Thanks for pointing out some modules won't work in some bays! Check the manual! - LS Thanks to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today's video. Get 20% Off + Free International Shipping with promo code CIRCUIT or visit manscaped.com/circuit
I have one of these. Please let us know what Wi-Fi cards you find that work on it and provide improved, more reliable Wi-Fi performance. So far, it seems nobody can find an Intel Wi-Fi 7 card that works on it. There's a Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7/BT 5.? card, but it's expensive.
The variation in gamma you mention is actually a feature in the AMD &PU drivers, called AMD Vari-Bright, which is on by default to save power. Almost nobody likes it - first thing you should do with these AMD Framrworks is go ahead into the AMD software app and turn that off.
I am so glad framework launched their factory seconds program. That allowed me to make a strong argument as to why my brother should spend a little bit more and get a framework. Living vicariously through him lol
@@Drazil100 dawg its rare for a vid to get out even just a few days after recording its offten over a weak aslo you can see the date on the laptop showing its not today
I’m so glad that FW is doing well. I’ve been using a 13 since they came out and it’s still a great laptop. Their commitment to repairability, mixed with their fantastic build quality is so admirable. I love my 13
I just wish their software support was nearly as good as their hardware support. BIOS/firmware updates are wayyy too slow and lags far behind in terms of features. Like who ships a gaming laptop without any fan control options?
I love that they're branching more and more into the B2B space and working with corporate IT departments. This will force Dell and HP, historically THE leading companies in the corporate technology space, to actually work on their support and logistics.
Interesting, I would have thought Lenovo, since they're the biggest laptop maker out there. I definitely see more HPs in the consumer market, and a shitton of Lenovo in the business environments.
B2B in the UK, isn’t great yet. Long delays to queries and no decent support for payment options. Speaking from the perspective of a business that have purchased 10 F13s to trial.
@@jubuttibdell has superior software than basically all of them for management. Dell and HP also have great support and onsite repair. Lenovo requires you to ship the product back to the manufacturer for repair. Their support also isn't that great. At least on the base plan they do offer on site but it's at a higher cost. However personally I have noticed quality on dell laptops specifically at the hinge seems to be degraded. They started turning to plastic more. Literally every dell that broke broke in the exact spot. The left hinge.
@@andljoy I'm pretty sure arch has gotten easier to install in recent years. Mental outlaw did a video covering the archinstall script which is around 9 mins long. There's also a pretty friendly arch distro called CachyOS if you want to check it out
I had the exact opposite experience. At the price point it's at I thought it felt really cheap. I hated the keyboard and it had that hollow deck feel you get with low end laptops. I also agree with Linus, I didn't think the color looked that great either on the display
I have had the framework 13 amd for about 6 months or so now, it's been great, I did find that the colors on the display initially were really bad, but I was able to fix it in software with windows display adjustments I'm really hoping they do an OLED for it at some point though
One thing that i appreciate about Framework is the RAM and Storage options arent marked up like crazy. They are but not by that much, like some other companies cough "apple" cough.
And in the case of framework, they don't actually get any discounts when purchasing those components. So the mark up is actually kinda reasonable to offset handling costs.
And if you don't want to pay the slight convenience tax/markup you can easily buy it on the side to save the difference anyways; that's the real factor
@zekkos8636yeah, these laptops are definitely expensive, but it's crazy that the price is at what it is when you realise that they probably pay a higher price for components and likely have a higher cost of manufacturing than larger OEMs.
@@TurtleKwitty 100% this. Apple and other companies that use soldered components can charge whatever markup they want for RAM and storage because you don't have any other option than going through them. With Framework, you do have other options, so if they up-charged you too much you could just buy those things from someone else.
9:40 I believe this is still 1st gen webcam from framework(?), I am honestly excited about the 2nd gen webcam and especially interested in comparison with those from Snapdragon laptops.
I can't believe they're not showing either the new webcam nor the screen. This video is literally not adding anything to the conversation. AMD units have been out for a WHILE.
@@giomjava are the new screen and camera out yet? but still, they should probably have been mentioned. This video generally feels like it was recorded a while ago, presumably before the announcement of those
@@TheFerdi265 New screen not out and I don't think anyone has received batch 1 preorder yet. Though I think the new webcam is out there in the wild. I don't think it comes with non preorder 13 yet though.
I'd be curious to know if after-market mods for the framework have started to appear at all. Screen upgrades, expansion modules, etc. Would be a nice thing to cover in a video like this. Or maybe a separate video where you do all kinds of wacky mods with your framework.
Framework made the design of their expansion modules open source, so there's definitely mods in that aspect. There's even a forum on their website with a board dedicated to community projects such as new modules and reusing the old motherboard after an upgrade.
The ethernet port looks like a third-party module. It doesn't quite fit the Framework design language. That is a good thing, and the reason a simple USB-C interface is so good for the consumer.
@@LaughingOrange I think designing an ethernet port from scratch would take up too much resources. Just like how framework probably didn't design the type c connector themselves, it's an off the shelf part that fits their requirement the most
@@leatherhidegamingit really could! I think they would have to release a different keyboard cover that has perferations on top and speakers that fire upwards
@@leatherhidegaming the hard part with the oled screen is that I don’t think there’s anyone currently manufacturing 3:2 aspect ratio oled screens at 13 inches. So framework would need to start up a new production line just for them so the cost for a company this small would be a bit tough. Otherwise the motherboard supports it I believe, totally possible someday in the future
If I was in a better financial position, I'd buy an AMD 16 one to support what framework is doing, but since I'm not, I'm waiting until a framework has support for 180° screens with pen digitizers and dgpus, so it can replace my HP spectre with a dgpu that I currently daily drive for my workloads. Hope they get there.
This is my stance right now as well. That initial ~3k for a GPU extension hurts a bit while being what seems to be a generation old. But I know its ramping up from the looks of it so I cannot wait until a) I have the funds for it, and b) I can justify the cost to performance.
random note for anyone who cares! the 3.5mm expansion card has a built-in dac and sounds noticeably better than the on bord 3.5mm. so if you have good earbuds or something, it's worth the money!
Yeah Linus, please let us know when we can use a decent wifi 7 chipset on our AMD Framework laptops, because those Intel BE200 don't seem to work without an Intel CPU. 😞
I think you still have the old webcam module - They've got a new higher spec one from Omnivision that's supposed to be in the smartphone camera class with especially good low light performance. It's £39 in the UK.
Got the violet bezeled Framework 13 AMD edition for my wife a few months back, absolutely great device. The DIY part took about 20mins with a small error with the second RAM stick within that time, can only recommend this.
One suggestion for flashing through performance bar charts, keep all systems/computers/cards in the same position the entire time and don't (effectively) sort by highest performing. That way, you can keep your eye on the metrics for the featured product rather than having to process, in real time, the changes in order. The length of each bar in the chart tells us who the "winner" is, not the order.
I have one of these my wife bought me for Father's Day. Thinking of getting the new screen. I love this thing. Thanks Linus for investing and supporting this. Still thinking of getting the 16, but not yet...
I wish they put a little more into the investment disclosure (at least for videos directly about Framework products) just because a viewer might easily miss the 2-second "investment in Framework disclosure" statement if they are not already aware.
@@pylotlight, right, but if a new viewer is just going to completely miss what it means, what's the point in giving the disclosure at all? Currently, it just seems like a little nod to those already in the know, which, yeah, seems like a waste of time. I think if they're gonna include it in the first place, they should put just a bit more effort into it.
Linus IS invested in Framework because he liked the product and especially the idea behind it, but I wouldn't really call this an "ad". It's basically the same video they do for every laptop that has cool unique features and good quality. They do mention it every time Linus actually reviews a laptop himself. See 0:09 or the description "Linus loves his Framework laptop -- so much so that he invested in the company"
10:20 as far as I remember, so that the gamma and white balance do not change depending on the lighting, you can disable this option in the Windows or iGPU settings (and this is an option independent of adaptive brightness).
They need a double-wide expansion slot option for smart card readers or to fit more usb ports. Or a modular way to remove the middle post to slot wider modules.
It's nice to see it evolving , but why the USB C adapter only haves 1 port? so much space could at least have 2 USB C , even if only one could be used to charge for exemple .
Cool video! Genuine question, how come benchmarks are against other models from the same manufacturer? Would've been nice to see this compared with competition - particularly ARM devices.
Congratulations Linus for finally moving up to the FW13 AMD. I bought this near start of the year. It’s an excellent piece of kit. However 2 things 1) you mentioned about putting the expansion cards anywhere. Wrong!! can’t do that see FW site for optimal placement to balance functionality (USB4 which you also didn’t mention ) affects where you install those things. 2) I heard a clicking on opening the laptop is that a thing because for the life of me I can t get rid of it. Overall I am a happy camper on the 7840U with me own ram and salvaged nvme. Interestingly you too have not yet had the chance to sample the full slot SD and the new camera module yet. If I was in your shoes I’d have bought into them too (similar age folks think alike :)
@@jajssblue pretty sure it's different for different boards, I personally have an ITX MB and used this guide: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-V4DUIlJYBRc.htmlsi=aK2pABFIXC2g_H__
The gamma and contrast going wrong when overflowing the light sensor is usually due to graphic drivers. Both Intel and AMD have options to "Improve readability under high lights" or similar settings. And usually what they do is try to boost the brightness artificially by increasing the gamma and saturation usually. You can absolutely disable those options in the settings for the respective drivers (Adrenaline for AMD or the Graphics Control Center for Intel)
The RISC-V board is currently an exotic curiosity for most, but it shows an interesting direction for the development of Framework laptops as a standardized platform also for external motherboard suppliers. Fingers crossed for more such experiments.
Nice to see how easily you can assemble the laptop and the variety of configurations this machine offers. The gamer in me is particularly pleased with your Ryzen model's performance
@@GMichaelBridge speaking of keyboards... I am probably in the vast minority, but if only there would orhtolinear kb option too... this laptop would come close to a perfection - for me anyways...
I think the webcam also looks pretty awesome all in all. Detail is super high, color accuracy seems to be pretty good. Honestly one of the better ones.
It only suffers in comaprison to Qualcomm's. As you'd expect, Qualcomm has video fully dialed in. Frankly, all major manufacturers should up their game; it's 2024... webcams should all be very good by this point.
I'm actually really considering buying this laptop specifically for gaming, I know I can save some money and buy a steam desk but I like that this laptop is actually upgradable. I figured it would get similar performance to the steam desk, seeing how it will have a better cooling system.
8000 series has an NPU 7000 series does not. 8000 series.. even though it has an NPU, it doesn't have enough TOPS to run native copilot. I think you slipped up.. but correct me if i'm wrong
Lol, Apple also offers an optional power adapter and just like with your company, with Apple you also have to pay for it, how can you frame this as a positive when it's the same behavior that you dislike about Apple? Can you use the laptop without the power adapter? No? Then it has to be included. It's as simple as that, not that, if you need it, you can give us even more money for it...
For the Mac charger you can only choose which one you want, not whether you want one. + I'm not sure, but I think it is included in the non-diy config. The diy version doesn't have an os or even ram by default, why would it have a charger?
you know what aesthetic I would love to see in tech devices that lends itself well to user repairability? like really leaning in to screws, have them line all around the edge of the panels like bolts rivets on an old boat or train. like instead of apple or samsung or whoever using clips and glue on their phones, they just used a hundered (realistically, like 10 actually needed at most) of those tiny screws you get for hinges on glasses placed all along the outside. would it be a pain to take apart? yes. would it be better than the current state of these devices needing a bizarre array of picks and heat sources to pry them open. uisng screws would also, ya know, mean theyre *meant* to be taken apart, so you dont break anything horrifficly because you need to bend a sheet of glass to make an opening wide enough to stab a pick at a clip that then snaps off causing you to flinch, shattering the glass in your hand in the process. just countersink the screws, they will look great, you can sell replacement covers for people to customise their phones with, itll be grand
@@fellwind fr, polished brass on a stainless or other silver coloured metal plate? looks great. and imo, torque head screws just look good? its a nice pattern to repeat.
Another thing I often think about with these Laptops, the interchangeable IO means that the actual, onboard USB C ports won't be seeing constant wear and tear from removing or plugging in devices. You can easily change out a bad USB C port with a new one, and unless you remove the modules constantly, the new Modules should work just fine!
When they finish their gaming model I'm buying it no question. The ability to swap GPU over time is HUGE considering usually the GPU is the main reason to swap laptops so often. I doubt a 8 core 16 thread CPU will be the major issue in non competitive gaming and most people aren't using their laptop to get 240fps or something...
I love my Frame work 13 AMD. I really like the user configurability of the computer. I bought a 4tb m.2 and 96 gb of DDR5 ram for less money rather than getting it from Framework. I upgraded the internal speakers to the louder versions and am in Batch 1 for the 2.8k screen which is coming out in the next week or so since I got we are about to bill you for the rest of the pre order e-mail last week. I'm hoping the colors are better as this machine can do great work in the field with 96gb of ram for processing batches of photos.
@@nathanl2966 I don't need to justify the price. I need to justify getting a new laptop at all. I have a Surface Book 2 but I barely ever use it. I use my desktop for 99% of things.
Cant wait until framework finds a thouch screen manufacturer that will partner with them. That way they can start to sell tablets as well or at least the community can.
As a photographer I really wish Framework had a full sized SD (or CF) card reader for importing photos on a remote shoot day. Packing dongles for that purpose is a pain and sometimes those cables break. I still carry around a huge older laptop with me simply because it has the card reader built in and I can import/dump photo cards and upload them to my home NAS over a VPN at the end of a long shoot day.
lolz, just checked the expansion card section of their site and it looks like they have one on the horizon already. This may have tipped my purchase decision.
@@jajssblueWe may have to wait for Intel Panther Lake or Zen 6, as Lunar Lake is unfortunately the same with soldered RAM. What _I_ want is better dGPUs on the 16 inch model.
What I'd love to see from Framework is with the laptop GPUs is that they use something like MXM that already had a reference format or even update the format with NVidia but something that still works with older devices
I'm mostly excited about an Elite X board, that'll boost battery life for sure. Or one of these new AMD chips with comparable battery life which pack those awesome discrete performance level GPUs
OLED screens and Ryzen AI 300 series chips in the near future, plus a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite variant genuinely would make Framework the go-to in laptops, especially at the current rate of industry innovation.
Have a diy amd 13 for 6 months now. Love it. Still my daily driver and it games reasonably well. Sold my gaming laptop and don't regret it for a second. Wife has a first gen intel one with one of the first batches. Plan to upgrade the screen battery and probably cpu at some point. Still working great as is.
Its silly everyone wants to pull the shill alarm just for youtube comments... Anyways framework is genuinely pretty cool when you have a set of eyes, customizable I/O is insane! My biggest gripe with laptops is always the performance, but for productivity, idk i'm sure it could be pretty good for a nice ableton session! I also love building things, like i always wanted laptops to be like desktops, and repairing or replacing things is so fun. I remember back when i had this like annoying HP laptop, i took it apart and broke the plastic, and so the powerbutton ribbon cable broke (i was younger too but am i really better at it now 😛) and so what i did, was take a wire and jump the 2 pins for the power, i felt so proud of myself hahaha
My issue with Framework is that their CPU selection is almost always close to being a generation old at the time of release, let alone at any time after. If they manage to procure CPUs around release, get a significantly better screen, and improve chassis build quality, I'll be in.
Actually, when they released the AMD 7040U platform version, there were only a few weeks behind the very first laptop makers to deliver this platform. I actually don't understand why Linus reviews the AMD version now after it had been in people's hand for about 9 months now and the next Intel generation being right around the corner.
@@patrickhanft I'll be curious to know how quickly/when they'll start doing the Ryzen 300 CPUs. They seem to be awesome from early reviews and reports from first devices in people's hands.
@@patrickhanftMy guess is Linus needed a new laptop after auctioning the old one and someone noticed they didn't do a production review of the 13 AMD yet.
@@jcarman I do have the 7840 version and considering my own experience as well as all the topics in the community forum, to me it seems like this AMD version is more a first gen like product than the previous newer Intel versions were. So from that perspective it wouldn't surprise me if it took them a bit longer to launch their second AMD generation. However I am sure they are determined to continue both options in the future, as it is there unique selling point.
I just got a framework recently and I love it! I opted for the factory seconds model, so 11th gen Intel for now until I want an upgrade (though my previous laptop was 6th gen, so this still feels great). But honestly just the fact that from here on out I don't need to buy a new screen/keyboard/etc every time I upgrade is just nice! Why throw away perfectly good hardware just because some other component is old/failing?
The vibe throughout this whole video felt like it was meant to be a roast session for the Framework. Obviously the investment disclosure is there, and the honesty is appreciated, but I'd be biting my cheek watching this video if I were the CEO of Framework. Things like laughing and saying the speakers are "Fine," and highlighting past issues with it like the constant bluescreening is not confidence inspiring. Additionally, spending a significant amount of time talking about current issues like the broken gamma control and how there are better products on the market for things like the webcam quality and overall performance like Snapdragon X. The cherry on top being Linus' mention that it comes at a premium that you must be willing to pay. To be clear, I love the idea of Framework, and I am very confident in your honesty of the product. This video really put me off for a long time, and I can't be the only one who feels that way. But what else would I expect from this video? You turning a blind eye to the issues in favor of your investment? I guess there's no good stance.
I have one, it’s great. Largest drawback is lack of home and end key on this keyboard layout, and the keyboard outlines touch the screen when closed. But even dells do that last bit.
It's worth noting that they have a new webcam module coming out soon. They did a whole video about it with some before/after footage for comparison. Of course, you can buy the new version (when released) and upgrade your current laptop.
AMD Ryzen is genuinely magic. My work issued, Ryzen 3 (3000 series) is capable of running solidworks smooth enough to be actually productive... Not to mention the actual days of battery life I can get out of it.
I find those Framework laptops quite underwhelming to be frank. Outdated chips combined with mediocre displays, keyboards, cameras, high weight and chunky designs and so on. Linus tries to make it all sound not so bad, as this is not an unbiased review, but for that cool modularity and flexibility you really get a lot of trade-offs. Framework laptops are a great idea, but I am not sure they are a great product.
The color accuracy issues are due to the content-based brightness setting in the AMD Adrenalin software, which defaults to on. When you disable that the color/gamma problems go away. I just got an AMD Framework 13 last week and was annoyed how bad the color was sometimes so I looked into it. As for gaming, it can play Hogwarts Legacy at 45 FPS with FSR turned on. Very happy with it.
I think I actually need to get my hands on one of these some day to form an opinion. On paper, they're exactly what I want in a laptop but the build quality needs to be up to scratch and the value proposition needs to be there for me personally. Annoyingly, I'll be in no position to upgrade any time soon. I have an XPS 13 which I love, it has more than adequate spec for what I need from a laptop and is built amazingly - aside from a high refresh rate screen, I couldn't ask for more. What muddies the water for me is that I paid around 60% RRP for my laptop as it was an ex display unit which I was able to haggle down with in store staff for various reasons (the main reason I have my current laptop in the first place in all honesty). I don't use a laptop much but I want something with a good spec and build quality which will last - my current laptop fits the bill perfectly, especially after Dell honoured the warranty and replaced a battery which had been quite heavily abused. On paper a Framework fits there bill for me too and I like that it would be easy to work on, crucially, I suspect that I'd never be able to take advantage of a good deal on one of these so I think I'd need to pay a lot for one upfront an hope that it lasts until I need to make hardware upgrades. Don't get me wrong, I adore the philosophy behind these laptops but I think I need to see one in person first and if I'm considering one on the future, I'd need to sit down and do the maths to make sure it makes sense. I hate to say it but depending on where you live, it will might make financial sense to for some people to just look out for good deals when it comes time to upgrade.
