If you're going to school I absolutely have to recommend a tablet + OneNote. There was no better learning tool while I was in school. I still refer back to those notes several years later. Being able to jot notes on top of pages from class, record audio from classes that's automatically transcribed, just makes staying organized so much easier.
Fuck Microsoft and Dell and a dozen other companies but to my knowledge, there is nothing comparable. Unless it's an iPad or something.
The RAM and storage choices are poor. Unless you're planning to upgrade to 32GB in the nearest future, do not get a 1x16GB RAM configuration - the performance drop for single-channel is negligible for normal use. Honesty, you won't need that, given the use-case. Stick to 2x8GB. If you're just taking notes, do you even need 2x8GB? I highly doubt it, maybe 2x4GB could be enough?
About the storage, get at least the 512GB, or the 1TB variant. I have a 128GB SSD, and it is just not enough - I have to delete files at the end of every week.
Too bad they don't sell a 7440U CPU, if that's what you're looking for. In fact, no device out there has a 7440U, excluding gaming handheld with the rebranded X1 alias.
It looks like you're planning on using windows, in which case I would strongly caution against only 8 GB ram. I have a 4 year old windows laptop with 8 GB RAM, and unless you do a lot to optimize things/kill processes it quickly becomes slow to a very frustrating point. The last thing you want is to open a new tab to look up something the professor said while running a note taking app and have the whole thing freeze for a few minutes and not be able to take notes. RAM is relatively cheap, so I would bit the bullet and either get 16 GB or run Linux.
Thanks, probably Windows just for the sake of not worrying about being the one guy trying to figure out how to make a specific software work mid-class on Linux.
I'll definitely make sure to shop around for that SSD. I'm a brief look I've found at least a 500GB model for the same FW is billing for 250 GB.
I'm not as familiar with how the framework laptops charge, but if it's done over USB C then it might get annoying if you need to charge and connect to something at the same time
They recommended 2 USB C + 1 USB A on their website as the most popular choice. I find myself using Type A more often with peripherals, flashdrives, & etc. So that's why I was going with 2 USB A. But maybe I'm behind the times on that and aught to move forward.
Fair enough! Whichever is more convenient for you. I imagine it's much easier to swap or upgrade with a framework laptop, so it's not a big deal regardless
imo 250gb is not enough at all, at least spec a 500gb or 1tb. I don't even have games on my 256gb machine and it's out of storage because of proprietary software bullshit.
Buying storage directly from framework is expensive though, I recommend just buying it from a local hardware store. The cheapest out of the sn550/570/580/750/850, crucial p5, kc2500 should do.
Also, 1x16gb will halve your memory bandwidth, get a 2x8gb kit
Depends entirely on what you're using the device for and how (if at all) you utilize networked (NAS, cloud, etc) or external storage. For me personally 256gb would be way more than needed, since I have nothing that would take large amounts of storage on local device.
Also, 1x16gb will halve your memory bandwidth, get a 2x8gb kit
1x 16gb would allow cheaper upgrade to 32gb later if that's something OP is concerned about.
Depends entirely on what you’re using the device for and how (if at all) you utilize networked (NAS, cloud, etc) or external storage. For me personally 256gb would be way more than needed, since I have nothing that would take large amounts of storage on local device.
I guess that might be true but for me just installing all the random proprietary crap like matlab takes up a lot of my storage (even more if you need multiple versions), so for using laptops in education I really doubt that 250gb is comfortably enough. I'd honestly rather pay the extra $15 than constantly worry about running out of storage.
1x 16gb would allow cheaper upgrade to 32gb later if that’s something OP is concerned about.
I don't really like this argument because by the time they'd be upgrading ram the price of ram (of that speed/spec) would probably have depreciated a lot and it would be just cheaper to buy it in the future. It also kinda limits you to staying on that generation/speed of ram which is bad.
The CPU is perfectly fine and like everyone else is saying, definitely opt for 2x8GB sticks of RAM. 256GB is perfectly fine if you use a Linux distribution such as Fedora Kinoite as it's not bloated like Windows. Get the new screen too
I love mine but I've noticed some of these same issues, the spacers aren't perfect and it does get hot as hell while charging. I only have the integrated graphics though I didn't get the extra. My fans haven't ever gotten loud, at first I was concerned they weren't running, and I'll have to look into the veribrightness thing, idk about all that. I really don't mind the spacers though, I got the numpad so I only have the bottom ones and the only issue is looks, idgaf.
You can transform it from a sleek work laptop to a decent gaming machine in two minutes flat, one which charges with the world’s first 180W USB-C power adapter.
The product gave me multiple Blue Screens of Death, glitched, felt flimsy in places, and ran hotter and louder than its performance would suggest.
I’m happy to say I’ve only seen the computer fail once during that entire month — an “It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly” error I haven’t been able to reproduce.
We even figured out my mystery issue where the excellent 2560 x 1600 screen would suddenly seem to wash out — that’s due to AMD’s Vari-Bright setting, which attempts to save battery when the integrated GPU is in command.
Despite this replacement coming with a slightly weaker 7840HS, I’ve measured 100.8°C at peak while playing a game — and as high as 92.5°C one day when I was just writing a story in a web browser.
After a month, I’ve decided I could live with the lid flex and the uneven surfaces created by Framework’s modular spacers and touchpad.
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I'm running an Intel Meteor Lake laptop with Linux and it's reasonably well supported with pretty fresh kernels (6.7 and later). Compared to an AMD desktop that I use, both have had occasional minor defects. The Intel systems have also done a lot to close the performance and perf-per-watt, even under Linux.
I think the graphics performance and compatibility is a bit better on AMD. That would be the only reason I've experienced to lean that direction. But I think both are very usable, so other factors like price, availability, recency, are probably larger factors to focus on.
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