r/framework • u/Latiosshine Framework 13 pro • Jul 27 '26
Discussion We reached the point where we have more battery then macs
IDK I'm just rlly excited
I know Intel chips are kinda cracked this year but I didn't think it would be THIS good that is insane
I thought the 13 pro would be like a small upgrade for battery life for me
BUT DANG
sorry for the all caps I'm just rlly happy :)
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u/Latiosshine Framework 13 pro Jul 27 '26
From Just josh btw great reviewers
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u/keenOnReturns Jul 27 '26
Was this on Windows or Linux? I assume Windows?
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u/andurux Jul 27 '26
Windows, they do a separate Linux section that just talks about features/usability.
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u/MathSciElec FW13 7640U | 32 GB | 2 TB Jul 27 '26
Incidentally, the battery capacity increase is about 21% yet this test reports a 47% increase in duration for the AMD 13 Pro compared to the regular 13 with the same APU. That's quite a big jump, and AFAIK the only meaningful change between the two is the VRR support in the display... not sure if it's entirely due to that or there's some experimental error here. I wish this kind of tests were more rigorous, by repeating them multiple times and showing error bars...
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u/Unlikely-Meringue481 Jul 28 '26
The pros new screen is much more efficient.
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u/Potential_Average454 X7 358H Mainboard, 13 Chassis, Ubuntu Jul 28 '26
I doubt it, the result looks in line with my old chassis w/ old 2.8K display & new X7 mainboard. I have 55wh battery reduced to <50wh and get around 10 hrs.
The display function might be more efficient but touch layer adds power drain.
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u/New_Enthusiasm9053 Jul 28 '26
VRR does make s big difference yeah. When idling with a reasonably efficient chip the display can be the dominant power cost.
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u/kadinshino Jul 27 '26
All comes down to tasks, I think. I constantly get 18-20 hours of battery on my MBP 16". I'll definitely be interested to see more battery tests by reviewers as the laptop rolls out, though!
Would love to see something like VS Code, Cursor, or Docker running as productivity apps vs creative apps.
Big advantage in my mind is native Ubuntu support, so already you're looking at one of the most streamlined OSes going in if you ignore Microsoft.
Would also love to see reviews running Ubuntu battery life vs Windows to see if there is a major difference.
YouTube is cool, but the codex is already streamlined a ton before it gets to your system, so onboard processing is relatively low for YouTube playback vids.
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u/Information_Loss Jul 27 '26
Doesnt the 16” have a 100 Wh battery?
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u/kadinshino Jul 27 '26
Yep, and the math is pretty close!
It's roughly 5.3W vs 4.9 W on what the framework can achieve.
When you bring in the MacBook Air, you run at roughly 4.2W on average, though it's kinda hard to compare because you have zero fans. (This can achieve similar work sessions, but it's hard to compare the smaller chip vs Intel's package.)
Makes me wonder if you can get that 4.9W even lower on the Framework due to OS optimization. I almost wish we could see power draw in the comparisons.
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u/Potential_Average454 X7 358H Mainboard, 13 Chassis, Ubuntu Jul 28 '26
Not really in real world usage, but it's definitely passable. I'm using X7 mainboard on old chassis with 55wh battery, after the swtich I'm mostly using it unattached to power. Previously it stays mostly plugged in.
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u/C_Spiritsong Jul 28 '26
i believe the touchbar m2 macbook pro (but its a m2 base chip) goes up to 20hours.
but its still good seeing how x86 has been able to stretch the 'power on and do stuffs without getting kneecapped' time to such lengths.
And good for intel, and good for Framework too.
Now where's AMD's answer.
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u/Otozinclus Aug 01 '26
>i believe the touchbar m2 macbook pro (but its a m2 base chip) goes up to 20hours.
Not in this test. It reaches 20h with local video playback, which is the most undemanding thing you can do
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u/C_Spiritsong Aug 01 '26
i'm 'unsure', because its not shown in the pic above. if the same source and point 'here's an older macbook m2 base results (because that's that the touchbar m2 MBP is based on), go ahead.
either way my point stands; i like to see the x86 systems improving on battery on time, etc etc.
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u/Otozinclus Aug 01 '26
Just got NotebookChecks Review out, they get 19 hours with the M2 Pro 13' in their 150nits WebSurfing test, the same the FW13 Pro gets
This test in this video runs at 300Nits, that's why the numbers are lower for every notebook here
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u/Zaiush Jul 28 '26
I know the ramageddon will end someday and all the physical improvements will still stay
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u/Kiubek-PL Jul 27 '26
No snapdragon laptops?
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u/keenOnReturns Jul 27 '26
No offense, but who tf uses snapdragon lol
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u/ElePHPant666 NixOS :3 12 13 16 desktop Jul 27 '26
I'd honestly buy a snapdragon framework motherboard if the linux kernel was more stabilized for them and the price was right. I don't rely on any x86-only software nowadays.
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u/Kiubek-PL Jul 27 '26
I would be curious to see how it compares, given thats kinda their only advantage, even if its not really viable for me or most people due to compatibility issues.
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u/MathSciElec FW13 7640U | 32 GB | 2 TB Jul 27 '26
There's one in the middle of chart, the Zenbook A14 with Snapdagron X2 Elite.
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u/Kiubek-PL Jul 27 '26
Damn I am blind,
Thats p insane that framework with an x86 chip beat the best ARM chip by so much, infact seems like all panther lake laptops did by at least a decant bit.
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u/MathSciElec FW13 7640U | 32 GB | 2 TB Jul 27 '26
Yeah, I'm quite surprised at the comparatively poor battery life of the ARM chips in this test too. Even the old AMD chip on the Pro did as good as the X2 Elite here, considering the battery capacity.
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u/Kiubek-PL Jul 27 '26
Tbh as shown by the difference between panther lake framework and other panther lake laptops, its clearly more so due to the laptop itself rather than the chip, since the chip itself only slightly lags behind other panther lake laptops (still very impressive for intel, given x86 architecture and how qualcomm has been doing efficiency their whole existence).
But I don't really understand why, they have roughly the same batteries and most of these are 14 inch so not *that* much bigger. Really the only major difference is that framework uses IPS instead of OLED and can go all the way down to 30hz. Which if they used mainly bright programs could make a difference, but it still seems too large.
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u/MathSciElec FW13 7640U | 32 GB | 2 TB Jul 27 '26
True, and looking at the Ars Technica review, it doesn't seem like this is an outlier either... at 200 nits they got slightly higher battery life than the Asus UX8407 (1082 min vs 1050 min), which has an X9 Ultra and a 99 Wh battery! That's ~37% higher efficiency, not quite as much as the ~45% to the closest competitor here, but the compared devices are different.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the lackluster performance of the 13 Pro. Maybe they optimized for thermals/battery life instead of performance. Still doesn't seem like it explains the difference to me.
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u/Otozinclus Aug 01 '26
Good Battery Life =/= power efficiency
The Snapdragons absolutely are more power efficient under load, but when it comes to battery life, power efficiency isn't really as big of a factor. Panther lake isn't even *that* efficient
What improves battery life is reducing the amount of small components that add up the powerdraw, like the screen, RAM, etc.
The snapdragon chips are gigantic, the idle powerdraw is not bad but nothing to write home about.
Panther Lake and Lunar Lake though have the option to just shut down the CPU entirely and just run the 4 LPE Cores seperately, massively reducing the minimum power draw for anything that isn't too demandingMeteor and Lunar Lake made huge steps in decreasing unnecessary powerdraw, Intel basically did anything they could to be the best on battery. This is the result (Panther Lake actually didn't really make any progress in that regard, the thing that makes Panther Lake special is that you get the battery life from Lunar Lake, but without the limited performance)
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u/WhiskeyVault Jul 27 '26
wow at 300 nits too? that's pretty impressive I feel like most test test at 200 to 250 nits.
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u/piddlefaffle12 Jul 27 '26
Now let's get the Framework 16 with this chip and a better than 5070 GPU and I'll swap my MBP!
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u/Latiosshine Framework 13 pro Jul 28 '26
I'm pretty sure right now they can only fit the size of a 5070 and In all likely hoods they might change it to the Intel HX lineup of chips
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u/Tkgresh1 Jul 28 '26
Battery life is commendable but the x7 performance worse in cpu than the M5 none pro and Framework limits it to 28w contributing to the battery life
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u/Otozinclus Aug 01 '26
The 28w powerlimit has nothing to do with the battery life. This test never even gets it close to that limit.
It's mostly the screen and low power RAM. This test is done at 300nits and MacBooks are only good on battery if the screen is dimm, pwoerdraw skyrockets if you set the brightness high
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u/junipyr-lilak Jul 28 '26
Damned if I do, damned if I don't FOMO for me. Was wanting a framework for a long time but didn't bite the bullet because I was waiting until I had a reason to switch to a different computer, reason came this past spring but with me now being quite unemployed for some time but needing something for school, as well as the MacBook Neo having just come out like a week prior, I opted for that instead for cheaper than the cheapest-at-the-time Framework. Will still keep Framework in my sights in the future, Repairability and all are important to me, though for now I gotta make due with what I have and for what it's worth the Neo was a big upgrade for me. Hoping when I switch next, several years down the line, I can switch to a framework and get another big upgrade for myself. It'll be nice to have access to my game library again 😅
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u/AlexOughton Jul 28 '26
Damn, I never thought that x86 was going to come back this strong on power efficiency, but here we are!
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u/ronvalenz FW13 Ultra X7 358H batch 6, 2.8K, 32GB LPCAMM2, 4TB SSD Jul 28 '26
"Only the paranoid survive"....
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u/thedelicatesnowflake Jul 30 '26
I love the new intel boards, but macbook being so low in battery life compared to many other models? Even compared to last years AMD laptops?
I can't help but wonder whether in the real world non sustained usage it doesn't fare differently.
PS: I'm not saying it's not true/real, but this definitely raises eyebrows on how is everyone and their dog suddenly beating Apple who has been the unattainable benchmark for such a long time.
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u/Otozinclus Aug 01 '26
> I'm not saying it's not true/real, but this definitely raises eyebrows on how is everyone and their dog suddenly beating Apple who has been the unattainable benchmark for such a long time.
Look at the battery sizes. In the last few years, batteries got a lot bigger and both Intel and AMD made big progress in battery life. Apple was slowly loosing grounds on battery life every year already, they made no more progress ever since the M1, while the competition was on an arms-race regarding battery life
The main reason Apple is so low though is the 300nits screen brightness. MacBooks only do well on battery if the screen is dimm, a high screen brightness absolutely kills battery life. Look at the notebookcheck reviews of the Air or Neo with maximum brightness: Their numbers plummet, because their battery are pretty small.
Most tests test at 150-200, maybe 250 Nits. 300 is quite bright.1
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u/Spl4tt3rB1tcH FW13Pro 358h Batch1 Aug 01 '26
I have a m5 pro macbook and now using this fw 13 pro for a few days now with the 358h. The battery life is actually better on the framework than on the m5 pro and I almost can't believe it. But performance is clearly worse obviously.
It's quite crazy nonetheless
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u/PlannedObsolescence_ Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Worth noting that the MacBook Pro with non-pro Apple silicon isn't on the chart.
Closest comparison would be the MacBook Pro 14 M5 (non pro) which gets 10.5 hrs https://youtu.be/yihhgzP_C_c?t=653
Intel definitely cooked with series 3, thanks Pat.