The AMD Framework Laptop 13 is a dream with Linux!
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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Sponsor: SquareSpace
01:39 Assembly
06:05 Linux Compatibility
08:49 Performance & Battery Life
11:35 Hardware quality
17:17 Parting Thoughts
18:40 Support the channel
So, I decided to install Linux on that thing. Since Fedora 41was just released, I decided to go for that, with the beta to be precise, it wasn't officially out when I started making this video.
I decided to just apply the basic updates to the distro, and not even look at firmware updates first, just to see if everything worked properly, and I wasn't disappointed. Wifi and bluetooth work fine, the keyboard backlight is supported, the touchpad is able to perform these smooth GNOME gestures, the keyboard works perfectly, suspend and resume as well, there's nothing to add or configure, which is nice., and it's really not always the case with laptops primarily meant to work with Windows.
This is all on Fedora 41, with the linux kernel 6.11, so not even the very latest. The camera, mic, and speakers also perform well, although as always, the mic's default volume is wayyy to high for a laptop mic and needs to be lowered by about half. Even the fingerprint reader located in the power button works perfectly, although registering a fingerprint is finicky. It even works from the terminal, which is cool. Hot swapping the ports fro the laptop's body also works fine, everything is just fully functional.
As per the CPU itself, it's a Ryzen 7 7840U, so not the very latest and greatest from AMD, but it's a very competent CPU nonetheless, with 8 cores and 16 threads. On Geekbench 6, it got 2570 in single core, and 11270 in multi core.
As per battery life, the framework 13 isn't a big champion, it only has a 61 Wh battery with aht specific AMD CPU. For me, resulted in about 8h of looped video playback on youtube, with hardware acceleration enabled in Firefox, over wifi, at mid brightness, on power saver mode, with a 2880x1920 display running at 120hz, with 150% fractional scaling.
As per the actual laptop's hardware, it's great. The build quality is good, and absolute proof that you don't need to sacrifice repairability and maintenance options to get a well built device. It doesn't really flex much apart from the middle of the keyboard, and it feels very rigid and solid, despite that fact that various plates can be unscrewed and removed.
Aesthetically, there is not much of a tradeoff ether, apart from the ports which look weirdly far apart from one another because, well, they have to to make this module thing work, but it's honestly not a big deal, it looks fine, and at least you don't bump multiple peripherals into one another, and you don't block ports, with a big USB drive.
The plastic bezel is fine as well, the branding is very minimal, it all looks good. I enjoyedn the screen, it's bright, colors are good and it has an anti glare coating. It goes up to 500 nits, and covers 100% of sRGB. it's also 3:2, which i like as an aspect ratio. It can go up to 120hz as well,but that's only for the 2880x1920 display I got i my review unit.
The keyboard and touchpad are great as well, among the best laptop keyboards I've used. Keys are stable, correctly sized, and have good travel, they feel really nice to type on. The touchpad is smooth glass, it works perfectly for touchpad gestures, and it'ws precise not fiddly at all. It's also centered, which is good.
Other nice things include the mic and camera privacy switches that will stop them from being used electrically.
As per the cost, it's more expensive. With everything I got in the box, the review unit costs 1748 euros, with the 20% VAT included. But, with the framework laptop, you are almost guaranteed to get just a new motherboard when you need it, and you don't need to buy an entire new laptop every 5 years, which might save some money in the long term.
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