Framework Laptop Community

We’re happy to share that we started our mass production ramp of Framework Laptop 16 this week. We received quantities of the final CPU heatsink (after a brief pause sitting in Taiwan Customs), which was the last gating item for getting the manufacturing line moving. Lunar New Year means that both our factory and our fulfillment warehouse will be closed from Feb 8th through Feb 14th, so we’re working on producing and fulfilling as many units as we can ahead of that. For those of you in Batch 1, we’re also sending out the Batch 1 preparation email tomorrow. We’ll be sequencing through the remaining batches as quickly as we can. We’ll continue on additional update emails to keep each of you who have pending pre-orders up to date on production, though we may not stick to the two week email cadence now that we’re up and running.

You’ve probably also seen press reviews go live earlier this week. We flagged in the last email that press units came from an earlier build with some issues that we’ve since fixed. We wanted to share the full set of changes and improvements we’ve made for all customer units for your reference:

1. High frequency noise from Mainboard - We identified an incorrect capacitor value that results in a high pitched noise during high load while using a 28V or 36V power adapter. This is resolved on customer units.
2. Buzzing noise from Graphics Module - We identified a scenario where the inductors on the Graphics Module can buzz under high variations in load. We’ve updated the Graphics Module inductor assembly on customer units to resolve this.
3. CPU thermal module performance - Our thermal module supplier improved their vapor chamber soldering process, which reduced thermal resistance. While this was only intended to improve manufacturing yield, it actually ended up improving thermal performance too. All press units passed the same pass/fail criteria that we use for CPU performance on customer units though, so we consider press unit CPU benchmarking to be a fair representation of what customers will receive.
4. Liquid metal barrier adjustments - We made some adjustments to the liquid metal application process to prevent any leakage risk on customer units.
5. Cold GPU performance - For GPU benchmarks, on a cold first run the scores may have been lower than subsequent warm runs. We resolved this through a BIOS update that we provided to reviewers partway through the review cycle. Some reviewers may have benchmarked ahead of that time. We know that LTT was on the newer BIOS in their benchmarking.
6. DPC_Watchdog_Violation blue screen - There was a system stability issue that occurred primarily when scrolling the touchpad that could result in a blue screen. This was an issue that The Verge ran into, and we’ve since resolved it in the BIOS that is on customer systems.
7. Speaker attenuated on left or right channel - There was a bug in the smart amp DSP driver in which the left or right channel may be attenuated at certain times. We saw a reviewer specifically call out that audio sounded shifted. We found the root cause of this and resolved it in the driver on customer systems.
8. Touchpad Module sliding friction - The mechanical structure that the Touchpad Module slides into is slightly deformed on some press units, resulting in higher sliding friction. This is resolved on customer systems.
9. Display alignment - On some press units, the display was slightly misaligned in a way that resulted in the bezel covering the edge of the active area. We bypassed screening for this during press unit manufacturing, but are checking for this during production of all customer units.
10. Display color gamut - In the Windows OS image that was on press units, we did not have the color profile necessary for wide color gamut. We have since added this in the Driver Bundle. Note that the initial batches of pre-built systems also have a Windows image that will not have the color profile pre-loaded, but installing the Driver Bundle loads it.
11. Minor fit and finish in the Input Modules - There are some mechanical refinements in customer systems that improve the alignment of the pins in the Mid Plate to the holes in the Input Modules, as well as reduce visible gaps along the top edges of Spacer Modules. There are also minor improvements in the flatness of the Touchpad Module and Touchpad Spacers in customer systems. 

There are also a few issues that we are still tracking, but which we aren’t holding production for: 

1. Keyboard deflection - We’ve seen largely positive feedback on the input deck feel, but also specifically saw LTT’s video in which they flagged keyboard deflection and the workaround they applied. We’re investigating whether there could have been either an issue on that unit or a scenario that can result in the mid plate not being flat. In either case, if we find that there is an improvement we can apply on this, we will do so and ship out any parts necessary for that to customers whose units have already shipped.
2. Secondary SSD may disappear - We found that the secondary SSD (the M.2 2230 SSD) may not be visible on some boots or may rarely disappear during sleep. We’ve debugged this issue with AMD, who have traced it back to a bug in the platform firmware. They are releasing the fix to us, which we will include in a BIOS update. We’ll share BIOS updaters for Windows and Linux when this is ready, as well as roll the BIOS into the factory for new system production.
3. Display frozen after smart MUX switching - We’ve seen instances where after closing a graphics-heavy application, the display will freeze as the display switches from the discrete GPU to integrated graphics on the APU. AMD has root caused this issue, and is preparing a driver update that resolves it. We believe there are reviewers who have also seen this issue, potentially including The Verge. Once AMD provides us the driver, we’ll package it up as part of a Driver Bundle.

We’ll keep you up to date as we go.