As an Framework owner this is something that nagged at me for a while. Am I justifying this cool novel and engadging thing over something else that is turn-key and objectively much better in several popular metrics?
Im lucky enough I was able to also get a later M1 13" to compare against the Framework 14". The MacBook is still an absolute marvel, and will outperform the PC in almost all metrics most noticeably in battery/heat. But many small things bring me back the the Framework even considering that gap.
The size of the framework 14" is incidentally _perfect_ for me, keyboard and display. The MacBook gives me serious RSI. Linux over OSX (yes, asahi Linux exists and has come a long way but did not meet my needs). And having monstrous amounts of ram and hd compared to the MacBook... most of my workload is bound by memory and storage and the CPU very much works "well enough". And overall customizability and longevity clenches.
edit: sorry, but that is a great point. by the nature of it often needing some troubleshooting/intervention, it's going to encourage a very precious attitude. So, it's still very much a niche thing so if you more value cpu, battery, and things mostly just work and can live with OSX, a MacBook can be much much better.
Their team is pretty active in their forums, so after some comments I was directed to request a replacement and turns out my laptop was part of a batch that had some known fan issues--so they sent a fan and some thermal paste no charge. Have read a lot of similar accounts of them making things right, I assume it was part of working out bugs and not overall production issues.
I've loved mine. Some issues with the heat management and fans--but that's also been a Linux/laptop thing--fresh thermal paste, a new (warranted!) fan replacement part, and finally figuring out best drivers setup have brought it roughly in line with a Dell or whatever.
Really enjoyed when I recently upgraded the memory on my tower last year, and threw the old ones on the Framework and it worked great. The expansion slots are a bit gimmicky but still surprisingly useful--when my wfh setup changed recently it was simple to change the mDP over to the other side and then never having to think about a dongle.
But I plan to actually upgrade the motherboard this year, so we'll see how that goes and looking forward to reading others experiences.
Im lucky enough I was able to also get a later M1 13" to compare against the Framework 14". The MacBook is still an absolute marvel, and will outperform the PC in almost all metrics most noticeably in battery/heat. But many small things bring me back the the Framework even considering that gap. The size of the framework 14" is incidentally _perfect_ for me, keyboard and display. The MacBook gives me serious RSI. Linux over OSX (yes, asahi Linux exists and has come a long way but did not meet my needs). And having monstrous amounts of ram and hd compared to the MacBook... most of my workload is bound by memory and storage and the CPU very much works "well enough". And overall customizability and longevity clenches.
edit: sorry, but that is a great point. by the nature of it often needing some troubleshooting/intervention, it's going to encourage a very precious attitude. So, it's still very much a niche thing so if you more value cpu, battery, and things mostly just work and can live with OSX, a MacBook can be much much better.