Happy with the Framework 12 Laptop
Since the ninth of October 2025’s “Big Tent” comments by frame.work about how they don’t care whether the people they sponsor are racist and transphobic, my happiness with my 12 has dropped below zero. Don’t buy frame.work, people.
https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-right-racists/75986/2
Since 2023 my laptop situation has been pretty awful… I had two laptops (okay, I admit, that doesn’t sound that awful), a Windows Lenovo Yoga laptop and an Apple Macbook Pro. Powerful machines, of course, but the Yoga has a ghastly keyboard that’s that prone to double registering single keypresses, and way worse touchpad. The touchpad was so bad that the touch screen was really necessary. The Macbook Pro is fast, has nice hardware, a nice screen (no touch, though…) but: it runs MacOS. And the Yoga runs Windows. First 11, now 10, because 11 is torture.
Also… The Yoga is my Windows Krita dev and test device, the Macbook is my macOS dev and test device.
I wanted a laptop for myself. For watching videos, doing some sketching, writing RPG write-ups, managing my own stuff.
So, when Framework announced the Framework 12 I started getting interested: small, cute, colorful, not a build system powerhouse, but nice enough specs, touch screen, pen enabled, enough memory possible. And cute. I pre-ordered on, in bubble-gum with a lavender keyboard. Yeah, it clashes. I love it, it’s so colorful. I also knew I would love the upgradability, repairability, extensibility, and the looks. ‘Cause it’s cute.
Some months after ordering, it arrived, last Monday. I was in hospital, after getting my SRS operation (succesful, recovery is going better than expected!), but today, I was home, and even groggy from recovery, I managed to put it together and install KDE Neon on it. It’s that easy to assemble the colorful, cute self-assembly version of the Framework 12. Fun, too.
And when I was installing Neon (I might switch later on, I don’t need to be too stable here, this one is mine, and it’s for fun!) I noticed something.
Something weird and unexpected.
The keyboard really is GOOD. It’s got good travel, it feels good, it invites typing. They keys have the right texture, and so has the palm rest. It’s the best laptop keyboard I’ve used in ages, and yes, that includes the Macbook Pro M2. If only for the keyboard, I’d buy it again.
The touchpad, too. Colorful, clearly demarcated from the palm rest, giving good feedback — it’s in every way that counts better than the Yoga’s touchpad. And there’s still a touch screen for when my four year trained reflexes take over. The screen is bright, clear and sharp. The resolution isn’t the highest, but then, this is 12″, so it is fine.
The plastic casing feels very solid, too. Sure, it’s not thin enough to shave with, like the Yoga or a Macbook Air, but then, I’ve already had laser treatment, so shavability isn’t an issue anymore.
Such a relief from all the black and grey hardware that has been surrounding me for years.
The Ars Technica reviewer said “Sure, it’s cute and functional, but for the money you can get better specs”. Look… “Cute and functional” is a unique selling point if there’s ever one: is there any other laptop on the market that provides that? Better specs might mean faster whatever, but… It is perfectly functional. And cute, that too.
Joe Brokmeier’s review on Linux Weekly News was much closer to my opinion than the Ars review. He choose sage green, which is also quite delectable a colour.
Functional — it does everything I need now, and there’s already a CPU upgrade coming that I could install myself, if I wanted to.
Cute — I ordered a bunch of USB C modules so I can swap out colors according to my mood, too.
Halla is happy now!