I know it's been a while since everything went down with Patel's forum BS. But ever since all that i've found myself being far more critical of their actual product quality, because i find myself unable to dismiss my concerns based purely on the matters of "small business" and "being an ethical mission", because it's not anymore. They're funding people who would actively destroy me and all they have to say about it is "something something big tent".
My laptop is just over a year old. I got it literally days before 2025 started. For reference, my previous laptop was a Thinkpad E495- part of Lenovo's budget lineup, discounted to like 700$ before discontinuation. This laptop cost me 2000$.
The hinge on this laptop is loosening to near unusability- any angle past 90 degrees has it very easily flip completely open with any pressure against my legs, making using it lap-top nearly impossible without the display facing down away from me, causing me pretty notable neck pain.
I'm having captive screws come out for absolutely no reason. I've opened this multiple times before, but i always firmly tighten it.
I'm having rubber feet want to tear off, despite the fact they never have been removed- they never NEED to be.
The laptop SHIPPED with a broken V key, and i had to have it replaced by their support team- which they did thankfully actually do.
These are all minor issues on their own, but these would piss people off if it happened to a Macbook or any big-name Windows laptop, and the only reason it gets dismissed of Framework is because their mission and part availability means it's technically not a problem...
All of this kind of makes me want to call into question their entire "mission", and wonder if it's genuinely just a scam- am i crazy? Because day in and out, the more their ethics seem to only questionably line up with their mission, and the more this laptop falls apart more than it has any right to in this amount of time, the more i realise their mission doesnt MAKE financial sense!
They CAN'T sell business-class reliability and durability, with individual parts at world-class low prices, because it completely contradicts any intentions of profiting! Like, the CHEAPEST POSSIBLE THINKPAD i bought from lenovo has had less major durability concerns than a brand new laptop 2.5x its price- with over 5x the fucking lifespan. To compare that to a Thinkpad of the SAME price, from the ACTUAL business lineup, would make a fucking embarrassment of this FW13.
Why didn't i think of this sooner? Framework functionally HAS to design worse, lower-quality, less durable machines in order to SELL the astoundingly-cheap parts, and design their machines with a ship-of-theseus type of mindset, where it doesn't matter that i'm losing feet, losing screws, parts that would never GO MISSING from other devices- i can functionally replace this entire laptop from the bottom up. How much would THAT cost?
You're telling me they can sell more durable machines, with more parts available and produced, all for record low prices (save the higher price of entry), all so the consumer SAVES money, and THEY LOSE it?? Thinking about it now it's a real "Where does honey get the money" moment. Everyone wins, except them, so what's the fucking catch?