Initial Thoughts of the Framework 13
I'm going to keep this deliberately brief as I'm planning to write something more in-depth as I get more time on the device. This is merely a bulleted list of my initial thoughts, having only used it for a few hours.
Some of these opinions will probably change as I use the device more.
- It's a similar size and weight to my Macbook M1 Air.
- It was really simple to put together.
- The 2800x1920 screen is fantastic.
- Everything on Fedora 42 seems to be working as expected out of the box.
- The keyboard is pretty good - it has more travel than my Mac. I think I prefer the Mac one.
- The fingerprint reader is diabolically bad - it works maybe 30% of the time (could be a Fedora issue).
- The fingerprint on-boarding process in Fedora leaves a lot to be desired too.
- The case is supposed to be aluminium, but it feels plastic. Not the end of the world, but I was expecting a more premium feel.
- The orange bezel I chose is too bright. I like it, but it's distracting, I think I'll have to change it.
- Trackpad works great - scrolling is far better than on the Mac.
- I was surprised that the expansion ports were plastic. I assumed they would be metal, but thinking about it, for the price, I shouldn't be surprised.
- As expected Fedora is starting to annoy me already as there's lots of little quality of life things that I'm having to work around (like automatic dark mode switching). I'm not sure how long this OS will stick for.
- Performance is great.
- LibreOffice is still ugly as fuck.
- Re-learning keyboard shortcuts is frustrating.
Overall I'm happy with my purchase. The Framework 13 doesn't feel as premium as my Macbook, but that doesn't surprise me - very few things do feel premium next to Apple kit.
I'm gonna give Fedora a chance for a few weeks to see if it bakes in, but the multiple niggles are why I left last time - I'm not sure I have the energy to go down the Linux route again. I don't car what anyone says, Linux is not as simple as other operating systems.
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