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You will not get mac level finish or integration, nor battery life. But you will get a lot of ram and disk for this price, a robust and fast laptop. And somet

You will not get mac level finish or integration, nor battery life. But you will get a lot of ram and disk for this price, a robust and fast laptop. And something you can repair. If you are a mac person, there is no substitute for the mac, by definition. If you don't care about mac, then the framework is a good machine. I rocked dell for a long time, I switched to framework, and so far, it's been great. The keyboard is comfy, the touchpad is good (for a non mac), the mate screen is productive and I enjoy its format. The specs have not let me down perf wise, the extension system is fantastic, and the value proposition of being able to be repaired is unmatched. I assembled it, and you can see they care a lot. Dual boot windows + linux on it is quick and easy. Support is perfect, including sleep, wifi, fingerprint reader, webcam, etc. The mechanical off switch for the mic and cam is a plus. The battery life sucks, and I can hear the fans more than I want. It's not as stylish as other notebooks. That's it. Mostly, I forgot about the machine in a week and it's transparent to me: it's plugged on a USB dongle that powers it, hook me to ethernet and extends the screen. I used it on the go twice, nothing special to report. It just works and I get things done. Which is probably what a lot of people want.

dustincoates 2y ago
I'll co-sign everything you said, other than to say that if you care about the webcam or the sound, this isn't the laptop for you. I'd still recommend it highly despite those failings, though, as the configuration and the longevity is more than worth it. Plus, who knows, they might come out with a webcam or sound upgrade kit one day.
- BiteCode_dev 2y ago
  True, I forgot to mention it because I almost never use them. Laptop cams and mics are never up to my standard, even on mac, and since I remote work 90% of the time, I always travel with a full mic stand and external cam. This is too important for good communication for me. But indeed, it's not on the higher end for sound and image quality. It's not the worse either. Just meh.
  - mmusc 2y ago
    I think I saw a video from their CEO showcasing some of the things in their pipeline, they are upgrading the webcams significantly. Best thing about a framework is you can just get the webcam and upgrade it.
    - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
      Yep. Also, the new screen looks nice. Might upgrade in a year or two if I feel I need more brightness. The fact you can change it slowly, piece by piece, is fantastic. It spreads the cost of upgrading the machines over the years instead of having to pull the entire cash at once. No need to reinstall everything every time. You can upgrade the battery when you need to. Then maybe the RAM 3 years later once electron app with embedded AI model takes over the world and a hello world eats 4go. This is, to me, the killer feature. Young me would have hated it. I wanted a new poney regularly.
- davet91 2y ago
  The new screen option for the 13" model has a much better webcam.

dustincoates 2y ago

I'll co-sign everything you said, other than to say that if you care about the webcam or the sound, this isn't the laptop for you. I'd still recommend it highly despite those failings, though, as the configuration and the longevity is more than worth it. Plus, who knows, they might come out with a webcam or sound upgrade kit one day.

BiteCode_dev 2y ago
True, I forgot to mention it because I almost never use them. Laptop cams and mics are never up to my standard, even on mac, and since I remote work 90% of the time, I always travel with a full mic stand and external cam. This is too important for good communication for me. But indeed, it's not on the higher end for sound and image quality. It's not the worse either. Just meh.
- mmusc 2y ago
  I think I saw a video from their CEO showcasing some of the things in their pipeline, they are upgrading the webcams significantly. Best thing about a framework is you can just get the webcam and upgrade it.
  - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
    Yep. Also, the new screen looks nice. Might upgrade in a year or two if I feel I need more brightness. The fact you can change it slowly, piece by piece, is fantastic. It spreads the cost of upgrading the machines over the years instead of having to pull the entire cash at once. No need to reinstall everything every time. You can upgrade the battery when you need to. Then maybe the RAM 3 years later once electron app with embedded AI model takes over the world and a hello world eats 4go. This is, to me, the killer feature. Young me would have hated it. I wanted a new poney regularly.
davet91 2y ago
The new screen option for the 13" model has a much better webcam.