hey guys i'm cj and of all the tech
devices i've covered and computers i've
built since starting this channel i've
never been as excited about a new
computer as i am about this one this is
the framework laptop framework set out
to change the way thin and light laptops
were made maintained and upgraded
without sacrificing style weight or
durability and i think they may have
achieved their goal this is the
framework diy edition laptop a
completely user serviceable and
upgradable ultra portable mobile pc i've
been using it for a week now and this is
my review there have been several
reviews of this laptop and then everyone
the ability to open it up install or
remove components and the overall user
friendly serviceability and
upgradeability has been the focus and
that is why i pre-ordered this device
but that's not what i want to focus on
today
maybe tomorrow but today i want to
highlight how this performs as a
functional thin and light laptop both
physically and performance wise and how
it fits into my daily productivity
workflow and maybe how it can fit into
yours so i'm going to cover the design
and functionality of the machine i'll
briefly cover some of the performance
numbers how it compares to other laptops
in this class i'll share what i really
like about the laptop and what i think
can be improved let's do this
[Music]
let me begin by saying this is not a
sponsored video or requested review
framework didn't send me this laptop i
purchased it myself
framework doesn't even know i or this
channel exists as far as i know and that
allows me to comment on the purchase
process and customer experience first i
did order this back in may on the day
pre-orders went live so it is a batch
one unit the website is well constructed
and configured and ordering the laptop
was painless with just a 100 deposit i
got an immediate email with my order
confirmation and invoice then the long
wait until the late july shipping
estimate i did receive updates including
when the laptop arrived to the warehouse
and a confirmation ensuring i wanted to
pay the eleven hundred dollar balance
now my shipment was delayed by
five or six days however the framework
team quickly communicated the problem
and the solution and did send a message
with tracking info when the laptop
shipped any emails i sent were always
answered within 24 hours and i even gave
customer service a little test on the
initial order i only ordered half the
expansion cards i wanted so prior to the
laptop shipping i contacted customer
service to have the remaining three
expansion cards added to my order and
despite my order already being released
for shipment the customer service team
was able to quickly process a new order
and i received the additional cards the
same day as the laptop so i have to say
in my experience frameworks customer
support is probably one of the best i've
experienced and that goes a huge way in
choosing to do business with them again
as far as what you get with framework
the framework laptop comes in three
pre-configured models all sporting 11th
gen intel processors with integrated
iris xe graphics simply select your tier
from the 999 dollar i5 1135 g7 base
model up to the 2 000 professional model
with the more powerful 1185 g7 cpu for
my laptop i selected the diy mid tier i7
g7 model and i chose to bring my own
memory storage and operating system
using the qr codes and the digital guide
they brought me to set up with the
laptop was fairly simple the only minor
problem i had was the wi-fi and
bluetooth antenna cables were a bit on
the long side which made manage them a
little tricky without popping them off
the card and one of the rubber routing
guides was free when i opened the
chassis however a tiny dab of glue and
it was right back in place i was able to
easily install windows 10 and upgrade to
windows 11 beta with no additional bios
configurations one thing i definitely
have to give framework a big thank you
for is providing an executable batch
file for quickly installing all the
required drivers the design and form
factor is right in line with other ultra
portable thin and light laptops on the
market and in fact is only .25
millimeters thicker than the completely
soldered down 13-inch macbook pro at 1.3
kilograms it weighs in 100 grams lighter
than the macbook must be all that glue
apple uses and despite not being
soldered and glued together the
framework is quite durable and rigid
with very little flex across the fully
aluminum chassis the fit and finish is
superb and you'd never know this is a
completely modular laptop just by seeing
and holding it the display hinges are
perfectly tensioned allowing you to open
the display with one hand while not
allowing drift in any position there is
the typical springiness to the ultra
thin display however there is zero
wobble in the hinge the 60 hertz panel
is 13.5 inches diagonal
2256 pixels wide by 1504 pixels high
which works out to about 201 pixels per
inch with a 3x2 aspect ratio this is the
same size and resolution as the 13.5
inch surface laptop 4 and produces an
extremely clear and sharp image
individual pixels aren't visible at any
distance and the 400 nits of peak
brightness is more than enough in any
lighting situation however unlike the
surfaces display the framework display
is not touch or pen enabled which is a
pretty common feature for a laptop in
this class at this price point
additionally there's not much in the way
of any glitter treatments of the screen
so glare can become an issue in some
lighting situations but the 3x2 aspect
ratio is the perfect ratio for
productivity when i'm working in ms
office or web apps i have no need for
the extra lateral screen space a 16x9
display offers i want the 3x2's extra
vertical real estate and if i do decide
to stream some content the small black
bars on the top and bottom of the screen
aren't a big deal and a fair trade-off
the built-in 1080p 60fps camera is a
step up from the typical 720p offerings
of similar laptops and does have a
decent amount of both dynamic range and
exposure levels however as is the case
with most tiny aperture cameras the
picture is pretty noisy even in a
well-lit studio setting like this the
built-in microphone is probably one of
the weaker points of the laptop as again
in a sound treated studio you still get
a significant amount of reverb and there
is little in the way of voice isolation
or background noise rejection it's okay
for chatting with friends or family
however for professional calls i use a
saramonic plug and play usbc lavalier
mic for better audio however there are
physical switches that appear to
directly cut the power to the camera and
microphone the keyboard is responsive
with just enough travel distance and a
good tactile response yet a silent
profile the keyboard is backlight with
three brightness levels and adequately
serves its purpose the trackpad is on
par if not identical to windows
precision touch pads on other top
selling ultra lights like the surface
book 4 and samsung galaxy flip 13. in
fact despite just being screwed to a
millimeter thin aluminum sheet
essentially there's no more deck flex or
mushiness in the input surfaces than the
top selling mainstream models including
the macbook pro the fingerprint reader
is quick and consistently recognizes my
fingerprint unlocking the laptop without
fail the speakers are also pretty
typical of an ultra portable and really
aren't a consideration for me as if i'm
say listening to lo-fi girl while i'm
working i'm typically wearing earbuds
but the sound reproduction is good
volume level is adequate without
distorting at the higher levels bass
response was ok
[Music]
the only permanent port on the laptop is
the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and
again i've just briefly tested this but
it does drive my sennheiser hd598 well
delivering good quality sound with no
need for an inline amp i typically use
on mobile devices now let's talk about
io because for me that was a big selling
factor the framework is equipped with
four thunderbolt 4 i o expansions bays
which you can configure any way you want
using these expansion cards there are
currently seven expansion cards and i
bought at least one of each now i put
thunderbolt 4 in air quotes because
technically thunderbolt needs to be
certified and i believe framework is
still in the process of that
certification so these are usb 4
expansions but the type c ports are on a
thunderbolt enabled motherboard with a
thunderbolt controller and a thunderbolt
enabled cpu have a minimum bandwidth of
40 gigabytes per second pcie transfer
rates of at least 32 gigabits per second
with usb 3.2 and displaypoint 1.4 alt
modes and supports hbr3 which happens to
be the exact specs for thunderbolt 4. so
if you want to plug in your external gpu
and get in some aaa gaming it is capable
i was easily able to drive two
additional 4k displays using one hdmi
and one displayport adapter and i also
use a usbc hub which includes ethernet
input one terabyte of additional nvme
storage hdmi output and more the only
issue i've run into with the expansion
cards is with the one terabyte storage
expansion despite using a quality faison
controller and offering fast transfer
speed it quickly overheats and begins
throttling with moderate data transfers
and finally if framework doesn't offer
the expansion card you're looking for
they provide the resources to build your
own including this 3d printed model of
the enclosure which i printed and i'm
going to try a diy project to get rid of
this issue the included 4-cell 55-watt
hour battery lasted 9.1 hours on a
single charge on the balanced power
profile which on average consisted of
about 4.8 hours of active work time in
word excel photoshop and about 4.3 hours
in sleep mode i noticed about a 1.5
percent drop per hour in sleep mode with
word and photoshop open and the battery
took one hour and 48 minutes to fully
charge while the laptop was in use
battery life is one of the trade-offs
you make with socketed components like
soda memory storage and wi-fi having low
power equivalents like lp ddr4 directly
soldered to the main board is
significantly more efficient and
requires less power but of course isn't
serviceable or upgradable i had zero
issues with connectivity the intel wi-fi
6 bluetooth 5.2 module delivered fast
consistent and unimpeded data now for
performance the intel tiger lake with
its snappy single core speeds that
rivals even the apple m1 is the perfect
choice for this productivity laptop now
hear me out because i know a lot of you
are hoping for a ryzen version of this
laptop and i'm not trying to be an intel
fanboy but let me explain why i don't
think ryzen is a good choice for
framework first this is a productivity
machine i bought this to be able to
untether myself from my desk and still
get work done typing scripts in word
processing benchmarks in excel manage my
calendar and keeping up with emails and
outlook outputting pdfs creating
thumbnails in photoshop all of that is
faster on a tiger lake cpu and thanks to
intel finally stepping up their game in
the graphics department with onboard
encoders and a 96 eu iris xe graphics i
even have the capability to do some
light video editing and rendering and
resolving premiere pro when i actually
get to do some traveling now if you're
writing and compiling code managing
local massive databases or like 3d
rendering then you want the extra cores
ryzen provides for those heavy
multi-threaded workloads however if that
is your workload i'm going to argue that
this isn't the type of laptop you want
because even though the low powered
u-series ryzen mobile processors are
much better at that stuff than this
intel part they're still restricted in
that performance by their lower tdps
you'd be better off with one of the
45-watt or higher 8 series horizons like
the 5800h and those come in slightly
thicker laptops with better power
delivery and cooling now one big
advantage of say a ryzen 7 5700u
framework laptop would be cost rising
laptops are cheaper and it's not because
the cpus are cheaper it's just that the
standards the intel cpu supports are
more expensive the hardware needed to
support the four thunderbolt 4 ports on
this laptop is expensive with ryzen you
lose the high speed bandwidth and
expandability but if you don't need that
there's really no reason to pay for it
now i'm not going to flood the screen
with a bunch more benchmarks intel
versus ryzen versus the m1
this cpu has been around for like eight
months there are dozens of videos and
published articles covering that
basically single core speed is king for
most common productivity tasks and tiger
lake is king of single core speed at
least on the pc side what i did do is
run several benchmarks to make sure this
1165 g7 performed as it should in this
framework laptop now i have all the
benchmarks here for both its power
efficient 15 watt tdp as well as its
performance 28 watt tdp feel free to
pause and study but the bottom line is
this cpu performed exactly how it should
in this laptop now i know there were a
few reviewers that said the cpu was
getting really hot hitting 100 degrees
and it does
but that's what it's supposed to do
that's how intel's 10 nanometer superfin
willow cords work when you hit the cpu
with a big multi-core workload like
cinebench r23 the cores immediately max
boost of 4.6 4.7 gigahertz package power
draw hits 45 up to 60 watts depending on
ambient temp and it'll stay there until
all four cores warm up and hit 100
degrees then all the cores will drop to
about 3.2 gigs power demand drops and
stays at about 28 watts and the cpu temp
stays in the mid to lower 80s now it
might freak you out to see cores hitting
100 degrees celsius but this is normal
behavior it has nothing to do with the
cooling solution frameworks cooling
solution is actually pretty good with a
larger fan that's typical for an ultra
portable which actually helps the bigger
the fan the less annoying the noise it
makes is and while this fan can get
noticeably loud when it ramps up it's
not a high-pitched whiny sound
that covers all the design features or
performance i think if i forgot
something i'm sure you guys will let me
know in the comments
i want to end with the pros cons and my
concerns about the framework laptop i've
pretty much covered the pros and some of
the cons so i guess i'll just explain
why i went with the framework laptop
over some of the more established
competitors and what sacrifices i may
have made by doing so first and foremost
i went with the framework because of
what it is a fully user serviceable and
upgradable ultra portable laptop but
also the 3x2 display like i mentioned
it's the perfect aspect ratio for
applications i use most on the system
the processor for its single core speed
and performance in my workflow as well
as the high speed expandability in
configurable ports it's not only more i
o than most thin and lights but it's
configurable and faster now one
trade-off i made with the framework
concept is no low power memory option
lpddr4 memory is much faster than the
sodim you can find on the market and
gives you series processors a
significant boost especially in igpu
performance but lp ddr4 is directly
soldered to the motherboard so
now what i didn't get that i would like
to have seen first is a touch
touchscreen moving from a two in one i'm
constantly reaching for the screen to
navigate through my documents or
spreadsheets only to leave fingerprints
mobile data or 5g integration i like to
get outside when i can in colorado and
still be connected to the grid while i'm
off the grid i'm not sure if you can
build a 5g motive into one of these but
i'd like to see someone smarter than me
try and
really that's it framework really did
make a great product their first time
out the gate and of course the kicker
all the issues i described and the
improvements that i'd like to see
are just an upgrade away framework can
just add a touch screen to the
marketplace or upgraded microphone array
or anything they can create the
community wants the only problem with
this upgrade path and it's a big one it
requires framework to still be around to
support this laptop and make the
upgrades framework itself says it right
on their website many have tried and
failed at the upgradable or user
serviceable device if framework becomes
another casualty
i'm left with a laptop that's just as
serviceable and upgradable as an apple
product as of now the framework
marketplace doesn't even exist i really
hope framework stays viable but they may
have slightly missed the mark on their
customer base that's in the market for
an ultra portable laptop like this
typically and this isn't 100 the case
but a high percentage of those customers
a
don't know much about computers and b
don't have the technical knowledge or
mostly desired to take any tech device
apart and work on it in any way shape or
form they just want a simple device that
does what they need it to do with as
little fuss as possible they're the
customer that walks into best buy and
has a blue shirt help them pick out a
laptop if something goes wrong they can
just bring it back to the geek squad now
framework does have this customer
covered with their pre-configured
systems if they can get that marketing
to that customer the customer base that
is drawn to this computer and this
concept are more like me i think pc
enthusiasts who are experienced at or at
least familiar with configuring and
building their own systems they want a
lot of options to be able to build a pc
exactly how they want it to support
their individual workflow and at this
early stage framework isn't there this
is their only product it's still in
pre-order although they're moving into
batch four good sign but this basically
just comes in one flavor with some
selectable toppings just three tiger
lake cpus to choose from and
configurable memory storage and
expansion card options and just judging
from the framework community forums
many aren't looking for this thin and
light laptop i see a lot of questions
about ryzen which i've already discussed
and dedicated graphics which also
doesn't really work in this concept
laptops in this form factor with
dedicated graphics like the acer swift x
for example have the gpu soldered
directly to the motherboard just like
the cpu this is done for a lot of
reasons power efficiency cooling support
and the ability to keep it this thin
with that upgrading just became
significantly more difficult and
expensive you need to replace the gpu
cpu and motherboard as a unit adding a
gpu on a daughter board increases height
requires independent cooling so a second
fan and significantly increases power
demand so probably a bigger battery now
you're past the ultra light form factor
into something like an hp omen laptop
now i think framework may get there this
is their proof of concept which is a
great product and happened to be exactly
what i was looking for if it's something
you're looking for the framework link is
in the description below be sure to like
and subscribe while you're down there
and leave a comment let me know what you
think of the framework i hope to see in
the next one until then stay safe