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by sdorf 1687 days ago
I've been using mine (min-spec 1135 DIY) for ~4 days on Sway+Manjaro; the hardware feels really good and for all the considerations made towards repairability, it feels like a no-compromises premium piece of hardware. It was nice to be able to take hardware that I have laying around (i.e. SSD and RAM) and put it to use.

The biggest disappointment so far is directly related to the processor offering:

- It feels like it warms up pretty quickly doing small things and starts spinning up the fan

- s2 ("deep") sleep works out-of-the-box but drains battery way faster than I'd like

Some of this kind of stuff may be related to the modularity of the laptop (e.g. bigger power draw of the less power-efficient non-soldered components), but I think a lot of the blame lies with Intel's offerings & hopefully things take a turn in this space for the better. I'd love to see e.g. an M1-style ARM offering from someone that runs linux and is offered in a package like Framework's.

The trackpad is probably pretty good for a 'windows laptop', but just doesn't feel as good as the one on even my 2015 Macbook (and I don't think it fundamentally can be as good with a physical 'pivot-based' click approach compared to the simulated haptic approach on the Mac). It really does feel like a compromise on usability when you see how good the basics can be on e.g. the new Macs. I don't think it's Framework's fault and the ecosystem here just needs to improve.

Based on what I've seen so far, I think this really is a game-changer for people who want a first-class linux-compatible laptop with less compromises (both 'ethically' and from a hardware perspective), and I'm really looking forward to how Framework continues to improve the offering and innovate in this space.

I'm giving it a try as a daily driver for a few weeks. I need a linux laptop for some of my hobbies and the Framework still feels like the best choice for me (including some of the Thinkpads I was looking at... hard pass on the 16:9 offerings, the 3:2 on the Framework is really nice), but I think it'll be hard to swap off of the Mac for the day-to-day usability "basics".

1 comments

That battery drain might be caused by that vPro issue someone mentioned above.
I ordered the module without vPro, so I don't believe that should be the case.

I've heard a ~3% drain rate per hour and that about lines up with what I'm seeing... i.e. if I'm working on one of my hobby projects and want to shelve things with all the same context I can't just "close the laptop" and come back to things a few days later without juggling the laptop on a charger at some point.