I ordered two weeks ago making it into the July batch. Got the shipping notification on Monday and received my laptop today. I ordered the DIY i5 edition with 16GB RAM, two USB-C modules, 1 USB-A, an HDMi, and a 1TB storage.
I unpacked everything and assembled it. It really isn’t what I would call a DIY experience, all I had to do was install the RAM, SSD, bezel, and input panel.
I booted to the BIOS and disabled secure boot, added the grub UEFI key from prepared USB drive of Fedora 38. My error was not realizing I re-enabled secure boot when I copied the key. Booting from the USB I kept getting the message that I needed to load the kernel first. After reformatting and re-imaging the USB drive a couple of times, I ended up writing the installer image to the 1TB storage module before I realized my error and disabled secure boot again.
Fedora proceeded to install without issue. I followed the install guide on the framework forums. The fingerprint reader did not work, but everything else seems to work out of the box. Took a few minutes to run dnf upgrade and install some software.
Initial thoughts: I like the keyboard, it feels good with a bit of resistance, the key texture isn’t a smooth friction-less plastic, almost more like a velvet feeling, kind of rubbery. Rubbery isn’t the right word, but I just can’t think of a better way to describe it. The display is much more square than what I am use to, so I am going to reserve my judgement on that for now. The screen is matt, another change that will take time to decide whether or not I like it, but it was something I was looking for. Glossy screens reflect too much when working in the light and require looking at it at just the right angle. Chassis feels solid, a bit of heft but lighter than the HP Spectre 13 that I am coming from. The microphone and camera along the top of the screen have built-in slide covers; I don’t remember seeing anything about that when I was looking at the Framework, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Looking forward to share more after I have a chance to really make use of it.
Why did you need to disable secure boot? To boot from USB?
I am looking forward buying a framework laptop. Still using an ASUS from 2011 but it is getting slow and I am starting to have issues, e.g., my touchpad seems to have broken down.
Nice, congrats! The camera and microphone switches are better than slide covers, they cut power to those sensors. It’s kinda cool that it’s become so standard for Framework that it’s not discussed much anymore but it definitely deserves more attention. It was one of the many selling features for me when I pre-ordered the first gen framework (11th gen Intel).
If you have an update after a bit of use, that would be great. Still using my Thinkpad from 2011, but my next laptop is probably going to be a framework. I don’t see any deal breakers so far…
