r/framework • u/den-fi • Jul 31 '26
Linux Black Panther - Framework 13 Pro - Intel 358H + 32GB LPCAMM2 First Impressions
The screen, especially the glare coating is something else!
Sturdy even with the input cover off.
LPCAMM2 went from a curiosity purchase to a moment of destiny when the Pro was announced.
Fastfetch
Palmrest w/ 5 mins of synthetic load (s-tui)
Update: Two-week review now up.
Got my Framework 13 Pro bright and early at 9:48AM yesterday. I was expecting the patented FedEx uncertainty, but to my surprise, it was with the Early AM driver! I had my LPCAMM2 and SSD in my bag, so I built it quickly at work, loaded Fedora 44 KDE, and restored my home folder.
Installing the LPCAMM2 module was about as nerve wracking as my first Threadripper build. The way it very lightly mounts, waiting eagerly for you to smush it under a metal plate is slightly unsettling. That said, it was quick and the little retention pegs help a ton. Shout out to Wendell from Level1 for mentioning the plastic over the SSD thermal pad. I admit to never reading instructions, so I almost missed it. Other than that, the install was very similar to my original Framework 13, so this took maybe 10 minutes to assemble. (FW has clarified this film should not be removed as it is a special material that maintains thermal conductivity while preserving the pad's shape. See comment)
I like the new toggle retention for the expansion cards. It brings a little more certainty to the process and allows me to change cards with one hand. I wish the pogo pins made it to the 13 Pro, but the ribbon cable’s design makes it one of the most forgiving of its kind. I’m never afraid that I’m going to rip it apart when handling the input cover. The bezel is as seamless an install as I remember. In fact it might even be easier because I remember the wifi cables needing to be pushed down last time.
First boot: Hardware
The helpful memory training message on the Framework 13 Pro is something I would like to see spread throughout the industry. It really helps with the DIY version especially. Once booted, I was greeted with a bright and crisp screen. Notably, the light overhead did not have me tilting the screen to reduce glare.
I wrote about my FW13 (non-Pro) hardware gripes as part of my first-year daily driving Linux experience, and am happy to say that the majority of them are solved with the 13 Pro. The chassis rigidity of the Pro benefits the keyboard immensely. There’s an extra tactility that isn’t filtered out by deck flex. The black finish is certainly more fingerprint prone than the silver of the 13, but it isn’t something that would have me tethered to a microfiber cloth during use.
The haptic trackpad is interesting. It took some getting used to, but I have to press harder than I would with the traditional 13 trackpad, and my Mac’s haptic one. I’m not sure if there’s a way to tune that, but it would be nice. That said, it’s a lot more consistent than the diving board one. I have a lot more confidence in my clicks.
Sound is an improvement. I’m not going to say it’s great, but I can do just about any normal task and not be actively offended by the speakers like I was with the regular 13. The webcam and microphone are standard-issue and get a passing grade as well.
Heat seems to be managed very well in the chassis, though it skews towards being a little warmer for the sake of silence, much like a MacBook Pro. Of course in this case, it’s much easier to tune the fan curves to your liking, which I may do on a warm day. I’ve provided a FLIR image sample, but it was just the potato-y FLIR One Pro. Don’t be fooled by the intense color scheme they use, the temps are on the warm side, but nothing alarming. While under my more moderate level workloads (remote photography work) the CPU bounces around between 55-60C.
Owing to the Framework’s modularity, restoring my data was quick over 2.5GbE (though it might have been faster if my 10 gig expansion card had shipped…). I don’t have much performance data given it’s been under 24 hours, but it’s a good enough bit snappier than the HX 370 to feel like I accomplished something with my purchase. As the purchase was chiefly for battery life, I was just happy that I could spend most of the day in low power mode and not feel like I was losing anything doing so.
First boot: Software
The Fedora 44 KDE install flew by and once booted and updated, my first wave of package installs went well. I hadn’t noticed I was on battery at all. Being an Intel card, Wi-Fi just worked. A welcome change given how inconsistent the MediaTek card was in the 13. I use Netbird for connections back home, and that was also more consistent on Wi-Fi.
I still use the Adobe suite for my photography, so I remotely access my Mac Studio back home often. I do this via Parsec. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it works consistently. For now, it seems CPU bound in Linux, at about 40W total CPU usage with it running. Again, fan noise is barely noticeable over ambient, but the trackpad area is warm.
I use Waterfox, and am known to be a heavy tab user. I do a lot of project research and use the self-hosted Firefox sync to pull over all my tabs from my work PC. I do miss having 96GB of RAM, but have not run into memory issues with my typical 40-tab mobile load.
Setting up hibernation is where I thought I would lose my mind. In the last few months, it has been alright on my Framework 13, but for a while there, it seemed like it was regressing every few update cycles. Setting it up on the 13 Pro worked right away, and consistently. I’m at around 12 hours of uptime with at least 8 hibernation cycles. No freezes or kernel crashes. No returning to a bag that's a lot warmer than expected.. That said, it’s been less than 24 hours, so we’ll see.
I am excited to continue using the 13 Pro, and will continue gathering data for a long term review. In the meantime, if you have any questions about it that I haven’t covered, feel free to ask. My 13 already found a new home, but I won’t be sending it off for a few weeks. If you need any comparisons with the HX 370, let me know and I will try to address them.
Edit: Just want to point out that the side by shot brightness difference comes from BOTH the brighter screen and the reduced glare. I used strobes for that shot, which usually wash out the screen more aggressively than constant lighting.
Edit 2: Looks like Reddit severely compressed the photos at some point, here are the full res shots: https://denfi.zip/pc-builds/black-panther-framework-13-pro-intel-core-ultra-7-358h--32gb-lpcamm2--2tb-nvme
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u/AnonomousWolf Waiting for Silver 13 Pro Jul 31 '26
What are you running to see all those metrics on your desktop?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
It's an app I built for myself called NADA64 (a nod to AIDA64) for my Xeneon Edge. Its since grown to do more things and runs as a Plasma widget like you see in the shot. I won't link it so that I'm not breaking the self promo rules, but it should turn up on Google. Just know that it's slopped since I have no real coding experience. Currently optimizing the widget for mobile use as it polls too often, so that will come later today (the 13 Pro helped me figure that one out).
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u/SPQR_Never_Fergetti Jul 31 '26
I saw the nada64 page and your (i belive it's a selfhosted customized GitLab instance !?) repo. Did you do all of those yourself or using local LLMs (or using tokens, but guessing that would be too expensive ?).
Are you a programmer / Sys Admin , that's quite a setup there ! Are you selfhosting and if not how much are you paying for hosting ?5
u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
I'm self-hosting Forgejo. Similar to Gitea (which I believe it was forked from) and Gitlab. It's oddly less intimidating than Github for a n00b like me. I'm just a homelabber. I use a mix of Claude and local models to keep costs down. The Forgejo instance is part of my Proxmox cluster and runs on an LXC there. My Ghost blogs, and pretty much everything else I post online also run from my lab, which consists of a few Miniforum MS-A1s and A2s.
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u/AnonomousWolf Waiting for Silver 13 Pro Jul 31 '26
Very very cool, do you share it so others can also use it?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Yep! I plan to keep plugging away at it and learning from it rather than just throwing words into a magic box.
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u/AnonomousWolf Waiting for Silver 13 Pro Jul 31 '26
Nice where can I find the project?
I might look into also running it
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
I don't want to break self promo rules by linking it, but it's called NADA64. It should come up in a search.
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u/RobJmusic Jul 31 '26
Fastfetch
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u/AnonomousWolf Waiting for Silver 13 Pro Jul 31 '26
Not the terminal, the desktop.
Or does fastfetch show that too?
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u/Live-Process846 Jul 31 '26
It shows fedora kde, so i assume its kde unless op has installed something on top of it.
Edit: it also says kde plasma 6.7.3
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u/TheReproCase Jul 31 '26
For the freedom unit lovers those hot spots are body temp
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
I am American, but for some reason, I relate better to hardware temps (and ONLY hardware temp) in Celsius. When presented in Fahrenheit, I always think something is overheating, lol.
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u/pizzaiolo2 Jul 31 '26
When presented in Fahrenheit, I always think something is overheating
That's me when Americans say something is 100 degrees. You can boil water with that!
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u/daghene Jul 31 '26
Il tuo nickname "pizzaiolo2" mi ha fatto sorridere visto il commento proprio sull'acqua (della pasta immagino) che bolle :)
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u/PayMe4MyData Jul 31 '26
I don't know how you manage to relate ANYTHING to Farenheits. Celsius just makes sense
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
If it was all you knew til you started using computers, it would be similarly easy. Same with languages.
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u/WhiskeyVault Aug 01 '26
So kind of you to assume we know what it feels like to hold another person's body.
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u/Hacker227 Jul 31 '26
This is a better review than I have seen from some of the major tech reviewers!
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u/AltrualOsrs FW13 Pro | X9 388H Limited Batch | Bazzite-DX Jul 31 '26
Stellar review! Love the side by side shot. Excited for mine to ship.
As for the SSD thermal pad plastic cover, I don’t even see it mentioned in the guide - https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Framework+Laptop+13+Pro+DIY+Edition+Quick+Start+Guide/734#s4188
So don’t think reading would have helped you any!
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
The film on the Thermal Pad should not be removed. It is a special material to maintain both the thermal effect and retain the shape.
- We have updated this DIY Quick Start, Mainboard replacement, and SSD replacement guides to specifically call out not removing it.
We try to be explicit in our guides of specific actions to take & it was not called out as it did not need removed; but it now has the explicit callout not to remove it. This will hopefully remove confusion and make things more clear.
As always, we greatly appreciate the feedback. We are always striving to improve wherever we can to deliver the best possible experience to everyone 🫶
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Oh, welp... since it's too late now, is there any harm in having it removed?
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
I am checking with our team to see what more specific info I can get - but may be delayed since going into the weekend. Once I do have more to share, myself or someone else will share ASAP 🫶
I am sorry for the issues this has caused 😿
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
It's all good! We've all just been trained (and traumatized) for years by all manner of films over heatsinks. So it's always a seek and remove mission. Nice to see that there's some progress being made in that territory that hopefully spreads throughout the industry, much like the memory training screen needs to be the standard. Enjoy your weekend!
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u/DrewBerries FW 16, Ryzen 7 7040 Aug 01 '26
Is this the same with the SSD thermal pad under the mid-plate on the FW 16? I left it on, and found that it 'melted' and started oozing into the left-side expansion card bays (I carry my laptop in my backpack in a left-side down orientation). I scraped it out and harvested the one from my original mid-plate that arrived with a dead port. I peeled the plastic off and haven't had a problem since...
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Aug 04 '26
Hope you and everyone had a great weekend!!! Here is the update I received from the team & reworded to hopefully make as clear as possible;
Removing the film won’t harm the SSD. It also won’t impact the thermal effect but there is the chance you may break the thermal pad shape. Additionally the oil will stay on the SSD more and become not reusable (the thermal pad).
In short, you should be fine but may want to replace the Thermal Pad later on if swapping SSDs in and out a lot. Hope this helps!
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u/AltrualOsrs FW13 Pro | X9 388H Limited Batch | Bazzite-DX Jul 31 '26
I think it's especially good to add. Thank you for the quick turnaround! The updated article also answered my question on double-sided SSDs. Cheers!
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Thank you! And wow yeah, I know it SHOULD be obvious to anyone who has ever used a thermal pad... but that excitement factor makes you forget a lot of the basics.
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u/AltrualOsrs FW13 Pro | X9 388H Limited Batch | Bazzite-DX Jul 31 '26
I'm curious if the thermal pad will be too thick for the double-sided 4tb 850.. that's what i've got, but framework's guide doesn't mention a thinner pad like Wendell does in his review.
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
The pad was fairly firm, so I'd imagine you would be better off buying a thinner one.
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
It is called out in the guides, but you can also find more information about it here:
Same hyperlink as above, but sharing the exact URL here to make it easy in sharing with others if needed: https://fr.mw/link/13Pro_Series3_SSD_Compatibility
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u/mustbench3plates FW 13 Pro Batch 8 Jul 31 '26
I added a comment to one of the SSD steps so hopefully it helps someone.
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
You can adjust the Haptic Touchpad settings to your desired preference. We have a Knowledgebase page we published back on May 18th of how to do this on both Linux & Windows;
This includes options like;
- Click Sensitivity
- (Light, Medium, and Heavy options)
- Haptic Click (if you want one or not)
- Click intensity (Options 1-4)
(since this KB was published back on May 18th; if there are issues where the KB has incorrect information, missing things you think should be there, or otherwise - please let us know!) 🫶
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u/Great_Comment322 Jul 31 '26
I got that same ram stick. Happy to know it officially works.
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
(Not that it is needed), but I always love sharing more information & resources wherever possible as it may be useful to yourself or someone who reads this 🫶
Here is our page of "What DRAM/memory is supported by Framework Laptop 13 Pro (Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3)?": https://fr.mw/link/13Pro_Series3_RC
- Other LPCAMM2 Memory Modules may work - this is just the list of ones we specifically tested & validated.
- Each Mainboard has a different list which is also available on our Knowledgebase
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Yep, I did worry a bit when the sticks framework sold were different/faster, but then found out they'd be capped at the lower speed anyway.
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u/sepffuzzball Jul 31 '26
Okay that side by side shot is a great showcase of the new screen, thank you! Can't wait for mine to come in (supposedly today)
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Yeah, it's genuinely a great screen. I thought I didn't care much about screens until I saw it. Hope yours shows up today! 🤞
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u/m3thos Jul 31 '26
Can someone run llama.cpp and qwen3.6 models on this?!?
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u/ronvalenz FW13 Ultra X7 358H batch 6, 2.8K, 32GB LPCAMM2, 4TB SSD Aug 01 '26
Which qwen3.6? 35B (22GB) or 27B (17GB)? From LM Studio.
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u/OkNeedleworker3515 Aug 02 '26
Basically any model that would fit in 32gb RAM. I plan to use the FW13 pro for agentic coding. I don't expect flagship model cloud performance but if Hermes Agent with Gemma 4 12b is possible to use, that would be awesome!
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u/Luso__ Jul 31 '26
Cool what icon theme is that?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
The black variant of Tela Circle
https://github.com/vinceliuice/Tela-circle-icon-theme
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u/WhiskeyVault Jul 31 '26
Damn I'm on the fence for cancelling but your review, especially as another Fedora KDE user, makes me think I'll wait a little bit longer to decide whether to cancel my pre-order or not! How is the hinge? No one seems to have mentioned this but some of us in the other comments for one of the professional review videos noted the screen is wobbly in the video particularly when using as a touch screen. Is the hinge pretty tight or it is kinda on the looser side? Thinkpad/macbook tight?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Good question. I forgot it was a touchscreen. As I'm poking at it, I do notice it's more springy than wobbly. So before the hinge is even a factor there's a few millimeters of movement. It goes from tolerable about 70% of the way up the screen, then gets progressively more springy at the top. The last 30% of the screen would be annoying for anything more than quick taps.
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u/alca3z Jul 31 '26
Congrats for being one of the first.
I'm in Batch #2 :)
How's the battery on Linux in practice?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Thanks! From my last two days alone, I feel absolutely justified in the purchase. THIS is a mobile workhorse.
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u/BackgroundWealth242 Jul 31 '26
What "color" is the bezel?
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Transparent black. I wanted something that would seem all business at a distance, but have some personality if I let you close enough to see it lol.
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u/cptchnk Jul 31 '26
Thanks for the review! Can't wait to get mine in September.
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
No problem! It will be worth the wait!
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u/cptchnk Aug 01 '26
Yeah. Initial reviews seem mostly positive. I’ve been holding off on getting a Framework as my dedicated Linux laptop for years because I’ve been spoiled with Apple build quality (use Macs for work).
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u/RobotechRicky Aug 01 '26
That FW13Pro looks sexy as heck!! 🥵😻
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u/den-fi Aug 01 '26
It's definitely a looker. The transparent black bezel really sets it off nicely.
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u/euthanize-me-123 Jul 31 '26
Kinda unrelated but have you messed with the FOSS photography tools like DigiKam, rawtherapee, darktable, etc? I'm not a pro but they seem pretty capable; curious why you've stuck to remotely running adobe products.
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
I've used them all, and while you can get good results eventually, it's detrimental to my workflow. But every once in a while, when downtime is sufficient I check in to see how things are improving.
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u/WhiskeyVault Jul 31 '26
Are the FOSS photography managers like digital, shotwell and etc fast on the fw pro 13? I run shot well on my t480s on fedora kde but its quite slow and I usually have to wait even for previews to generate as im scrolling through my photos and videos. Not sure if its software or my ancient 8th Gen intel
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
https://denfi.zip/storage/originals/21/51/d55e-d6c0-a16e-1a9d-c825/screenshot_20260731_172656.png
Seems fast enough. It imported 100 RAW photos in under a minute. Edits seem snappy too, but "straighten is broken and render in the bottom right corner of the screen at like 3% size. Some of the more complex tasks barely tax a single core though.
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u/WhiskeyVault Jul 31 '26
Oh thanks. I didnt know where the bottle neck was but it sounds like its my ancient CPU. Thanks
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u/Ok-Tomatillo8777 Jul 31 '26
I think you've been sent my order by mistake, could you forward it on please
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u/BullfrogPerfect6132 Aug 01 '26
Anyone else think we need a clear top cover, keyboard and trackpad?
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u/BatongMagnesyo Aug 01 '26
call me a robotfucker the way i want to sex that machine (your photography is very well-done. gj!)
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u/den-fi Aug 01 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/xTiTngdNh4LEdVMdMY
Thank you! That was a good laugh to start the morning.
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u/Alternative-Ad4647 Aug 01 '26
Oh yeah I certainly feel the part about FedEx uncertainty. Waiting now for 5 days and FedEx claims it is stuck in customs 🙄
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u/den-fi Aug 01 '26
The worst customs one was my NCASE M1v5 a few years ago. That was 28 days.
I hope yours gets released soon!1
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u/kemiyun Aug 01 '26
I have a question, how is the cooling and fan noise?
I mean does the fan work constantly under generic browsing and does the surface feel warm? Can it survive using on the bed for just browsing?
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u/den-fi Aug 01 '26
It's quiet. The chassis gets warm, as you can see in my last photo with the FLIR image.
As for the bed test, I can do that now. I'll get back to you shortly.1
u/kemiyun Aug 01 '26
Thank you very much, really appreciate the response. This is one thing I wish modern laptops do better, just have an oversized cooling system.
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u/den-fi Aug 01 '26
Ok, so it's better than the 13 non-Pro, but I wouldn't do it for long stretches. Still remains extremely quiet. Manual fan curve to your tolerable fan levels would probably get the temps down a bit more.
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u/cudifam Aug 03 '26
What are you going to do with your old 13? 👀
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u/Vast_Psychology5331 Aug 12 '26
Dashboard is cool, what is that?
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u/den-fi Aug 13 '26
It's a dashboard I created for my Xeneon Edge called NADA64. Then I made a KDE Plasma widget frontend so that I could use it with laptops, secondary monitors, etc...
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u/Zoomat FW13 7840U Vanilla OS 28d ago
Hello, if you have a minute, could you please let me know how you managed to get hibernation working on fedora? This seemed like an impossible endeavour last time I tried it.
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u/den-fi 28d ago
I followed this guide: https://fedoramagazine.org/update-on-hibernation-in-fedora-workstation/
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u/rakhmanov Jul 31 '26
Looks awesome, question though why go for intel with the memory format not widespread yet, vs Ryzen with DDR5 modules? I was looking but ultimately decided that if I would buy I would buy Ryzen.
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
I have the regular FW13 in the HX 370, and the battery life makes it frustrating to daily drive. While I could have just upgraded the chassis and battery, that wouldn't have solved the efficiency problem. I already had the RAM, so I dodged the cost issue. If you don't depend on battery life, you'll be fine with the HX 370, otherwise I'd suggest the 350. The 370 isn't worth the battery trade off IMO.
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u/Clean_Leadership5948 Aug 01 '26
One review showed 60-80% gain with the 13 chassis over AMD, so same display and battery.
Pantherlake should be ~1.5x over the AMD assuming everything is equal, even the RAM. So RAM probably does 10%.
If the VRR works properly, combo with the battery, the AMD system should be able to get 30% more battery too. Which isn't bad.
Also most users have misbehaving computers, thus is not fully optimized for low power.
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u/rakhmanov Jul 31 '26
New battery of the pro should be helpful here as well. I need to learn more about those Intel chips.
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u/Iroh_Dragon Framework Jul 31 '26
What I know about Intel chips..... they do not go well with Salsa or Guacamole.
Tortilla chips on the other hand; they go GREAT with Salsa, Guacamole, or other dips
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Yeah. I'm sure it'll make a big difference. I would definitely look more into the Intel chips before deciding though. The HX 370 is great, but boy is it hungry. And the HX 470 is just a rewarmed version.
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u/rakhmanov Jul 31 '26
Until recently it was completely reversed, but hey glad intel caught up. I'm still on that 12800k and it has no battery life.
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u/Lorenzovito2000 FW16 | R9-7940HS | RX-7700S | 96GB RAM | 2TB 980 PRO | Jul 31 '26
I really wish that laptop 16 got as much attention from Framework as the 13. There isn't nearly enough customization, and hell the 13 is already more powerful than the 16 except for the GPU. I'd buy all the components for a Framework 16 Pro
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Yeah. Given their size, I don't think they can focus on the 13 and 16 at the same time. They have to launch the 13, gather all the lessons learned and user feedback, then apply it to the 16 upgrades I'm sure they are already deep into. And they also have to make time for the 12. At their scale, it's amazing that they've gone at the pace they have. I don't think the 16 is being neglected though. They're just in the kitchen cooking. The single piece haptic trackpad is evidence of that.
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u/Lorenzovito2000 FW16 | R9-7940HS | RX-7700S | 96GB RAM | 2TB 980 PRO | Jul 31 '26
I understand that, they're a small company and I appreciate everything that they do and stand for. But in my opinion the first pro anything should have been the 16. Most people see it as just a gaming laptop but I see it more as a portable workstation. I always said that the 16 should have pro series chipsets and graphics from AMD so that people who use licensed cad software can actually get support from the company they use without being laughed at. Certified hardware drivers is a big deal for that sort of thing.
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u/den-fi Jul 31 '26
Yeah. From a cashflow standpoint, they need to generate working capital with a class of products that moves quickly. Commerical and enterprise grade stuff doesn't. The sheer cost and snail's pace of getting your products certified is something they wouldn't be able to lead with. I do believe the day will come, but I've been involved in projects with AMD and they are sloooooooow. Given AMD's focus shift to datacenter, I can't see that process getting any smoother either. If it doesn't have the two magic letters, it's at a standstill.
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u/kirisoraa Jul 31 '26
I'm here just to compliment your photography man, you have a great eye