My Last Gaming Laptop - Framework 16 Full Review

Summary

Highlights

• The Framework 16 has a unique modular design, allowing users to replace and upgrade every part. 🤯
• Linus Tech Tips reviews the laptop despite his investment in the company, providing a balanced perspective. 🎥
• Its upgradable AMD graphics card can be swapped easily, making it user-friendly. 🕹️
• Noteworthy issues include somewhat lacking keyboard stability and speaker placement. 👀
• The laptop offers excellent battery life, especially sans GPU, and has exceptional cooling due to its heat pipe array. ❄️

Key Takeaways

• Modular Magic: The Framework 16 sets itself apart with a modular design, letting users customize and upgrade with ease. 🤖
• DIY Delight: The ability to disassemble and reassemble, akin to a DIY project, appeals to the geek in us all! 🔧
• Performance Paradox: While not a top performer in gaming or productivity, its unique features make it a compelling choice for some. 🎮
• Battery Brilliance: Surprisingly solid battery life, even more so when the GPU is removed. 🔋
• Future-Proof Fantasy: Its design hints at a future where laptops could potentially be used indefinitely. 🕰️

Overview

My Last Gaming Laptop - Framework 16 Full Review Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 The all-new Framework 16 is here, and I am super excited about it. Not only because I invested my own money in this company, and I want them to succeed, but because it has several tricks up its sleeve that are genuinely nutty. That's right, for years, companies have struggled to make an upgradable laptop at all, let alone one meant for gaming. But it's finally here. And did I mention that every single part of this machine can be purchased individually on their store, and replaced by the end user?
• 00:30 - 01:00 What world is this? Unfortunately, a world where trying to be objective doesn't change the fact that I have a vested interest in Framework's success, which makes reviewing their products a bit tricky. So, I don't want you to take my word for it. The rest of the script, I haven't even read it. To recuse myself from our review, Alex, our resident laptop connoisseur, Jake, who actually holds an active Framework 16 pre-order, and John from The Lab are gonna be telling you guys all about it, both the good and the bad.
• 01:00 - 01:30 Fingers crossed that they didn't bite off more than they can chew with this thing, unlike this easily digestible segue to our sponsor. Seasonic. Their Prime TX 1000-watt power supply features an 80-plus titanium rating, hybrid fan control, and a 12-year warranty, which is why I love them more than my own son. I mean, I go back and forth. He's only three, he's not gonna see this. Learn more at Seasonic.com or at the link below. Let's start with the Framework 16's key party trick. Unlike every other laptop I've used, everything on this surface is modular,
• 01:30 - 02:00 save the power button up here that has a fingerprint sensor in it. You can adjust the keyboard and trackpad positioning. You can add a numpad or a macro pad on the right here, or the left if you want. Or if that macro pad isn't flashy enough for you, they even have these LED matrix displays. Do these do anything besides reducing battery life? No. Do I really like them? Yes. Now, all of this modularity I would classify as neat.
• 02:00 - 02:30 However, the other new party trick, the bespoke upgradable, removable, discrete AMD graphics card is so sick. Many companies have attempted to put upgradable graphics in a laptop in the past, but the upgrade operation has never been something that I'd recommend the average tech enthusiast to undertake. Framework, however, says the GPU swap can be done in a couple minutes. So let's test that theory. First, power down the system, then unlock the tabs and take off the touchpad and the keyboard.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Open the little plastic flap here covering the custom interposer and unscrew these four T5 screws and remove it from the system. Framework includes a screwdriver with this laptop, but the Noctua screwdriver from lttstore.com is a little bit nicer. Thankfully, these screws are captive. So you'll be hard pressed to lose them. Just make sure you don't lose the interposer itself. I'd recommend screwing it back into the GPU once you have that out. Speaking of which, just remove two more screws and the entire GPU should slide out. Dang! Look at that!
• 03:00 - 03:30 Now, this isn't quite as easy as they made it look on the website. It isn't like a Game Boy cartridge, but at the same time, compared to every other GPU swap on a laptop I've done, holy heck, this was seamless. And if you don't want a GPU, you can just save over half a pound of weight and an inch of length by just not having a GPU anymore. But all of this modularity comes at a steep price, possibly for my boss, because the keyboard on the Framework 16 is frankly unacceptable for a laptop of this price.
• 03:30 - 04:00 The closest comparison I have is the Acer Nitro 5, which starts at $750 and it is just okay at $750. While testing the Framework 16, I wasn't able to get up to my full typing speed, in particular while doing really quick double presses due to the chassis flex. A huge disappointment compared to the excellent keyboard on the Framework 13, but it isn't all bad news. See, the problem here is the mid plate,
• 04:00 - 04:30 particularly in this area. And with the keyboard off, you can really just see how not supportive this super thin piece of metal is. Fortunately, this being a Framework, disassembling only takes about a minute and we were able to chuck some thermal pads in the areas where it was squishiest. And holy crap, that is so much better. The amount that the chassis flex influences the feel of your keyboard is huge. And the difference that this mod has made is just night and day.
• 04:30 - 05:00 With the thermal pads in there, this keyboard isn't quite on the level of Asus or Alienware, but it comfortably beats MSI and Razer and brings it much more in line with the price. While you're modifying things, you might want to use a couple pieces of electrical tape to remedy some of the small but visible gaps between the modules, but at least the trackpad down here is excellent. It's glass topped with accurate and responsive tracking. I just wish it was a little bit bigger. Another sacrifice for the modularity.
• 05:00 - 05:30 One decision I really don't understand though, are the speakers, which fire out from the sides instead of like up at you or bouncing off of the table like everything else. That sounds good. For comparison, here's a similarly priced Lenovo Legion Slim 7i. Okay, the Lenovo. The Lenovo is not too bad. Little bit quiet, but I would say perfectly acceptable and the Framework is uh...
• 05:30 - 06:00 It's not the worst I've ever heard, but it lacks some treble and bass and staging. Get yourself a Bluetooth speak. What is really good though is the dedicated GPU output on the back. This is wired directly to the GPU. Now Jake wrote here that he wants me to complain about this not being a full-size DisplayPort, but personally, I think this Type-C is fine. So, uh, one second. Stupid BMW drivers. Great car.
• 06:00 - 06:30 We asked and they said that they tried. It just wouldn't fit with the giant heat pipes they're using to cool it. But for f**ks sakes guys, you founded your company on a laptop with modular IO meant to solve the dongle crisis and you're telling me I need to carry one again? Wait a second. Modular IO? No way. I don't know why I didn't think about that. We gotta see if this works. No way.
• 06:30 - 07:00 Look at that. John didn't believe it. 4K 120, baby. Nice. Which is how I describe the IO situation in general. With two more IO slots than the 13, it has the capacity to connect virtually any device you can think of. They have modules for USB-C capable of 240 watt charging, USB-A, DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0, microSD, 2.5 gig Ethernet, audio, and expanded storage, but they also released the design.
• 07:00 - 07:30 So literally anyone with the right skills can design and sell their own modules, including for the GPU slot. Now, even when there isn't a GPU installed, some of that space is occupied by the CPU's cooling fans, but they've already released a reference dual SSD design as an example. I'm just excited to have a place to put my Mountain Dew without sacrificing IO. Coming from an Intel-based MacBook Pro with a grand total of four USB Type-C ports, this was the biggest breath of fresh air across my entire experience. Sure, Apple just including decent IO would fix most of that,
• 07:30 - 08:00 but if your needs change or you want to do something silly, like running four displays off your laptop, you don't need a dongle, at least not an external one. Now, speaking of external, the PowerBrick is this cute little 180-watt gallium nitride unit, and it's the highest wattage Type-C charger I've ever heard of, and a far cry, at least in terms of size, for most gaming laptop power bricks. Good job there, Framework. Also improved from their first laptop is the disassembly experience, since all of the screws are accessible from the top of the laptop.
• 08:00 - 08:30 So replacing any part of this laptop is an absolute joy. Now, if you're not an experienced tinkerer, Framework has guides for replacing literally every part of the laptop. That's because, if you're a nerd, you can buy this laptop IKEA-style and put it together yourself. And I take assembling a Framework laptop over doing IKEA furniture any day of the week. If you missed our Framework factory tour, a little tidbit is that they actually pre-assemble the DIY edition laptops for QC and stress testing, and then they get taken apart before shipping so you can build it yourself. Don't believe it's that easy?
• 08:30 - 09:00 Well, it took about this long to get the entire laptop to pieces. We've got the 85-watt-hour battery, Wi-Fi 6E module, a Radeon RX 7700S inside the GPU module, a Ryzen 78 or 7940HS-powered mainboard, two DDR5 SODIMM slots, two Gen 4 M.2 slots, and if you're not happy with the configurations you can see on screen here, the DIY edition can be ordered in pretty much any config you want. Or, bare bones, and you can supply your own storage and RAM. Which made picking laptops to benchmark against a little tricky.
• 09:00 - 09:30 To see what you can get in a similarly-priced and classed big-name laptop, we opted for an Intel NVIDIA-specced Lenovo Legion Slim 7i. And to make sure our framework is performing as it should, an ASUS TUF A16. It's cheaper, and it was supposed to be the same specs as the Framework 16. That was until they shipped the lower-end model for the press unit. The differences between the CPUs are minor, so it should still tell us if the framework is performing up to snuff. Despite those differences, every game is actually a pretty tight race.
• 09:30 - 10:00 In Cyberpunk, nearly maxed out at 1080p, the Intel-based Lenovo is slightly ahead in average FPS, with both itself and the AMD-based ASUS model beating the Framework by one frame and 1% lows. In F1-23, Intel's gap widens a bit, while the Framework makes a modest showing in second place, surprisingly beating out the, on paper, faster ASUS. To no one's surprise, in Total War Warhammer 3, the 4070 wins again. But our framework squeaks past the ASUS again, too? It's hard to say what exactly is giving it the advantage in these games,
• 10:00 - 10:30 but the faster memory and better cooling on the Framework likely has something to do with it. As for productivity, the Framework 16 loses handily in Cinebench, both single and multi-core, but no surprises there, as the ASUS has a lot more thermal headroom when it doesn't have to cool a GPU at the same time. In Blender, our ASUS laptop crushes the Framework across the board, despite the only real difference being a slightly higher base and boost clock, and the same can be said for video encoding with Handbrake, and in media editing with Premiere and Photoshop. Overall, not a lot of surprises here.
• 10:30 - 11:00 The faster CPU in the ASUS shines in productivity, but we expect the higher-end Framework would yield the same result. As for gaming, yeah, it's not a great price-to-performance option, but it's not terrible either. It's just that if you want the most frames for your money, this isn't the laptop to buy. Also, you should probably just buy a desktop. But if you do buy one, or really any electronic you care about, you should protect it with a skin, and dbrand sponsored this portion of the video so Linus could show you how. Being a relatively new company, not many third parties are making accessories for Framework machines,
• 11:00 - 11:30 but dbrand sure is, and they're going to be ready for launch day. They sent over two, so I guess I get to pick whichever one would be easier for Casetify to rip off? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Allegedly. Oh, they're both the same. My notes say, look how accurate these internals are. No wonder they got so pissed they got ripped off, but I actually haven't had this thing open yet, so maybe? Probably. While I completely ignore dbrand's explicit instructions for how to do this and make up my own method,
• 11:30 - 12:00 always check their site and make sure that you do it the right way. What am I supposed to be saying though? I know they're paying me to put a skin on a laptop right now, but this is my favorite kind of integration. We're all working together to promote something we believe in. Yeah! Yeah! As both an investor and hobbyist, hey, thanks dbrand, shout out. So I think I've got it pretty decently lined up right now. There's no way this battery is made in Canada.
• 12:00 - 12:30 That's got to be an Easter egg. Framework's Canadian. They are Canadian bros. Did I say framework? dbrand. Framework's not Canadian. Oh, it's not quite straight. Oh, okay. Okay. I'm ready to submit for inspection. How'd I do? Just don't look right there. Just don't look right where? Don't worry about it. Right where? Where? It's not bad. Pretty flat. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, hey, five foot one line. Oh, I know when I'm insulted. Check out dbrand at the link down below.
• 12:30 - 13:00 Over to you, Jon. Framework did great in our battery endurance test, both with and without the GPU, beating ASUS and Lenovo by a few hours. The combustor stress test was a lot closer, but it still won. And if you rip out the GPU, you'll get even more battery life. However, none of these laptops are industry-leading for battery life. But if the battery in the framework starts to struggle after a few years, at least you can easily replace it. As for cooling,
• 13:00 - 13:30 they partnered with Cooler Master to design this gigantic heat pipe array, which paired with the liquid metal resulted in combustor temps that absolutely crushed the A16 from ASUS, which is running the exact same RX 7700S. The framework did peak higher than the Lenovo's RTX 4070, but once the fans ramped up, it held its own. It's important to mention that the Lenovo unit was repasted with Noctua NTH1 in a previous project.
• 13:30 - 14:00 So it could be possible that the framework would look even better here to a factory Lenovo. Remember the F1 stress test? The framework performs exceptionally well, staying under 65 degrees on the CPU, while the ASUS and the Lenovo are both hitting over 70 or even 80 degrees. And that's while maintaining a very solid 4.1 GHz on the average clock speed, while the A16 averaged closer to 2.7. Yikes. To be fair, we ran all these laptops in their default power configurations,
• 14:00 - 14:30 but the tough A16's Radeon 7700S is reporting 80 degrees average on the core and 93 on the hotspot. The framework kept to a much more reasonable 68 and 80 degrees respectively. The webcam and microphone, which use the same module as the Framework 13, very cool, look and sound like this, at least with a big studio light in front of me. And if you shut it off, like this in a pretty dim, crappy environment.
• 14:30 - 15:00 Not great, not terrible. And I did anecdotally hear that the microphone sounded better than my AirPods Pro 2. So cool. And they do at least have physical shutoff switches, which is a nice touch. And we haven't even talked about the display. The Framework 16 holds its own when it comes to color accuracy, reaching an average SDR Delta E of 1.5 and a max of 2.8, in part thanks to Windows Auto Color Management System, which only seems to support a few selected displays. It shifts with it turned off, making the numbers much worse. So we'd recommend using it. The display is bright enough for outdoors at over 500 nits.
• 15:00 - 15:30 Motion clarity is decent enough at 165 Hertz, which is great for gaming. But there are a couple of issues that are a bit hard to ignore, like the honestly kind of mid-uniformity that results in visible vignetting on web pages and solid backgrounds. And somehow our unit's panel was pinched under the removable plastic bezel for some reason. It kind of looks like you could move it around, but this leads me to the price.
• 15:30 - 16:00 As configured, ignoring extra accessories like the expansion shell, which isn't included if you spec a GPU and cost $100 on its own, this is a $2,200 laptop. They're not gouging. Remember, it's a small company building an entirely bespoke laptop that genuinely could and seems to already be changing an entire industry. But it's not cheap either. The keyboard stability and display uniformity are things that would normally be a deal-breaker for me,
• 16:00 - 16:30 especially at this price point, and I wouldn't blame you for feeling the same. But here's the thing. Fixing the keyboard is probably something you can DIY, as Alex showed earlier, and assuming Framework either fixes the issues or comes up with a panel upgrade down the road, I can probably live with that display for a while. For the utter flexibility, repairability, and the simple fact that this could be, theoretically, the last gaming laptop I'd ever need to buy. That's pretty freaking cool.
• 16:30 - 17:00 So as long as Framework stays in business and follows through with their promises, I mean, they already have a history of doing so, when the CPU is too outdated or the GPU isn't strong enough for new games, or the keyboard gets gunked up and the battery dies, it's an easy swap. Instead of chucking away an entire machine, you can have your very own laptop of Theseus, and I can't wait to see what the future holds. All that's left is to decide if I want to keep my pre-order. But think of a modules, Jake. Right. And maybe they can make a module that would help me segue to our sponsor.
• 17:00 - 17:30 Jawa. We've all been there, trying to sell stuff the usual way. Uploading pictures, negotiating with buyers thing, can be a real pain in the butt. Well, Jawa makes getting rid of your old graphics card easy by just buying it off you themselves. Simply go through the steps on their site to get an instant quote and a free shipping label. Most sellers will get paid within one business day after Jawa receives the part. And if you're looking to purchase a card, you'll find a wide array available at Jawa for fantastic prices, all provided by users like you
• 17:30 - 18:00 and inspected for quality assurance by Jawa's experienced team. For example, look at this 3070 Ti we found. Now imagine getting this for even cheaper by selling your old graphics card all through Jawa. And it's not just limited to GPUs. With Jawa, you can easily list and sell your old rig or buy one carefully assembled by an experienced builder. Also, Jawa has an active and involved community of over 8,000 members on their Discord offering advice on buying, selling, and troubleshooting.
• 18:00 - 18:30 Jawa is designed with the user in mind because buying PC components shouldn't be difficult. So go check them out at the link down below. Easily sell your old graphics card and then save on a new one. Thanks for watching. I hope it's good. This is my first hands-on with a retail one just sitting down here right now. If you guys liked this video, make sure to check out our Framework Laptop Factory Tour. We'll have that linked down below.