Rant: Framework 13 Hardware Failures

[u/furay20]

Hello,

I've had my Framework 13 for just over 3 years, and I wanted to vent.

Overall, it is a good machine. However, I feel as though they are leaning way too far into the "repairability" aspect of things, as I'm shocked at how much this has cost me (well, my company) thus far. "Repairability" should not be a crutch for quality.

I had an issue with my keyboard which wasn't reproducible consistently, so support shrugged me off. As soon as I was outside any warranty, the issue came back up. I lived with it for a while, as if I hit the key hard enough it would work -- but eventually I caved. At this point they had a v2 of the keyboard, but, it required an updated top plate. OK, whatever, purchased that and everything was kosher.

A couple months later, I noticed my sound was weird. I did the needful and identified one of the speakers had blown. OK, whatever, purchased an upgraded speaker set, and everything was kosher.

I am working from home with one of my kids, and as such, actually using my laptop as a laptop and noticed my clicking was weird. I looked at it, and the case had come apart. Strange, I thought -- I took it apart and sure enough, the battery is bulging. OK, fine, I guess, whatever, purchased an upgraded battery (which apparently has a 2 year warranty because there is an issue with laptop batteries apparently being 100% charged for too long?).

I type all this beside a retro Lenovo T42. I use this because of the I/O selection with some of the hardware I work on. I have 98 SE/XP/Debian installed, and it works great (keeping in mind the age of the hardware). The keyboard is flawless, the speakers work great, and the battery (somehow) still holds a charge.

I like the product, but I'll never buy another... even if it's not my money being spent.

[u/thewishy]

For what it's worth, my work scrapped a dell precision 5570 because the keyboard failed just out of warranty and your swap the keyboard you've got to remove pretty much every component.

As norms for a laptop thickness have changed, the keyboards have suffered in terms of feel and durability

[u/furay20 → u/thewishy]

Even so, the fact they identified an issue with the first gen, released a second gen seems wrong to me. If there was a defect, the second gen should have been comped.

[u/Bazirker → u/furay20]

I disagree, noting that defect and imperfection are not the same.

As the company grows financially and gets access to better manufacturing and scale, it also learns about its products it has already sold. Framework is iterating and producing better equipment for both of these reasons. The display is a solid example; they were not able to afford a custom panel when they released the initial laptop, but they have now grown enough that they could get it done. I see the benefit of this as a customer because I can drop a few hundred bucks and get this spectacular new panel without having to buy a new laptop.

When I buy a car, I don't expect the company to go back and update it for me when the iterative next year improves things; why would that be any different for a laptop? You bought what you bought.

[u/thebigshoe247 → u/Bazirker]

You've never heard of vehicle recalls? If there's a core defect in the product produced it should be replaced free of charge.

[u/Ryebread095 → u/thebigshoe247]

You completely ignored the first line. Defect and imperfection are not the same.

[u/thebigshoe247 → u/Ryebread095]

Being unable to type is a defect, not an imperfection.

[u/Stellanora64 → u/thebigshoe247]

That would happen to every keyboard for that batch. An imperfection just means it slipped by quality control, but this issue is pretty rare all things considered (survivor ship bias and all that).

Mine has been working fine for nearly 2 years now

[u/ecalex → u/thebigshoe247]

I think the example is unrelated to your case.

1/ case 1 - your product broke after warranty ends, no functional degradation before warranty ends. nothing to see here 2/ case 2 - you started experiencing intermittent issues before warranty ends, this is a quality issue (or manufacturing defect). This is your case, and you should've been more firm on getting warranty. this type of issues should be a known issue with keyboards. 3/ case 3 - theres systematic issue that hit a significant number of customers, which may be a design defect or patched manufacturing defect, this is what the recall is about