The main problem with the Framework 13 at this point is underwhelming battery life. I have one of the newly announced models reserved in hopes that the new CPU improves that to a reasonable degree, but if reviews come out and that turns out to not be the case there’s a substantial chance I’ll cancel.
I upgraded to the AMD board and the larger batteries and this improved significantly - 7/8 hours of real usage now, which for me is fine. On linux with minor tweaking. Depends what you need, but surely for most people a full workday without power is manageable!
Are those numbers with power saver mode turned on? For what this laptop is being used for I don’t need much muscle and would rather need to charge less frequently.
No, normal usage with no special power saver options. Turning off WiFi+minimal brightness+power saving etc pushes it further, but I'm rarely in a scenario where I want to do that for more than a couple of hours anyway.
I've heard Windows defaults or more advanced Linux games can do better, but at this stage I don't feel the need.
It’s annoying that Asus is shipping 14” laptops with 75Wh batteries while the Framework 13 maxes out at 61Wh and doesn’t use LPDDR. On the other hand, it’s annoying ASUS doesn’t ship models with more ram.
It’s also annoying that the latest Intel/AMD Zenbooks don’t offer a non-PWM IPS panel screen option. The OLED panels they use apparently bother some people at low brightness settings with flickering and of course there’s the usual longevity concerns with the technology.
There’s a number of benefits to long battery life besides being able to work for long stretches unplugged.
- Longer cycles means cycle count accruement and thus degradation is slower (sometimes dramatically so)
- For longer trips, charging can be done overnight with a tiny trickle-charging phone brick, which is also better for battery health
- No need to bring a brick, cable, or power bank for shorter trips
- Impact of phantom drain during standby is greatly mitigated
- Laptop will more often than not have enough charge to be used whenever you pick it up, without having to leave it plugged in all the time
- Bluetooth and wifi can be used liberally without fear of chewing through battery too quickly
- You as a user spend a lot less time thinking about your laptop’s battery
There’s also secondary effects, like a machine being efficient enough to have long battery life generally also reducing its heat output and making it more practical to keep cool with a slow fan or passive heatsink.
Once you can go through a full workday without having to charge, it's a game changer. Same reason why an Apple watch that can't make it a full day would be a dealbreaker.
As others have said, I think it is more than just "when can I plug in, it is also "what is my performance when I'm not plugged in."
My Framework and my HP Spectre (that I bought last year) both perform differently if they aren't plugged in and both make more noise than a MacBook Air. Whereas my MacBook Pros are usually silent (tho they can def turn the fan on if I'm pushing them a lot) and I can definitely run the battery down, but I never have to worry about having to have it plugged in just so I can do what I want without worries.
And on Windows anyway (Linux power management is its own nightmare), having to triage to figure out "how much time do I have before I have to move to a different seat in an airport lounge or find a plug at a coffee shop or snoop around at an office if I'm not at a set desk" to make sure I have enough time left to make that video call is like not a small thing.
Yeah, you can often find a plug -- but a) sometimes those plugs don't work. and b) sometimes the effort to find and look for one really interrupts your flow, versus just being able to to trust that my laptop has enough power to operate.
Not all airplanes have plugs and at cafe's people tend to prioritize seating near the precious outlets. Its a small thing but having to pack up or go home when you are in the zone is a hassle I will pay a little extra to avoid.
Being restricted to seats with plugs sucks. Not finding a place to sit because all the places with plugs are already occupied sucks. Needing to take a power brick out of the bag and fumble around on the floor to plug it in sucks. Being unable to use the laptop on plane or train rides without plugs sucks.
Same reason I like wireless headphones. It makes wires a non-issue a majority of the time.
Carrying around a charging brick sucks. Now you have to get a table at the cafe by the wall. Or hope the airplane power is functional.
I want to bring my laptop to work, not think about charging it, and not worry about what I'm doing on the laptop throughout the day (video calls, compiling, etc.)
