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    The new and upgraded Framework Laptop

    (community.frame.work)
    1680 points etbusch | 12 comments | 19 May 22 12:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | source | bottom
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    doyougnu ◴[19 May 22 17:07 UTC] No.31437263[source]▶
    I recently bought a framework laptop for a daily driver when I'm not on my desktop. For context I was running NixOS on an old 2014 macbook air, and I work on the glasgow haskell compiler in my day job so I do a lot of CPU heavy tasks.

    I've got to say, as long as these things are being produced I'll never go back. They are just too good and I cannot recommend them highly enough. One of the things that didn't occur to me before I bought it was that _because_ of the modular design I can switch the side the power port is on. That may not seem like much but it was a revelation the first time I sat on the couch and thought "huh I really wish this was over on that side....wait a minute!".

    I've also had absolutely no problems with NixOS on my machine, even my apple earbuds easily connect via bluetooth, something that I never quite got working on my macbook.

    10/10 This is damn close to my dream laptop and I'm excited a new version is on the way.

    replies(16): >>31437287 #>>31437337 #>>31437716 #>>31437892 #>>31438110 #>>31438737 #>>31439099 #>>31439412 #>>31440128 #>>31440447 #>>31440557 #>>31441497 #>>31445239 #>>31447230 #>>31458294 #>>31465000 #
    1. nikodunk ◴[19 May 22 17:39 UTC] No.31437716[source]▶
    Agreed! Got one from work, and it's a beast on Fedora 36 with the 11th gen. Even the discrete-ish Iris Xe graphics are surprisingly fast. So cool that we'll actually be able to update the innards in a few years as necessary to keep it feeling fresh.

    Edit: A small but nice design feature is the light that comes on to imply whether the usb-c port is charging properly. Coming from a mac that removed this feature when usb-c charging was introduced, this is a huge luxury.

    replies(3): >>31443002 #>>31444575 #>>31446104 #
    2. 0x38B ◴[20 May 22 03:22 UTC] No.31443002[source]▶
    I just played through Mass Effect 2 & 3 on mine (Intel i5) with no problems, using Wine. When I do upgrade my main board, I may get the i7 for better graphics performance.

    Another huge + is setting battery charge limit with a console command (1). When I’m connected to power at home, I run `ectool fwchargelimit 60` to keep the battery at 60%. If I’m going out, I set it to 100% in the morning and let it charge.

    1: https://community.frame.work/t/exploring-the-embedded-contro...

    replies(3): >>31444350 #>>31446137 #>>31446897 #
    3. XorNot ◴[20 May 22 07:26 UTC] No.31444350[source]▶
    This doesn't seem useful based on what I know about LiIon batteries: they don't benefit from partial charges, since their capacity loss comes from discharge behaviour.
    replies(2): >>31444522 #>>31446193 #
    4. bipson ◴[20 May 22 07:51 UTC] No.31444522{3}[source]▶
    LiIon batteries apparently benefit a lot from not never being at 100% and 0%.

    I think there is a reason why car manufacturers over-provision (i.e. the better designed electric vehicles never charge to real 100 %)

    5. Abishek_Muthian ◴[20 May 22 08:00 UTC] No.31444575[source]▶
    >Even the discrete-ish Iris Xe graphics are surprisingly fast. So cool that we'll actually be able to update the innards in a few years as necessary to keep it feeling fresh.

    Isn't Intel graphics always been the best bet for Linux due to their excellent driver support? I'm excited for their discrete GPUs just for the sake of proper Linux support.

    I have an 15W haswell machine in the corner decoding & encoding multiple HD camera feeds from motion on integrated GPU using intel_vaapi while the CPU is free for postgres, redis and a qemu VM - 24*7.

    replies(1): >>31445342 #
    6. ahartmetz ◴[20 May 22 10:01 UTC] No.31445342[source]▶
    Intel GPUs have been the best bet for Linux laptops for a long time (over 10 years), but for the last two or three, AMD has been just as good. Just avoid dual GPU laptops ("Optimus" or whatever), it's very problematic on Linux and somewhat problematic even on Windows.
    replies(1): >>31445498 #
    7. Abishek_Muthian ◴[20 May 22 10:30 UTC] No.31445498{3}[source]▶
    I do have a laptop with one of those early intel/AMD 6000 series dual GPU laptops, I remember setting up GPU drivers for it (AMD GPU) used to be troublesome but nowadays even Ubuntu sets it up by default and the devices could be switched with just DRI_PRIME.

    But of course the performance is awful and intel GPU is better for most tasks; Newer AMD GPU and open-source drivers are likely much better as you say.

    8. bodge5000 ◴[20 May 22 11:55 UTC] No.31446104[source]▶
    > Even the discrete-ish Iris Xe graphics are surprisingly fast

    Anyone have any idea how well this stacks up against RDNA2? I'd love it to be close enough to not have to worry much about, but from what I hear AMD have it significantly better

    9. tashbarg ◴[20 May 22 11:58 UTC] No.31446137[source]▶
    On my thinkpad, I've found it most useful to additionally set a start charge threshold much lower than the charge limit. My use case only sees a handful of minutes without charger per day. With charging starting at 40% and ending at 80%, the battery gets charged sometimes as seldom as once per week.
    replies(1): >>31448532 #
    10. tashbarg ◴[20 May 22 12:05 UTC] No.31446193{3}[source]▶
    Source: https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-...

    Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling.

    Most Li-ions charge to 4.20V/cell, and every reduction in peak charge voltage of 0.10V/cell is said to double the cycle life. For example, a lithium-ion cell charged to 4.20V/cell typically delivers 300–500 cycles. If charged to only 4.10V/cell, the life can be prolonged to 600–1,000 cycles; 4.0V/cell should deliver 1,200–2,000 and 3.90V/cell should provide 2,400–4,000 cycles.

    On the negative side, a lower peak charge voltage reduces the capacity the battery stores. As a simple guideline, every 70mV reduction in charge voltage lowers the overall capacity by 10 percent. Applying the peak charge voltage on a subsequent charge will restore the full capacity.

    11. pradn ◴[20 May 22 13:09 UTC] No.31446897[source]▶
    I’m curious: why do you set the max battery percentage?
    12. moondev ◴[20 May 22 15:10 UTC] No.31448532{3}[source]▶
    The other way to look at it with regards to the framework is to just not worry about it. Replacing the battery is trivial and only $60 https://frame.work/products/battery

    Once the ecosystem picks up speed and there are multiple vendors, perhaps the price or even capacity will improve. Although this may be possible with the thinkpad as well.