Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition Review: A Premium On Modularity
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- čas přidán 28. 03. 2023
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The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition (we'll go with Framework or Framework Chromebook for the rest of this review) is a device that is largely without peer. In the Chromebook space, there's absolutely nothing like it and at $999, it is a very interesting Chromebook that gets much of the high-end equation right; even if some of the things that make it so unique might be a turn-off for those looking for the best, most premium Chromebook you can get.
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Don’t forget that in 2 years when the battery loses capacity in any laptop, this is the easiest battery to change. Can you say that about the Dragonfly Pro? Or MacBook Pro? I don’t know what’s popular in the Chromebook community these days, but the batteries are very difficult to acquire and difficult to replace. With a Framework, it is easy and safe. Also, they’ve already improved the capacity due to chemistry changes, which is neat for current owners.
MacBooks' M chips draw so little battery that it makes them way more durable
Cool video and great call outs on the things that a $1k Chromebook really should have gotten right. At this price range where Dragonfly Pro is the king, Framework's value proposition becomes entirely based on its modularity design.
The great thing about modular design is users can Install upgraded parts. Which has already taken place. For example the original hinges in the first gen generic OS version have already been upgraded.
Framework's laptops are not designed, for those who need to own the latest and greatest gadget. And who are pedantic about trivial flaws. It's only appreciated by those who have a long-term sensibility.
To each their own.
It would be interesting to see if the future additions maintain Chromebook support. Like adding a touchscreen.
@@nc3826 I checked out parts, and upgradeability comes at a steep cost. A new display is £360 ($420), and the latest chip is £650. Upgrading must be a lifestyle in that you are willing to put your money where your mouth is. My 6.5-year-old MB Pro 15 is still going strong. Nothing has broken, and I have looked after it. I think we are at a point where tech is very stable and that bad luck or lack of care (accidents) will be the main cause of repairability.
andy_ mate: Moore's Law does not care....
plus your MB/ARM trolling is just disgenerous misinformation, that doesn't deserve a salient retort, anyway....
@@nc3826 People who have a long-term sensibility may use their money to buy better and more reliable in the first place and keep their computer for longer.
There are two ways to achieve the same end.
I have such a large collection of Macs because I buy them infrequently, keep them a heck of a long time but they still work. I gave my old MacBook Pro, which is going into its second decade, to my nephew for university. My PCs have lost their usefulness far earlier, or broke down. They turned out to not be upgradable anyway because the motherboard, RAM, drives, GPU, CPU , displays, camera, microphone, are simply not up to modern standards, or the cost of replacements is not justified in an old unit. Even the case is pretty useless, and they don't cost much.
Here after seeing Linus Tech Tips announce a 16 inch version of the laptop, hoping that's going to translate to Chromebook as well and everything get addressed
Tbh I hate big Chromebooks lol that’s why I have an 11.6 inch one coming
Linus tech tips had a video showing off future framework stuff like a laptop GPU board that you can actually upgrade the graphics and other really cool stuff. This is the kind of thing that we need in the laptop market. I'm not sure if I'd personally spend $1000 on a chromebook (as much as I love ChromeOS) but this is definitely really cool nonetheless.
I do wonder if Framework would ever try more tablet form factor, perhaps they could even collab with Fairphone in that regard.
But they would likely need to have a touchscreen for their current models before being able to go in that direction.
To me ChromeOS shines more as a tablet or if you really need low end laptop, not as high end laptop as this and other in similar prices are. But perhaps with Steam working great it might make more sense to get a high end Chromebook laptop, maybe some point more software utilizing high end hardware will be made for ChromeOS.
While the idea of upgrades & repair is great, one of the problems with Chromebook is the limited life in software upgrades. I'm still loving my Samsung Chomebook plus, it works well but I'm starting to get reminders that firmware upgrades will stop next year. Will the Framework Chromebook's hardware oulive the firmware upgrades?
I searched this and didn't expect new
Steam gaming is in the beta channel now, so it's easy to do if you want it. Dome Keeper and KSP are a joy on it.
Does this chromebook version not have the locks on the bottom to keep the modular ports in place? I remember seeing that on the windows version
Yes, and it's already known by the community, it doesn't lock the modules sufficiently.... They already fixed some of the other subgrade parts, such as the hinges.... I'm sure this is on the list....
It has flaws in design and the modular ports, maybe just the HDMI clearly need the engineers to rethink.
Hoping you would make a video about Chromebooks and android tablet their pros and cons and which is good for certain people.
Especially now that android tablets are getting better and big as chrome books these days like the Samsung Tab s8 ultra, Lenovo Legion tab y900/Tab Extreme and Huawei Mate pad Pro.
I've been using the 13.3" Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook for a few weeks now. It has a detachable keyboard and is often referred to as a Chrome Tablet. It works just like a Chromebook with the keyboard attached, except doesn't sit well on my lap or while I'm sitting in bed. In tablet mode it can function mostly as an Android tablet, however the cool thing is that can do split with two windows and have an additional floating app. This tablet mode is very productive for school work such as watching video or reading and taking notes at the same time. Samsung Android tablets have the same mode but doesn't do Chromebook windows. The only other drawback I see is that it's kinda big and heavy to use solely as a tablet. The Samsung S7+/S8+ 12.4" form factor and weight would have been perfect, but Samsung tablets are expensive.
This is a great review but I wish you would have had more shots of the laptop using the black bezel. Most people will use that and I think constantly showing the orange bezel is giving people the wrong impression about how the device looks.
$1K without a touchscreen is definitely a deal breaker.
since it's modular, and the main board supports touchscreen inputs, there is a likely chance that a touchscreen variant or module will release in the future.
Interesting this got released soon after they have announced new regular models.
Modularity was not the reason for the inferior webcam or its lack of a fingerprint reader, being part of the design. And modularity allows the possibility of the webcam to be upgraded and a fingerprint reader to be added, for current laptop owners.. So it's a plus not a negative.
Overall the review was well done. But that misleading narrative about its modularity, ruined it for me.
Yes, I sort of agree. I have zero interest in investing in modularity as I believe the future is sustainable laptops due to technical advances making them last a decade plus. However, if you are buying Framework, you are not buying value; you are buying into a mindset, which means you will accept the flaws. For me, buying a £1000 Chromebook, I want it to be perfect for 2023, and this is not quite there.
Perfect is the enemy of Good....
It could be fleshed out to say that the budget for making the laptop went into making it more modular/repairable instead of better webcam and having a fingerprint reader. That is at least how I understand his point with it and not that you can only have no fingerprint reader and have inferior webcam when it is modular/repairable, lol.
@@AndersHass You are implying something that was not part of the post..... Plus the modularity of the laptop pre-dates the creation of the Chromebook version.... So it has no relevance, about why the fingerprint reader was not included.... But nice try... Let's face it modularity is not one of his top concerns..... Which is the beginning and end of where his comments came from.....
What's more of an issue is the Chromebook version seems to be more of an afterthought.... Since most of the new development seems to be for Power Users.... I'm willing to bet that Google initiated the collaboration to create the Chromebook version?..... But As long as it doesn't get discontinued, I'm sure it will continue to improve.... And these minor issues will eventually be addressed....
@@nc3826 you have a specific idea for what he meant with what he said, I think he meant what I said, not sure why it isn't relevant, lol.
Anyway it could have been made more clear so one actually know what he exactly meant with what he said.
Yes it makes even less sense if he actually means what you think he means given there is a fingerprint reader in the first version (which he also has said, lol).
As I have said in my comment to the whole review I think the reason why the fingerprint reader isn't part of this version is because it doesn't work (it has had issues working on Linux) and I assume Framework nor Google would bother putting in the driver updates for it to work on ChromeOS.
I dunno why this version was made. If Google reach out or vice versa. People who care about modularity/repairability likely won't use ChromeOS given how limited it is. ChromeOS's strength IMO is also in cheap x86 laptops and tablets/ARM based laptops, which this Framework model isn't.
Maybe Linus (from Linus Tech Tips who has invested in Framework) wanted a Chromebook for his kids, lol (possible others who need Chromebooks for education wanted it).
sticking with my pixelbook, no touchscreen at that price is a big miss
If the AUE is truly tied to the chipset, then it should be extended with every CPU upgrade you do on this laptop. Otherwise, what's the point of upgrading with an expiration date?
Hopefully framework will have more options for choosing better displays like choosing between an oled, mini led and micro led as well as the option to choose the resolution with whatever display that wanna use. I want to have a 4k mini led or 4k micro led display on a chromebook with 1,000 nits. I have the 4k samsung chromebook with the super amoled display but it's too dim, and I even have the screen display maxed out. Laptop displays are finally getting mini leds on certain models but having more options for displays should be an option since there already a bunch of options for choosing laptops with a variety gpus. I can't wait for steam to be available on chromebooks so I can plug an external gpu like the 3090 or 4090 from the thunderbolt port. I would leave the chromebook plugged in the whole time since relying on battery power decreases the performance with lower frame rates on games while being plugged in has better performance while being plugged in the whole time. I hope that the developers that make games from the google play store compatible with Intel cpus on the chromebooks. Call of duty mobile is not compatible with my samsung chromebook with the Intel i5 cpu, I had a previous acer cb 515 chromebook that has an Intel cpu and games like call of duty was not compatible. Most of the mobile games from the google play store on chromebooks seems to be compatible with only arm based cpus but most of the chromebooks use Intel. It's on the developers to make the Intel cpu chromebooks compatible but I don't know if the developers care about making Intel cpus compatible with chromebooks, these things are barely mentioned or talked about like it's an after thought or anomaly when it should be an important priority to have an enjoyable user experience. Even with windows 11, there is support for android apps that can be sideloaded and windows pc's use both Intel and amd cpus. Chromebooks with Intel cpus should have the advantage over windows because the google play store was already on newer chromebooks even before windows 11 existed with support for android apps. I have the 2022 razer blade 15 with 4k 144 hz display and I have android apps with windows 11 when I sideloaded some of the android apps that I use. I even have an older dell g7 4k oled display laptop with windows 10 and I was even able to run android apps using bluestacks and I customized the resolution to 4k and I was able to play call of duty mobile however the game controller support was only compatible with an Xbox controller.
No fingerprint scanner.... This is your criticism?
can I just switch the ssd and make it as a regular PC? Yes? If i can switch the system easily, I might get one lol
Keyboard layout would be different either but that’s the 2nd question besides you can buy other layout from them
That’s a great question, if you could just swap the ssd module to go from chrome to windows then this would be amazing
I've been told its easy to change a chromebook into Windows.
...just buy the Windows Framework laptop, which is better, though more expensive.
@@nc3826 just to be politically correct here isn't wasn't from someone on social media, it was in fact a real life friend of mine who like me likes to tinker with computer hardware and software as a hobby. Before you ask, it is actually doable and its quite simple... The problem is with the RAM and small amount of memory most chromebooks have...
Love framework
It still confuses me as to why Framework doesn't sell internationally.
.... They do .. just only to a select amount of countries....
- taxes can be confusing
- logistics
They are a start up. Various other manufactures have for years shipped internationally and thereby got all the details settled to make it work. They also sell in retail stores where as far as I am aware Framework is only on their own site.
@@thibaultmol Taxes are confusing in the USA, you just don't know it because you've never been anywhere else?
Logistics? Post it, not like it's never been tried before. I hear there is a company called Amazon..., and Ali Express..., and just about everyone else.
As far as I am aware there are issues with getting the fingerprint reader to work on Linux. I would assume Google nor Framework wanted to spend the time to make it work, where it would just be easier to just not include it.
Interesting the expansion slots came out easily, I haven't heard that being an issue (I dunno if you contacted support about it?)
Personally I would just go with Windows at this price point instead of Chromebook version, also since way more hardware compatibility with Windows, so you will also have an easier time changing the various parts. Or if you are really interesting in tinkering then just install some Linux OS on it so you can also way easier tinker with its software.
I went the DIY route and have Linux Mint XFCE, 16 GM RAM and 500 GB SSD. Overall I'm really impressed with this.
@@larrywebber2971 does the fingerprint reader work?
The port module coming out is a surprise. I thought they had a catch or lock, not just slide in, slide out.
This is not a simple fix on a modular design, with a simple change of the replaceable male module. It requires a redesign of the non replaceable female connector. That means a fundamental redesign of the Framework system which will render older models obsolete and possibly incompatible.
The extra cost, weight and bulk of all the modules is not a surprise, that would have to be obvious.
PC users have never been able to add up the total cost of buying by instalments so it probably won't affect them, or their lack of mathematical ability.
The potential savings are with repairs or replacements. I'm guessing that the modularity will make repair and replace more likely because there is more to go wrong and wear out. Where the balance between extra costs and repairs lies, we will find out in due course.
I am still concerned with Framework being the sole supplier of the modules. Reduced cost and the safety of getting parts from multiple vendors is as important or more important than the modularity.
Honestly it's probably a tolerance issue. Could be that the module is too small. Could be that the chassis is too loose on the module. Could be that the HDMI connector is too big or too small. But it's not a widespread complaint so, shrug.
@@adaml.5355 _"I thought they had a catch or lock"_
How do you know it's not a widespread issue? Do you work for Framework?
A tolerance issue is still a problem, that it happens at all is a design issue.
@@peterbreis5407It’s the only time I’ve heard anyone complain about it on CZcams or Reddit. I’ve watched basically every review on the platform, nobody has that problem. And no I don’t work for Framework.
@@adaml.5355 Nobody? Really nobody? Didn't you watch the video?
6:08 just leave it attached to the hdmi cable and get another hdmi insert or insert another expantion card .. this is not a issue at all
4th Comment
Where????
$999 Chromebook? No way.
Dragonfly Pro
@@nc3826 no one asked you.
no one asked you too....
Or anyone to comment.... myself righteous entitled friend.... have a nice day....
@@nc3826 your dad should have worn a condom.