thanks for the comment.

@Pickle Man the Legend Thanks for that. I actually haven't bothered with the upgraded hinge. Support said it was "in spec" to have the screen flop around and I didn't feel it was worth almost $30 USD for a replacement hinge, with may or may not fix it. I appreciate your comment and agree that it's not worth buying the hinge, especially if it doesn't fix it!

Just a heads up, if you havent purchased the new hinges. I have found the new 4.0kg hinges actually make that bounce or wobble worse. the slightest bump and the screen will be shaking a lot more than I would like.

I was pretty happy with it at first, but slightly more luke-warm lately. It's like buying a "beta" product and having to live with the issues it brings. For example, framework says that the screen wobble is "by design" to keep it easy to open and wouldn't assist. I'm happy with the idea and the modularity, but I think some of the decisions being made are keeping it from really taking off. You're right about the battery life. For a laptop without a dedicated GPU and middling performance, it really should be in the microsoft surface ranges of battery usage, which can get 10+ hours. I'm not sure if I'll upgrade this for a long time, the motherboard upgrades are very very expensive, I think too expensive compared to just buying a full new DIY kit. Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it.

​@Ten Minute Tech They now have a marketplace.

Update.. Framework is selling refurbs so I think that's a step

That's a thought. I wonder if somebody started that conversation between the two if it would work...

@John M Flores Good to know...often you can find more deals on Micro SD than full size.

@Shane Spencer I haven't noticed anything

@John M Flores Are there going to be performance and/or reliability issues with those in a full size camera?

I _kind of_ get it. I'm transitioning to micro-SD for action cams and drones. I have mirrorless cameras that still use full-size SD but I'll eventually just use a micro-SD with an adapter for them too and be 100% micro-SD.

@Ten Minute Tech if you do make a video, I’d request actual examples of timeline scrubbing and responsiveness. Benchmarks don’t give much to go off of!

@locklear308 congrats!

@Ten Minute Tech Well maybe a future 15" model? I'd LOVE a num pad! I did just order an 12th gen i5 framework so it will hopefully be here soon!!!

I think so too. If they could have thought a little more ahead and made them wider, they could have put 2 type-c ports on 1 at least.

Great job.

Thanks! I do this for fun so constructive criticism is absolutely welcome. I had some bad cuts in editing this video now that I look at it.. Editing is not my forte but I'm working on it. And you're right the lighting isn't great (right by a window). My space is relatively small but maybe I'll get a blackout curtain to help with that. I'll take that into consideration and keep chugging along the best I can! Thanks!

@Ten Minute Tech thanks ❤️

The speakers are on the bottom so one thing I have noticed that if the laptop is not set on a hard surface for the sound to reflect off, it's pretty quiet and muffled. Otherwise I would consider them "average" subjectively. That is, I haven't done any specific dynamic range testing on them, but they're not noticeably bad in any other area aside from when the laptop is in your lap.

Hey there, thanks for the comment. There's pros/cons to a removable CPU for sure. As an example lots of the Sager/Clevo laptops have replaceable desktop CPUs (Origin had a line of Sager clones) and they're quite a bit larger because of it. I think FW wanted to go for something more sleek and small, and it it's not too bad of a tradeoff IMO. Although it should only add a little bit of cost on top of the cost of the CPU, I think their asking price of ~$1000 is way too much for mainboard+CPU, which is what kills the value proposition. it's why I think they need a refurb marketplace. Their prices initially were on the high side of reasonable before, but ok, yet I see them raising the prices more and more with each product/design change. That's going to bite them in the near future.. if it's not "worth" paying the upgrade people will just buy something else..

Thank you! I've noticed that FW content seems to do pretty well.. Are there not many FW content creators? I would like to make more of FW content if it's what people want to see!

I received it as a gift.. 3d printed is not what I expected when I saw the box at first that's for sure!

Those are all good suggestions. I think the big advantage to an open platform like this is the ability to buy/sell parts 3rd party so that you can upgrade/downgrade/etc as necessary for your use-case whenever you'd like. I'm not sure if they have any plans to change the color. I believe they're using 6063 aluminum alloy, so they could definitely do an anodized layer and have it colored that way... Although it does add a small amount of thickness and that could affect the tolerances, so they would either have to re-machine them or retool and anodize all of them. Things to think about though!