Yan's Blog 📚

My thoughts about the Framework 13

The Framework 13 laptop in the palm of my hand

In 2020, I managed to get an old Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 1st Generation, a 2-in-1 convertible laptop from Lenovo. I got this laptop from a family member due to a broken fan that instead of spinning up, would spin up partially and then make this horribly loud “zzztt” noise, bring the fan to a stop, before the laptop would repeat the cycle all over again. Not only did the fan not work to cool the laptop, but it would also make everyone within a 20m radius look at you like you came from another planet, just because of how loud and weird the fan noise was. I managed to fix the fan issue by adding some lubrication to the fan motor, leaving me with a used but very competent and thin laptop.

The old Yoga Thinkpad was a good machine for a few reasons:

However, there were many things about the Thinkpad Yoga that were not ideal:

I had originally heard of the framework laptop promoted in a video from youtuber Linus Tech Tips and while the modular design interested me, I didn’t like how expensive it was considering I already had a working laptop and I didn’t even know first hand whether the Framework laptop was even worth the premium price. This meant that when 3 of my friends had ordered their own Framework 13s, I was able to get a hands-on look at the hardware and see if it was actually good. And it turns out, I initially liked the core parts that mattered: the keyboard, screen and IO. Since my friends are also Linux nerds, I also knew that a standard Fedora install works absolutely perfectly on the device, with things like the Fingerprint sensor working, which is something that didn’t work on my Thinkpad.

Since I was soon changing schools and going to University, I wanted something more powerful and a bit more dependable than my aging Thinkpad Yoga, so I planned to buy a laptop for this purpose. I wanted something with moderate CPU and Graphics capabilities, but wanted to avoid a dedicated GPU for the extra power draw and complexity that would cause. I also wanted either something with a ridiculous amount of storage and RAM (32GB and 2TB respecively) or for that storage and RAM to be upgradable. I also wanted something dependable, since I was going to be using it daily, which meant nothing too sketchy in terms of software. I was going to continue using Linux on whatever computer I chose, so if a feature did not have Linux support, it might as well not exist.

Given my requirements, I had a few options that I considered:

However, all of these options had compromises that I was not okay with. While the Framework 13 also had compromises, specifically, I didn’t like the high cost and lack of touchscreen, however, having tried my friends’ Framework 13s allowed me to know that what the Framework 13 did have, it did well. So that’s what I bought.

I ended up purchasing a Framework 13 AMD with an AMD Ryzen 5 7040U and with RAM from Canada computers and the SSD from the Thinkpad. I kind of wonted to get the Intel version instead, especially with how well my Intel Arc A750 handles compute tasks, however, looking at benchmarks at the time, the AMD iGPU was almost x2 as good as the intel iGPU for Vulkan tasks, so I went AMD. All in, taxes and shipping, it came out to around $1400 CAD, which is a large sum of money, though I justified the cost with the potential value I will get out of a Framework laptop in the future: Mainly the ability to upgrade my initial 16GB of ram to 32GB for cheap, the ability to easily replace worn ports, the keyboard or screen without buying a new device and the ability to turn the motherboard into a standalone PC later once the laptop is no longer useful as a portable device. In order to get my choice of IO modules, bezel, keyboard, and Bring-Your-Own storage and RAM, I needed to get the “DIY” version, which while versatile, would require me to assemble some of the parts, though I’m pretty comfortable with that sort of stuff. Also, the AMD Ryzen 5 7040U is a beast of a processor, with 6 cores and decent enough integrated graphics for light gaming and Blender work, making this laptop future resistant.

When I got the disassembled laptop in the mail, I immediately started to assemble it. I pretty soon realized that I had bought DDR4 RAM instead of DDR5, so I had to delay assembly while I replaced the RAM. The kit came with everything I needed to easily and confidently assemble the laptop: Good instructions found online and a good included screwdriver. Assembly was straightforward except when I hit a snag: My bezel would not snap down completely. Turns out that the display cable was in the way, but at the time, there was no instruction to make sure the display cable was not in the way. Once I figured that out, I had a fully assembled laptop. Since I transplanted my SSD, I didn’t even need to reinstall my OS.

I started using the Framework 13 for daily use immediately, and that’s where I learned what I really liked about the laptop, and what I don’t like as much:

Overall, the Framework 13 is a pretty good laptop for my needs and has been a great, no-bullshit option for my portable computing needs.

#Linux #Hardware