Framework Laptop 16

[...] 470 commits later I'm running 7 machines off this config — my Framework 16 dev workstation, a ThinkPad, and a bunch of business laptops for people who've never opened a terminal. [...] I use it for overnight refactoring. Custom NixOS installer ISOs — I ship a USB stick to someone, they plug it in, and they get a working system with Claude Code pre-configured as their "sysadmin." They ask Claude to install software, Claude edits the config, they rebuild. [...]

[...] Bought this Framework 16 laptop less than a year ago so I haven't upgraded anything yet. But if I decide I want a GPU (I don't play games on this laptop so I bought it GPU-less) I can add one. If they come out with a new motherboard that I decide is worth buying, I can swap it out and keep the rest of the laptop. [...] I bought a second USB-A slot and an Ethernet slot, so if I need two USB-A ports or if I need to plug into Ethernet, I can just slide the physical locking tab on the appropriate side of the laptop, slide out one of the slots, and slide in the Ethernet or USB-A slot. [...]

I'm torn on your take, because on one hand I agree wholeheartedly (I own a Framework 13, and considered the repairability to be a part of the price, and a little added bulk to be a trade off I was comfortable with), but on the other, I think there's just some entirely-reasonable human psychology at work here that expects a €2k laptop to be premium in fit, finish, and polish. But I do think Framework still has a ways to go when it comes to polish and build quality. I've had my 13 since August 2022, and had a ton of problems with it (thermal issues) that were only resolved nearly two years later, after lots of frustrating back-and-forth with support. [...] And frankly, based on the author's description of the Framework 16, it sounds like the 16 is not even up to the 13's level of polish. [0] Well, we'll see what DRAM prices look like next year, as I have 64GB of DDR4 in my current laptop, and that same amount of DDR5 is not something I'd want to pay for right now.

Framework 16 owner here, had mine for a year and a half. [...] The only complaints here that I really share are the jankiness of the spacers (a little jarring at first, but now I’m used to it), and the speakers really are noticeably worse than any of my other devices. [...] PS: the battery life is by far the best of any laptop I’ve owned. Maybe that just shows that my previous ones were junk, but I’m quite happy with it PPS: I should note my employer was willing to buy it for me, so price was much less of a concern. [...]

[...] I have been using it for the last 2 years on my Framework laptop 16 without any issues. [...]

From the announcement email: We were the first laptop maker to ship a USB-C 180W adapter with the original Framework Laptop 16, and somehow nearly two years later, we may be the first to ship with 240W too! [...] When I first discovered that heavy gaming drains the battery in the FW16 I went out to search for a more powerful USB-C power supply. [...]

Since it's been a little over a year since I got my Framework Laptop 16 and have been using Fedora Linux on there, I published a new blog post with my thoughts on the laptop and my experience has been daily driving Fedora for a year. Fedora Linux KDEPlasma FrameworkLaptop

Today marks 5 months since I switched from macOS to Fedora Linux as my daily driver, using the same install of the KDE spin of Fedora (started at 40 and upgraded to 41) on the Framework Laptop 16.

I have a Framework 16 from one of the early batches (2023, think it was 1000usd). [...] I also suspect gunk will build up in these edges over time. [...] It's even at a slightly different height than the touchpad, which is probably more defect than intentional. [...] Can't say I've had issues with the spacers actually flexing or accumulating gunk though. [...] The display isn't terrible, but it's not great either. I had the chance to compare my framework (ips, 165hz, 2560x1600) with some newer laptops recently (3x oled, 2x ips). I was pretty impressed with the colors, very little difference compared to the OLEDs and much better than the shitty IPSs. Text was as sharp as the 3k OLEDs and sharper than the 2k OLEDs. But OLEDs (obviously) had the advantage for darker / high-contrast images. I didn't do any proper testing of battery usage, but it seems to be on par with other Linux capable laptops based on my usage thus far. This means you'll likely be looking at 6-8 hours of battery per charge for average programming usage. [...]

Same, I have an all AMD framework laptop 16 with the gaming GPU, and running fedora, and it has been rock solid. I really couldn't ask for more

I have a 12 and the screen is fine. It's no OLED but I have no complaints for what it is. I love it as a secondary tablet-laptop for drawing and reading comics (primary laptop is a Framework 16 which I'm also in love with for Unity3D game dev and similar tasks, that one needs Windows for Visual Studio but I'm enjoying Gentoo on the 12)

[...] You may have a reasonably good 48gb chunk assigned to the GPU, but that DDR5 is 5-10 times slower than GDDR/HBM and the GPU itself isn't stellar. [...] My Radeon W7900 answers a question ("what is this project") in 2 minutes, it takes my Framework 16 with 5070 addon around 11 minutes without the addon - around 23 (qwen 3.5 27b, claude code)

[...] I daily drive a VGA screen and a USB-A hub that connects my USB-A mouse and USB-A keyboard. [...] My charging cables are predominantly USB-A to micro, and nowadays I also need C for my phone. It's a bit annoying to need that extra C charging cable everywhere after we had already standardized on micro (except for Apple), but at least there's one standard now (xkcd.com/927) after the current devices die Edit: forgot the printer. [...] My laptop (bought this year) charges via a DC barrel jack, afaik because USB-C doesn't deliver enough power for peak usage. Buying a little HDMI-VGA converter was a lot cheaper than throwing a perfectly good screen away. My keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals also simply still work, seems silly to replace them just to get a C variant when 700-1300€ laptops have 1 or 2 C ports and always 2 A ports (I happen to be up-to-date on that, at least, because I helped someone select a new laptop ereyesterday) I don't know what I'd need more than one C port for but I'm very happy that there is more than one A port on my laptop. Add in the standard set of 3.5mm jack, HDMI, ethernet, card reader, and charging, and you're already at more ports than even the new Framework 16 can physically fit in its frame, let alone nerd ports like serial or a second ethernet port. I considered buying a double-priced Framework earlier this year for the linux support and upgradeability (I really support their goal and would pay that premium if it were a suitable system) but this is one of the main reasons it just doesn't work for me: I'm actually a power user that regularly uses these connections and more

[...] I bought a ThinkPad P14s Gen5 AMD which has turned out to be a flimsy, plastic (not magnesium like the Intel units), disappointing piece of shit with frequent (but known) GPU crash issues, which I bought because I had a certain moment when I needed a computer and the Framework 16 was still on last-gen hardware, which felt silly to buy so close to an inevitable upgrade. [...]

Framework has not only provided us with a Framework Laptop 16 to help us optimize our kernel and packages on modern hardware, but they have also committed to a $250 monthly donation. I'm gonna guess a laptop and a few thousand dollars (over years) isn't exactly breaking the bank.

I have an M2 Max MBP for work and a Framework 16 for home. Build quality of the MBP is better. [...] The battery life is better, although to be fair, I run Linux on the Framework so the hardware itself isn't the only difference. The Framework 16 wins hands-down when it comes to ports, one of my biggest pain points with any Apple laptop in the last 10 years. [...]

[...] I own a Framework 16 (and am pretty happy with it), because I value repairability a lot. [...] Size, build quality/sturdiness, thermals, and more are going to take a hit when you have the extreme level of repairability and modularity. [...] Every choice is designed to tweak the design, aesthetics, battery life, etc. [...]

"Works on my machine!" is stupid when it comes to software running under an OS, because a userland program that is correct shouldn't work any differently from box to box. [...] I'm running a Framework Laptop 16 and it works just fine, no sleep issues. [...] Panel Self Refresh is broken in the AMDGPU driver. It sorta works, but it's a bit buggy, causing occasional screen artifacts. [...] The fingerprint reader is a little fidgety, and Linux could do a better job at laptop audio out of the box, but generally speaking the hardware works day in and day out. [...] For example, here's the Arch wiki regarding the Framework 16: It's fair to blame Linux for the faults it actually has, which are defini

[...] Although I probably won't be mass-producing open-source laptops like you (i have a framework 16!), I would love to meet you. [...]

Framework 13 yes, Framework 16 no. [...] The 16 right now has a design flaw where the performance and thermals degrade for a lot of users, as the liquid metal interface used is problematic. Framework is in the process of switching away from it to Honeywell PTM, and users affected by performance degradation will get a free PTM kit and a detailed guide to switch, so that is good. [...] The entire laptop rattles quite a lot when touched, and sometimes even when typing on it or using the keyboard. [...] The laptop makes scary creaking noises way more often than I am comfortable with, especially when lifting it up and opening / closing the lid. RMA'd the laptop for one whole month to get this issue fixed and the noise level only marginally improved. Sometimes, when clicking on the touchpad, you get an added layer of reverb to your click, especially if you are resting your palm on the palm rest, but not all the time, it comes and goes (possibly because the mid plate warps in response with the heat fluctuations?). As I tried to investigate this issue, I also found that, over time, my laptop chassis has bent itself quite a lot from use, causing the two front corners to be lifted up and their feet not touch

[...] My Framework 16 laptop is running x86 64-bit Ubuntu. [...]

Got tired of my Windows desktop crashing on me, so I bought a Framework Laptop 16 and installed Kubuntu on it. Haven’t looked back. Next step: rebuild the desktop into a Linux server.

i love my framework laptop 16 and i bought it because it more or less has the perfect feature set for what i want but part of me wishes i could daily drive an old thinkpad

It's now been two weeks since I got my Framework Laptop 16 and started using it as my personal daily driver laptop. I published a blog post going over some of the reasons why I chose the Framework laptop and some of my thoughts on it so far. Laptop Fedora Linux FrameworkLaptop

There will always be more suspend/resume bugs to work through. [...] I feel it's necessary to paint the picture for people who are curious what it means for it to be a crapshoot, so indulge me while I share my experiences. [...] I also have a gen 1 Framework 16. I have seen it crash on suspend, but it is pretty rare, so I've just shrugged it off for now. [...] The current Linux model seems to be just dealing with whatever the vendors crap out for Windows, often full of weird ACPI behaviors and buggy firmware. [...]

[...] Didn't work immediately, but now you wouldn't tell that it was ever broken. I've managed to panic-order (€80) another keyboard though, so now I have a spare. For context a laptop keyboard is build like this: This problem is caused by the layers sticking together. In the case of the Framework 16 the "d" key sits on top of a foam pad which in turn is placed on top of a heat pipe, so this area gets particularly hot under load. [...] That being said for gaming I use an external keyboard now, because the one built-in is made by an external supplier and I don't think they'll start using a more heat-resistant material anytime soon.

I also am a programmer, and I care about all of these things on my laptop. I used my trackpad to click reply on this webpage, that's not a rare thing! If you ever have a meeting where multiple people huddle around a laptop, that uses speakers, webcam, and microphone, and the MacBook does so much better in that scenario. We have interrupted meetings to swap from a Framework 16 (old CTO's laptop) to my MacBook Pro because participants simply couldn't hear those of us slightly further away from the laptop! Zonal dimming is an advantage whenever you have black areas on the screen, and good fan tuning is an advantage if you want to compile some changes during a meeting without thinking "this task will turn my laptop into a jet engine and distract everyone else". If you don't care about these things, then you can find way cheaper devices than the Framework that are cost competitive on core specs. Let's get some Framework pricing as a datum, Framework will sell me the AI 350 and 2.8K display for $1939CAD, it has no RAM, no SSD, no charger, no ports... if I add 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, charger, and 2xUSB-C, 1xHDMI, 1xUSB-A, we're looking at $2403CAD. [...] I can buy four of these laptops for the price of the Framework and still have some cash left over! If I need more RAM I'm sure I can find a similarly cheapo laptop with a SODIMM by actually googling myself. [...] Higher-end X1 Carbons have haptic trackpads at the same price point as Framework is offering diving boards. Across the market there are OLEDs for less money than Framework is charging for LCDs. Personally, I don't care about trackpad alone so

[...] One got a mostly-compatible motherboard upgrade that required grinding down a couple bits on the frame to make it fit, and I got to have a 4:3 IPS display for a bit longer. [...] There's likely a Framework 16 in my future eventually.

[...] I've ordered a Framework 16, though. [...] Design a low-profile mechanical keyboard, I don't care for your excuses. Give us proper touchpad options with buttons. Keyboard modules with scroll wheels and panning for CAD. [...]

The Framework 16 weights about 2.2 kg according to my kitchen scale. [...] That may not seem like a big difference, but the extra kilogram makes carrying around the Framework 16 more difficult. In particular, I don't feel comfortable carrying it with just one hand while this isn't a problem with the X1. [...] Modular ports Like the keyboard area the design is a bit janky though, with visible lines/space between the adapters and the case, though this at least is something you won't notice unless you're explicitly looking for it. Not sure how you can make things like this not to have any lines for what its worth. [...]

The Framework 16 seems like a pretty unappealing device to me due to the bulk and cost, which is unfortunate. [...] Thunderbolt is just too slow. Im in a frustrating situation now where my laptop has a way faster CPU than my desktop, and my desktop has a way faster GPU than the laptop. I really wish I could use my big fancy GPU with my laptop without a massive performance loss.

I just got a Framework 16 laptop and can't get it set up because it gives an error that the input module connector board is not detected. [...] The face plate for the touchpad isn't flush with the faceplate with the side panels, which is sort of annoying. It could be resolved by having the touchpad panel the full width of the laptop instead of having spacers. [...]

[...] I recently refreshed so have a few years to go until it's time again, but I would love to go RISC-V, but I want high performance that is going to last me several years. For comparison sake, right now my desktop has an AMD 5950x 16-core (32v) in it, and my Framework 16 laptop has a Ryzen 7 7840HS (8-core (16v)). The reason this matters is that I expect to spend around $2k for a machine, but if I'm going to spend that kind of money, it's going to be my only workstation. [...] But if I assume everybody is like me, that presents a real chicken-and-egg problem for high performance RISC-V laptops.