I ordered two weeks ago making it into the July batch. Got the shipping notification on Monday and received my laptop today. I ordered the DIY i5 edition with 16GB RAM, two USB-C modules, 1 USB-A, an HDMi, and a 1TB storage.

I unpacked everything and assembled it. It really isn’t what I would call a DIY experience, all I had to do was install the RAM, SSD, bezel, and input panel.

I booted to the BIOS and disabled secure boot, added the grub UEFI key from prepared USB drive of Fedora 38. My error was not realizing I re-enabled secure boot when I copied the key. Booting from the USB I kept getting the message that I needed to load the kernel first. After reformatting and re-imaging the USB drive a couple of times, I ended up writing the installer image to the 1TB storage module before I realized my error and disabled secure boot again.

Fedora proceeded to install without issue. I followed the install guide on the framework forums. The fingerprint reader did not work, but everything else seems to work out of the box. Took a few minutes to run dnf upgrade and install some software.

Initial thoughts: I like the keyboard, it feels good with a bit of resistance, the key texture isn’t a smooth friction-less plastic, almost more like a velvet feeling, kind of rubbery. Rubbery isn’t the right word, but I just can’t think of a better way to describe it. The display is much more square than what I am use to, so I am going to reserve my judgement on that for now. The screen is matt, another change that will take time to decide whether or not I like it, but it was something I was looking for. Glossy screens reflect too much when working in the light and require looking at it at just the right angle. Chassis feels solid, a bit of heft but lighter than the HP Spectre 13 that I am coming from. The microphone and camera along the top of the screen have built-in slide covers; I don’t remember seeing anything about that when I was looking at the Framework, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Looking forward to share more after I have a chance to really make use of it.