I have the same feelings. I was in the market for a laptop after a long time of desktop use only. I went for it because I love the idea of owning my hardware without any corporate bullshit. But the whole laptop feels very beta, which can be OK, but the price is also quite high.
Pros:
formfactor, I love the screen
switches for camera and mic
open source & Linux
Firmware Updates are a breeze
easy access to hardware
you can use your own ram and disk
Magnets, everywhere
Cons:
They promised shipment early Q3 for batch 1, I got it early Q4
opening the laptop is quite hard, the groove is to small/finicky
I hate the expansion cards. They are too hard to pop out, you need so much power to get them out.
only four ports, that’s if you don’t count your power supply. Very weak
clicking with the TouchPad is very mid, borderline bad
restarting causes my power supply to stop working, I need to unplug and insert it again. And I mean I need to unplug the power supply, not the laptop.
graphics problems, constant noise artifacts
default sound is very bad, search for equalizer Configs, it makes the speakers bearable
black screens where I need to close the lid, wait for sleep and open again for me to be able to work again
Fingerprint reader does not work
General Linux Problems, Kubuntu has a few issues, other distros might have a better experience
no worldwide shipping. I’m waiting for my visa for Japan and won’t be able to get any shipping of replacement parts over there.
On a sidenote, I probably broke my screen a few days ago while trying the fix/debug the graphics/noise problems. I don’t know how I fucked up, but 5cm of the screen is permanently black now… On a positive note, replacing it supposedly is quite easy. I hope they ship it fast.
I don’t know if those are Amd, framework or Linux issues and who is to blame. The cpu is very new so there might be more driver issues than normal. Hopefully these issues get resolved with future updates. The first firmware update didn’t help my issues.
Most of the time the noise is negligible, but with dark screens and resource intensive tasks it gets more noticeable and pronounced. But it’s better than the screen tearing other users experience.
I’m wishing you luck that most of the issues are resolved when they ship the framework 16. I’m very tempted to get that one as well, just for a custom ortho keyboard if they ever make one…
Those are my personal experiences, they might not be representative for all users, but those are my issues. I don’t work for framework amd can’t give you updates regarding support issues.
Framework 13 With AMD Ryzen 7040 Makes For A Great Linux Laptop (Review) (www.phoronix.com)
Finally here