Framework Laptop 16, six months later

In January, I spent 2 weeks with the astir modular notebook ever made: the Framework Laptop 16. It’s a gadget nerd’s dream: you tin swap retired its keyboard, touchpad, ports — adjacent its full discrete GPU. You tin alteration it from a sleek enactment laptop to a decent gaming instrumentality successful 2 minutes flat, 1 which charges with the world’s archetypal 180W USB-C powerfulness adapter.

But astatine the time, I gave the Framework Laptop 16 a 5 retired of 10. The merchandise gave maine aggregate Blue Screens of Death, glitched, felt flimsy successful places, and ran hotter and louder than its show would suggest. 

Six months later, with a caller portion and caller firmware, I’m feeling a spot better! Not bully capable to springiness it my afloat recommendation, but capable to rise its people to 6 retired of 10, which we specify as: “Good. There are issues but besides redeeming qualities.” But portion the laptop’s much stable, astir of my different annoyances are inactive kicking.

I’ve present spent an further period with the Laptop 16 and swapping its assorted parts, conscionable arsenic the institution has yet fulfilled its preorders and put the laptop connected wide sale. I’m blessed to accidental I’ve lone seen the machine neglect erstwhile during that full period — an “It looks similar Windows didn’t load correctly” mistake I haven’t been capable to reproduce. Other than an incredibly annoying wont of failing to slumber erstwhile its discrete GPU is awake, it’s been a faithful companion for enactment and play — including a Verge liveblog, editing videos for our societal media channels, and penning stories, including this one.

We adjacent figured retired my enigma contented wherever the fantabulous 2560 x 1600 surface would abruptly look to lavation retired — that’s owed to AMD’s Vari-Bright setting, which attempts to prevention artillery erstwhile the integrated GPU is successful command. I turned that off, and it’s been agleam and colorful ever since. (Jedi: Survivor looks great.)

But that vigor and noise! With my archetypal reappraisal unit, I saw the AMD Ryzen 7940HS lukewarm up past 90 degrees Celsius. Despite this replacement coming with a somewhat weaker 7840HS, I’ve measured 100.8°C astatine highest portion playing a crippled — and arsenic precocious arsenic 92.5°C 1 time erstwhile I was conscionable penning a communicative successful a web browser. The keyboard and touchpad don’t get astir that hot, but I often person sweaty fingers moving from this machine. The Laptop 16 runs quieter erstwhile you unplug it oregon acceptable Windows to a powerfulness saver mode, oregon with the discrete GPU removed. But the afloat dGPU bundle doesn’t look to person a capable cooling solution for mundane use.

The instrumentality sound inactive overwhelms the laptop’s below-average speakers, too, capable that my woman erstwhile again wandered implicit to spot what I was doing. “Oh, that’s your laptop. For a divided second, I thought you were moving the vacuum successful the surviving room,” she told me. Just browsing a fewer websites with the laptop plugged successful was capable to transverse 70°C and rotation up the instrumentality to a noisy, audible degree.

And portion immoderate glitches person been fixed, similar the 1 wherever the larger SSD could vanish erstwhile you resume from sleep, determination are inactive gremlins to find. Twice, the touchpad abruptly stopped scrolling and stopped accepting fastener presses until I physically removed it from the strategy and reseated it. I’ve repeatedly gotten a Windows connection astir however my “USB instrumentality mightiness person constricted functionality erstwhile connected to this port” adjacent if I’m conscionable plugging successful the charger.

After a month, I’ve decided I could unrecorded with the lid flex and the uneven surfaces created by Framework’s modular spacers and touchpad. They’re each somewhat straighter successful my caller unit, and they’re a tiny terms to wage for the unprecedented modularity and repairability you get here. But I besides privation you to cognize the flex and gaps aren’t wholly fixed and marque for occasional unsmooth edges connected fingers and wrists. 

But I don’t cognize if I’d unrecorded with the vigor and sound here, oregon the weird contented this laptop has erstwhile the discrete GPU is progressive and I’m trying to enactment it to sleep. (“If determination is simply a programme keeping the dGPU active, the strategy won’t suspend,” spokesperson Eric Schumacher confirmed via email.) I came backmost 1 greeting to find the artillery afloat drained due to the fact that the laptop woke up aft I closed the lid, and I’ve seen akin behaviour galore times erstwhile I’ve near it plugged in. I shouldn’t person to adjacent apps and cheque the GPU successful Task Manager conscionable to enactment it to slumber reliably.

This is simply a groundbreaking machine. No institution has ever built a laptop truthful ambitious before, arsenic I explicate astatine the apical of my archetypal review, and I privation this thought to exist! I personally privation to bargain a laptop that excels astatine enactment and play, 1 I tin upgrade and repair twelvemonth aft year similar the company’s 13-inch machine. I tin consciousness that imaginable here. But I’m reviewing a laptop, not a crowdfunding run for a procreation of laptops, and I’d personally hold for a aboriginal revision of the Framework Laptop 16. 

Yes, I cognize there’s nary warrant Framework volition spell up with upgrades if the laptop doesn’t merchantability well. The company’s ne'er rather committed to letting you swap retired its Radeon RX 7700S for a much almighty GPU successful the future. But successful April, CEO Nirav Patel did tell me the 16-inch exemplary has a steadfast aboriginal roadmap. I’m going to instrumentality him astatine his word.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge