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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<!-- 2025-10-03 -->
<!-- 2025-10-25 -->
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=100%, initial-scale=0.7" />
<title>Framework Laptop Review</title>
@@ -215,13 +215,13 @@
</div>
</div>
<div id="content" class="content">
<div id="outline-container-orge10cc07" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orge10cc07">My Experience with the Framework Laptop</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orge10cc07">
<div id="outline-container-orge7232fa" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orge7232fa">My Experience with the Framework Laptop</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orge7232fa">
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org066199e" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org066199e">Ordering</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org066199e">
<div id="outline-container-org20de143" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org20de143">Ordering</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org20de143">
<p>
I&rsquo;d been eyeing the <a href="https:frame.work">Framework laptop</a> since somewhere in October 2021, but the EU release got delayed and they were very hesitant to give time estimates. I only managed to get my hands on it in late February, and I ended up having to have it delivered to France. I understand the difficulty of setting up logistics especially these days, but I broke my previous laptop and being stuck in limbo like this was not fun.
</p>
@@ -232,13 +232,13 @@ I asked their customer service to make a small change to the delivery address, b
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org4dd79d0" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org4dd79d0">Set-up</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org4dd79d0">
<div id="outline-container-orgfaeec16" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="orgfaeec16">Set-up</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgfaeec16">
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org7de6fc1" class="outline-4">
<h4 id="org7de6fc1">Hardware</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-org7de6fc1">
<div id="outline-container-orgdf22019" class="outline-4">
<h4 id="orgdf22019">Hardware</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orgdf22019">
<p>
I got the DIY edition with the (lowest-end) i5-1135G7 CPU, 2x16GB RAM. I brought my own 1TB SSD. The higher spec CPUs didn&rsquo;t seem worth the money to me. The RAM is probably overkill.
</p>
@@ -265,9 +265,9 @@ The more you look at it, the nicer it gets!
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orge5d0d04" class="outline-4">
<h4 id="orge5d0d04">Software</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-orge5d0d04">
<div id="outline-container-org1feb405" class="outline-4">
<h4 id="org1feb405">Software</h4>
<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-org1feb405">
<p>
I installed Gentoo GNU+Linux on the laptop, just like I have on my desktop. I used an Ubuntu live CD as the install medium together with the Gentoo stage3 tarball, and it worked well. I didn&rsquo;t really have to jump through any laptop-specific hoops, it was a very nice experience. I did use the dist-kernel rather than configuring my own.
</p>
@@ -276,9 +276,9 @@ I installed Gentoo GNU+Linux on the laptop, just like I have on my desktop. I us
The laptop held up well during compiling. It&rsquo;s not as fast as a desktop of course, but compile times are not limiting. I&rsquo;ve put this thing through bootstrapping GCC for a cross-compilation toolchain, which is just about the biggest compile job I&rsquo;ve ran, and it wasn&rsquo;t <i>that</i> painful.
</p>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orgc236f6d" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgc236f6d">Display scaling</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgc236f6d">
<div id="outline-container-org549f840" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org549f840">Display scaling</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org549f840">
<p>
Simply setting <code>Xft.dpi: 192</code> in .Xresources was enough for the vast majority of applications to use 2x scaling, which looks very good on this display. This is on X11 obviously; I don&rsquo;t use Wayland.
</p>
@@ -288,33 +288,33 @@ The odd application requires its own scaling setting. Rofi requires setting <cod
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orgdb6a8ff" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgdb6a8ff">Display manager</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgdb6a8ff">
<div id="outline-container-orgf01d819" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgf01d819">Display manager</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgf01d819">
<p>
I used SDDM which works very well. I wanted to go for something a bit fancier looking, and this delivers. I don&rsquo;t usually use things in the whole QT ecosystem, so it&rsquo;s refreshing.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org176828e" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org176828e">Hibernate/suspend-to-disk</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org176828e">
<div id="outline-container-orga3a44b0" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orga3a44b0">Hibernate/suspend-to-disk</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orga3a44b0">
<p>
This required setting up a swap file and setting a kernel command line parameter to refer to it, but it was easy to do. It works well. I&rsquo;ve observed the laptop auto-hibernating when the battery runs out, but it doesn&rsquo;t do this reliably, so I should probably configure it myself.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org93c9fa8" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org93c9fa8"><a href="http://guake-project.org/">Guake</a>-like transient terminal</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org93c9fa8">
<div id="outline-container-org40271f3" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org40271f3"><a href="http://guake-project.org/">Guake</a>-like transient terminal</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org40271f3">
<p>
Using some <code>fish</code> scripts, <code>bspwm</code>, <code>picom</code> and <code>xst</code> I rigged up a transient, transparent terminal to use for quick shell jobs. I used the scripts and config file in <a href="#orgfc1afdc">Appendix A</a> to do this. The implementation is a bit hacky, and it&rsquo;s not impossible to break, but it serves my purposes well (and more important, it was fun to make)!
Using some <code>fish</code> scripts, <code>bspwm</code>, <code>picom</code> and <code>xst</code> I rigged up a transient, transparent terminal to use for quick shell jobs. I used the scripts and config file in <a href="#org70906c5">Appendix A</a> to do this. The implementation is a bit hacky, and it&rsquo;s not impossible to break, but it serves my purposes well (and more important, it was fun to make)!
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org0f7a124" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org0f7a124">Wallpaper-setting script</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org0f7a124">
<div id="outline-container-org7046f92" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org7046f92">Wallpaper-setting script</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org7046f92">
<p>
I wrote a script to set a random wallpaper.
</p>
@@ -340,11 +340,11 @@ I wrote a script to set a random wallpaper.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org76897cb" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org76897cb">Lockscreen</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org76897cb">
<div id="outline-container-org9824d59" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org9824d59">Lockscreen</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org9824d59">
<p>
I hacked together some <a href="#org8db8162">pretty crappy code</a> to lock the screen using <code>i3lock</code>, with my wallpaper composed with a little lock icon as the background. Very overengineered.
I hacked together some <a href="#orga5f5725">pretty crappy code</a> to lock the screen using <code>i3lock</code>, with my wallpaper composed with a little lock icon as the background. Very overengineered.
</p>
<p width="60%" class="center">
@@ -357,33 +357,33 @@ Is there a better lockscreen out there that will let me set my own image as the
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orgf1f7859" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgf1f7859"><span class="todo TODO">TODO</span> </h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgf1f7859">
<div id="outline-container-org686b8ae" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org686b8ae"><span class="todo TODO">TODO</span> </h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org686b8ae">
</div>
<ul class="org-ul">
<li><a id="orgb9d9845"></a>Battery level notifications<br></li>
<li><a id="org0353495"></a>sleep-then-hibernate<br></li>
<li><a id="org7610a33"></a>Battery tuning<br></li>
<li><a id="orgb54ccdb"></a>Battery level notifications<br></li>
<li><a id="org1c7744a"></a>sleep-then-hibernate<br></li>
<li><a id="orgb1cf3ec"></a>Battery tuning<br></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org9717edd" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org9717edd">Impressions</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org9717edd">
<div id="outline-container-orge49bddd" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="orge49bddd">Impressions</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orge49bddd">
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org2e58926" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org2e58926">Build Quality</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org2e58926">
<div id="outline-container-orgcf1aec3" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgcf1aec3">Build Quality</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgcf1aec3">
<p>
The laptop is made of aluminium and feels solid but light. The screen does seem pretty flimsy, though. I probably wouldn&rsquo;t want to drop this thing. It looks sleek and elegant, but pretty muted.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orgc06d8f0" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgc06d8f0">Screen</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgc06d8f0">
<div id="outline-container-orgbff5908" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgbff5908">Screen</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgbff5908">
<p>
This is my first time ever using a high-DPI screen, and I&rsquo;m very impressed by it. Text looks unbelievably crisp and pleasant to read. I was somewhat worried about the linux high DPI situation, but I am having no issues whatsoever.
</p>
@@ -397,51 +397,51 @@ The brightness goes up quite high, but colours feel somewhat washed out at high
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org375a575" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org375a575">Keyboard</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org375a575">
<div id="outline-container-org72fab63" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org72fab63">Keyboard</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org72fab63">
<p>
Framework seems to advertise their keyboard as having particularly deep travel, but it mostly just feels like any chiclet keyboard to me. Not a bad chiclet keyboard, but not that great, either. The layout is fine, but it makes me miss the thinkpad.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org8a89a60" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org8a89a60">Touchpad</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org8a89a60">
<div id="outline-container-org26b7d96" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org26b7d96">Touchpad</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org26b7d96">
<p>
I&rsquo;ve never had a decent touchpad before, so I was pleasantly surprised. I expected to miss the trackpoint on the thinkpad a lot, but this is fine, though it&rsquo;s still a step down. Pinch to zoom doesn&rsquo;t work very well, but I don&rsquo;t use that functionality a lot. I miss having dedicated mouse buttons; the clicking functionality on this touchpad works fine for me, but it&rsquo;s hard not to mess up left/middle/right click. That&rsquo;s a good incentive for me to practice relying on the mouse less, though. There&rsquo;s plenty of <a href="https://linuxtouchpad.org/">work being done</a> on the Linux touchpad experience software-side, too. It&rsquo;s a nice time to be a linux laptop user!
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org1a657ab" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org1a657ab">Battery</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org1a657ab">
<div id="outline-container-orgf033aaa" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgf033aaa">Battery</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgf033aaa">
<p>
With the disclaimer that I haven&rsquo;t tested very intensely and I haven&rsquo;t tuned power settings very much. <br>
I seem to get about 6.5 hours of real-world use time when using Emacs and doing light web browsing. I don&rsquo;t have a good benchmark for more intensive tasks, but compiling does hit the battery pretty hard. All in all I&rsquo;m very happy with it, getting decent battery life on Linux is hard. It might be worth eventually buying a power bank for it though, for travel~
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org9fffdf1" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org9fffdf1">Expansion cards/ports</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org9fffdf1">
<div id="outline-container-orgcd11e24" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="orgcd11e24">Expansion cards/ports</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-orgcd11e24">
<p>
The little expansion cards are one of Framework&rsquo;s big marketing things. I think they&rsquo;re pretty neat, though I don&rsquo;t always quite understand the way people talk about them, as &ldquo;dongle killers&rdquo;. I would find hotswapping these about equally obnoxious as carrying dongles. The idea of aftermarket expansion cards is interesting, though - these are low level, high bandwidth ports, with I think similar capabilities to the ExpressCard ports on old business laptops, but more modern with a USB-C port. I&rsquo;m looking forward to the USB4 era!
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org4913077" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org4913077">Performance</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org4913077">
<div id="outline-container-org396c7d6" class="outline-5">
<h5 id="org396c7d6">Performance</h5>
<div class="outline-text-5" id="text-org396c7d6">
<p>
So far I haven&rsquo;t felt limited by performance at all, the experience has been really snappy. I haven&rsquo;t thrown particularly difficult things at it, though, but that&rsquo;s fine - most of what I do on a laptop is reading, web browsing, and text editing. I played some Factorio on it and that seemed fine, but using the touchpad felt limiting so I didn&rsquo;t play very much.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org8d8cf11" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org8d8cf11">Closing words</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org8d8cf11">
<div id="outline-container-orgb3bdcd8" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="orgb3bdcd8">Closing words</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgb3bdcd8">
<p>
Getting this laptop set up has been really fun! It&rsquo;s a good opportunity to take stock of where we&rsquo;re at. On the hardware side, I am very impressed that it&rsquo;s now possible to make a laptop that&rsquo;s this user-servicable, this well-specced and still not <i>that</i> expensive. It&rsquo;s a reminder of how much better things could be.
</p>
@@ -456,9 +456,9 @@ Personally, I&rsquo;m getting a rare chance to critically examine all the little
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-orgfc1afdc" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orgfc1afdc">Appendix A: Transient Terminal Sources</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgfc1afdc">
<div id="outline-container-org70906c5" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org70906c5">Appendix A: Transient Terminal Sources</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org70906c5">
<p>
<code>togglescratch</code>
</p>
@@ -523,9 +523,9 @@ opacity-rule=["90:name = 'scratchterminal'"];
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-org8db8162" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org8db8162">Appendix B: lock.py</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org8db8162">
<div id="outline-container-orga5f5725" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orga5f5725">Appendix B: lock.py</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orga5f5725">
<div class="org-src-container">
<pre class="src src-python"><span class="org-comment-delimiter">#</span><span class="org-comment">!/usr/bin/python3</span>
<span class="org-keyword">import</span> os