Why Framework?

Maybe the better question should be, why a new laptop? I haven’t had a new, personal laptop in many years - I’ve either had old freebies (thanks Alex!) or the odd old hand me down MacBook Pro that I’ve inevitably installed Linux on.

Because none of them were ever particularly ‘good’, (they either had some kind of hardware problem or compatibility issue or they just weren’t particularly powerful) I never really settled into them as, ‘home’, you know? Like, I never setup my email in Thunderbird for instance.

I wanted to treat myself and get something that I could call home and setup permanently. Framework seemed the natural choice for me.

For those unaware, Framework sells laptops (and now desktops too) that are modular and repairable - meaning not only can you buy them in a flexible way, (such as with no RAM or SSD for example), you are also actively encouraged to take them apart and repair them with spare parts. They even sell a DIY kit where the laptop arrives in pieces, for you to build. They also have these neat, ‘modules’, for the ports, where you can choose the I/O you need.

My Spec

2025 Framework 13

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 2TB NVME SSD
Display: 2.8K 2880x1920 120Hz matte
Modules: Translucent purple USB-C (4x)
Bezel: Translucent purple

The Build

I posted a video on YouTube of me building the machine. Although it’s edited, it honestly took less than 30 minutes to complete.

Installing NixOS

Once I’d built the machine, I decided I would install NixOS. I did this mainly as a learning-as-I-go experience (and to jump on that hype train!) I’ve used NixOS before (and I use Nix Darwin on my work and home Macs) but I’d never, lived it.

So far the experience has been really great. It’s been stable and clean and I really appreciate the hardware support and firmware updates.

My thoughts

At the time of writing it’s been roughly a month since it arrived and I built it. Here’s some of my (unordered) thoughts on it so far:

Build quality

It’s no MacBook. But it’s close. The metal chasis feels great quality and they almost, almost have that one-finger open down on the screen.

It doesn’t flex or creak like other cheaper laptops and the keyboard feels solid under your hands. I like the shape of it too, it reminds me of earlier MacBook Air models, which I like.

Colour Choice

I was worried initially that I wouldn’t get on with my colour choice. I agonised over whether to get the solid orange (a la Half-Life) or a new translucent colour. Now that I see it in person I’m VERY happy with the translucent purple! It’s reminiscent of those old Nintendo transparent shells and edging towards a transparent iMac of old.

Trackpad

Once you’ve used a MacBook trackpad (in my opinion, at least) you’re going to be disappointed by anything else. However, this is by far the best trackpad that I’ve used on a Linux laptop. It’s smooth, responsive and the physical click doesn’t feel cheap. I’d LOVE to swap it out with a haptic one in the future however, should they release one!

Keyboard

Honestly, I love this keyboard. No notes. The keys themselves have a lovely soft feel to their caps and the new design on the mechinism is great, the travel feels just deep enough for me and there’s a satisfying feel when they bottom out, not too clicky. I really like it.

Display

Again, the display is another pleasant surprise for me. I saw some people arguing on Reddit above if you should go for the high res screen or not. I went for it and I don’t regret it. It looks great, the extra space from the ratio is welcomed. The non-gloss finish looks great too.

Battery life

This is another of those, “It’s no MacBook”, sections, since the M Series chips really spoilt that for everything else. I’d say this is pretty average for a x86 machine. Having said that, I’m not disappointed with it by any means - I don’t run particularly high-end workloads on it on battery, so for me it’s lasted more than long enough for my needs.

Performance

As I mentioned above, I’m not ever really going to push the performance of this chip to it’s limits. I really bought this chipset for longevity. The most I’ll do with it is some light work in Godot or Blender. My experience so far has been that applications are honestly super quick to launch and stay responsive. I’m very impressed so far.

Fan noise

What fan noise. Honestly, other than a few big builds in NixOS I’ve barely heard it!

Quirks

The only quirk or issue I have experienced so far is when I initially started plugging it in to my USB-C display at my desk, ocassionally I would experience some, ‘black-outs’, where the display would freeze for a second, blank out and come back. None of the other machines I used would do this and it didn’t seem to matter what port I used. I am happy to report however that after some firmware and OS updates, in the last couple of weeks I haven’t experienced this again.