That’s what I expected but now one month of diagnostic with support later I wait for the replacement unit because the Keyboarddeck had a short and took the mainboard and display with it.

So be happy that it was only 10 minutes. Don’t get me wrong support was great but still would have loved to have your experience.

Same. I had a small correction to make with the wiring at the left hand hinge before the bezel went on, but it was likely my fault to begin with, and it certainly wasn’t a big deal.

I’m sure a small minority of people are having difficulties, and that sucks.

After reading so many complaints on this sub, I was expecting a disaster. It was going to be impossible to assemble, then it wasn’t going to boot, then I’d have the wrong brand of RAM, then the hinges would be so springy that I couldn’t read the screen because it was bouncing up and down so hard, and the neighbors would be calling bylaw about my fan noise…

For those still waiting, relax. This is a really great laptop, and the vast majority will be super happy with it.

Yup. I was stunned how easy it was to assemble my batch 3 FW 13 AMD too.

It would have taken 10 minutes if it weren’t for having to adjust the bezel a few times as the cable in the left hinge took a bit of work to keep it within the guides as I attached it.

Very impressed with the thinness of this laptop. I compared it to my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Nano Gen 1 laptop and found its width and depth to be less than a 1" difference as expected given 12" vs. 13" screens. However, I was not expecting the FW 13 to be roughly the same thickness!

Considering I paid ~$400 for four year extended warranty with drop/accident coverage for that X1 Nano to protect my investment, the FW 13 definitely has lower up front costs.

In the first few batches of FW orders, some people bought DIY and didn’t know how to DIY. They needed a little hand-holding and even then struggled. For the veterans, it was easy peasy, with no need for special tools to remove the bottom covers or losing screws. Everything is easy to disassemble and reassemble with no problems. It even included QR codes on the bottom.

FW has changed the way laptops are made and this was the first time I bought a laptop in a long time. My last laptop was an IBM X41 Tablet convertible.

It took me like 20 minutes, because I was looking closely at every packaging and enjoying the process of putting it together.

But yeah, it was quick and easy and installing windows, drivers and updating bios was flawless. I was expecting it to be more difficult and problematic.

Also I adore the tiny thoughtful details like the little loop on the keyboard ribbon cable to put your finger through.

They won’t sell a billion because the price premium is still significant, and the vast majority of people aren’t even aware it exists.

Part of that premium is just being a small manufacturer… That is a premium with no actual intrinsic benefit, and even has drawbacks of its own.

Part is its unique build, which delivers benefits, but drives up costs as well.

• repairability. Most folks would jsut as soon pay an extended warranty, which is much cheaper than this premium. If you’re not a tinkerer, you’re gonna have to pay labor for fixes on this anyway.
• upgradeability. Great! Will most people care? And you’re paying hundreds extra today just for the privilege of being able to pay for those parts later as well (okay I won’t hassle about the RAM/storage, but the mainboard prices are tough on the better chips!)
• customizable deck (keyboard/input modules)… Which may not be of any value at all to many people. I’m uncertain if I care, personally, unless a touchscreen macro pad happens. I just know I want a numpad.

Those are benefits that you have to pay a lot for up front… And may not get to cash in on for years (if ever!)

And that’s not without trade-offs either.

1. Middling battery life
2. A decent but not “excellent” screen (no OLED)
3. A lousy webcam.
4. A touchpad that is a bit marmite.
5. “Only” 4 ports + headphones on the 13 (6 on the . And I have to give one up for a mouse dongle. For many, built in flexibility might be more important, especially if you can’t predict your needs well, so you might be much more annoyed by not having the inbuilt breadth of jacks so long as you at least have a USB4/TB3+ jack. (Is carrying adapters around really more convenient than carrying a little USB dock? Best to carry one anyway if you ask me)

To me the real upside to the adaptors is damage mitigation. The adaptor takes the brunt of any lateral/vertical forces, preserving the internal USB-C jack.

All in all, that’s a decent bit of trade off.

For me it’s enough (I’m stalling tho. I don’t love the I). But I’m enough of a tinkerer that I’m happy to replace a failing part for damage or upgrade, etc. Hinge, Screen, Storage, RAM, being the most likely culprits, plus an upgraded mainboard at some point.