FW13 7840U Review (techradar)
FW13 7840U Review (techradar)
We should also mention that while the Ryzen 7040 Series is exclusively AMD-powered, Framework does make an Intel platform version of the Laptop 13, using 11th, 12th and 13th generation processors.
Oh wow, how weird, the AMD Ryzen 7040 Series version of the laptop only comes with an AMD option. Great point to make my guys. I wonder if the Intel 11th gen option comes in AMD?
19I'm a framework owner. For about 4 months.
I love the philosophy, I love the design, I want them to succeed.
Full disclosure, in those four months I've had to RMA two different main boards of the series 13 Intel. One was a battery charging issue, and the other was a bad DDR channel.
There's no getting around the fact that this is a new company, and they're going through some design teething pains. I hope, that they improve in the future, but for non-technical people I've stopped recommending framework, at least for the next few generations.
They do offer a Chromebook, and I had intended to buy Chromebooks from them for family members, maintenance-free operating system, hard to break, reliable hardware. But right now they're just not there. I would still have to debug and maintain those deployed frameworks.
For technical friends, 100% I recommend it
16My partner has a Framework and we both love it!
I know someone else with an earlier Intel Framework 13. They're not super technical but were able to swap out the main board just fine. Framework sent a new board, they undid a few screws and job done.
I've had several Dells need repair and I've helped friends with their laptops. Pretty much every other company will first fight you about whether the repair is a valid warranty repair. Then you either send it away for up to a couple weeks or schedule some technician to come to your home. Then all that happens is some parts are swapped out.
Framework's customer service and ability to easily repair it yourself seriously cannot be overstated.
Plus, they're just nice machines! The keyboard feels nice as does the trackpad. The build quality is also excellent. My current laptop is still going strong and I got it just before their first release. I'm waiting for it to fail so I can get a Framework and be cool like my partner.
12
The battery life is impressive, but I don't think they edited the article much. For example, this paragraph was left in:
"Another standout feature of this design is the size and quality of the display. At 16-inches across, this panel is dramatically larger than many of the branded products that are priced similarly, and with a natural resolution of xxx, it allows for more applications to share screen space."
11It seems they edited that now
Another standout feature of this design is the size and quality of the display. At 13-inches across, this panel is not larger than many of the branded products that are priced similarly but with a native resolution of much higher than usual, it allows for more applications to share screen space.
3lol not much better
1
The arstechnica review shows a rather average battery life: 491 min @ 200nits with the 7840U. That's a pretty stark difference with this review here.
Edit, source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/review-framework-laptop-finally-gets-an-amd-ryzen-config-and-its-pretty-good/
2I looked to more reviews to break see if there was consensus. So far, AMD seems to win comfortably on battery and efficiency for most reviews I've seen.
Two of these additional sources would be Notebookcheck and Jost Josh.
EDIT: this explains why Ars' review isn't in alignment with the consensus: https://old.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/16ytxjd/saved_you_a_click_16x_better_battery_life_if_you/k3ar79v/?context=3
2
I don't understand the almost contradictory comments regarding the battery results from TechRadar:
- "Decent battery life"
- "Great battery life"
- "excellent battery life"
- "With a battery life that is close to 14 hours, this laptop should get you through a full day and then some more. The latest AMD Ryzen 7 processor provides both high performance and power efficiency in a single package."
So which one is it? Is it decent? Is it great? Is it excellent?
The numbers are certainly promising, with over 13h55 min in PCMark battery test @ 120 nits!
5