A little over a year ago now I purchased the Framework 16 - a fully repairable and upgradeable laptop. I’ve since then used it as a main device running Linux, Windows, and as a secondary device when running as a home server. This here is my review of how that year has gone.

Repairability

When I first bought the machine, I actually bought all the pieces one by one so I could have the experience of truly building it, even more so than their DIY versions allow. The touchpad module I got at first got slightly bent at the corner, and I just bought a new one for very little money and replaced it in seconds.

I’ve also replaced a battery and keyboard on it since purchase. Not the fault of Framework, it’s just me not being able to take care of my belongings well enough, which I guess is what makes me the perfect Framework customer.

All the parts are readily available on their online store and they ship quite fast to me in Estonia - roughly a week or so. It would be nice if you could have an express delivery, perhaps for extra money, in case you are in a hurry with a part.

I have to say that it does give a certain peace of mind knowing that no matter what happens, the repair is something you can do on your own with ease, and the parts are cheap and available.

Upgradeability

For the first version of my Framework 16 I got the dual M.2 expansion bay which allows for 2 additional SSD’s (in addition to the 2 SSD slots already built-in). Not sure why I thought I’d need that much storage, because I don’t, but it was a cool flex nevertheless.

Since then I’ve upgraded to the Radeon RX 7700S graphics expansion bay as I do quite a bit of gaming on my Framework. For a 8GB GPU it handles all my AAA games surprisingly well. I play games such as CoD WarZone, Battlefield 6, Cyberpunk 2077, and while I can’t run them at max graphics, they run perfectly fine on medium settings on a high refresh rate 5k monitor.

Framework also has a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics expansion bay available, in both 8GB and 12GB variants. Being able to upgrade the GPU on a laptop is an incredible thing, and while they are indeed expensive, having to upgrade the entire laptop would be a lot more expensive. Besides, I really like this laptop, I don’t want a new one.

I’ve also upgraded the mainboard from Ryzen 7 7840HS to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which did bring quite a bit of additional performance with it.

They recently announced a one-piece haptic touchpad module for the Framework 16, which at the time of writing is not yet available for purchase, but things like these are what makes Framework stand out. I can improve my device piece by piece over time, ship of theseus style.

Performance & efficiency

There’s no one-size-fits-all review of performance because that’ll depend entirely on the mainboard you have, but for me personally the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mainboard has been fantastic. It does everything I need it to do and it does it fast.

That said, whether you will be happy or not depends on what you compare it to. If I compare it to the previous mainboard, Ryzen 7 7840HS, I have only good news to share, but if I compare it to my M4 Max Macbook Pro, well, they are not quite even in the same league. The performance of the M4 Max is a lot better, of course.

I know comparison is the thief of joy and all, but if you must compare it to an Apple device, a better comparison would be to the M3 Pro or base M4 chip. Nevertheless, in all my programming work, I’ve never once felt it being noticeably slow, so just because there are faster things out there does not in any way make this bad.

What is objectively bad however is the efficiency. At best, in energy saving mode, my Framework 16 lasts about 4 hours doing regular web browsing. That’s not good at all and if you travel for work and have to spend a full day at the airport, you will most certainly feel it, because you can’t just relax wherever and have to find a seat with a socket. This though is a fault of AMD making inefficient chips, not a fault of Framework themselves.

Now that they have started rolling out the new Framework 13 Pro with the Panther Lake chips which should get to Mac-like battery life, I’m eagerly awaiting the very same mainboard upgrade for my Framework 16. If I’d get at least ~10 hours of battery life out of this thing, it would be a massive improvement, and I’d no longer have to carry my Macbook for trips instead of my Framework. I mean c’mon, being able to do some hotel room gaming? Sign me up.

Software

I’ve run quite a few Linux distros on this thing, though mostly Fedora, and while Linux works perfectly fine on it I have to say I’ve found Windows to be the better overall experience when it comes to weird glitches and things. On Linux I’ve gotten graphical glitches that could only be resolved by editing kernel flags and/or hoping a new kernel release would solve these issues, but on Windows things have worked just fine after installing the Framework drivers.

I’m a huge fan of how easy the BIOS updates have been, and I love seeing the Framework logo loading bar when it’s installing.

Overall I’m happy with the device, and that the same exact device is getting better over time is a huge plus. I know people say that cost-wise it might not make sense to buy, but I’m fortunate to be someone who is not that price sensitive, so I’m totally fine paying a premium on a device that can be easily repaired and upgraded, a device by a company whose ideology I also believe in.