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Comment by dmt0 | Hacker News Reader

Back in 2018 I chose to buy a refurbished mid-2015 specifically to avoid dealing with those issues. And feeling no frustration whatsoever :)

I guess when you take a stand and refuse to hand over your money for anti-features, you do get rewarded sometimes.

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The early-2015 model has been working wonders for me over these past years. Now the hard part is between the new MBP or Framework, hard choices.

Having had to send in my early-2015 for repairs after accidental liquid damage, my next purchase will be a Framework. Mac repair costs are insane, I would have tried the repairs myself (thank $DIETY for YouTube repair videos), but it was going to be a multi-hour-process fraught with risk, so I sort-of get why Mac repairs are costly.

Since I had no AppleCare as I chose to "self-insure" (it's a 6-year old laptop), and the Apple Genius helpfully informed me the repair costs were the same as the price of a brand new Apple laptop (what a coincidence!), a 3rd party handled my repairs, and it was still pricey. I'm comfortable with DIY repairs, so I see Framework laptop when I decide my Mac bites the dust, or needs more costly repairs.

The Framework laptop is a good choice—I'm typing this reply from one.

My least-favorite thing about the older MacBook Pro I migrated from was that (even when it was covered by AppleCare+) both times its battery failed I needed to wipe its SSD, hand it over to Apple for a week, and then restore it from a backup when it was returned.

If my Framework's battery ever fails I can order a replacement for $59 and replace it myself in minutes.

I see a lot to salivate over in the new MBP. But as long as I can avoid it, or until batteries become radically more reliable, I'll never again rely on a main laptop without a user-replaceable battery.

Why couldn’t you change the battery of MacBook yourself?

Both times that the battery swelled up previously, the laptop was still under warranty. Apple wasn't going to hand me a new battery to install myself; I had no choice but to let them install it if I were to have it covered.

Now the laptop is out of warranty. If it were to fail now, I could in theory buy a battery replacement kit from iFixit, and muck around with adhesive removers and many delicate parts and hope I don't break anything else in the hours-long process: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Function+Ke...

That's a fairly user-hostile situation, though. There's a reason Apple doesn't advertise the battery as user-serviceable, in contrast to some other manufacturers.

How did the switch to Framework feel in terms of daily use? Most importantly: how is the trackpad on Framework?

I'm mostly happy with the trackpad. I don't think it uses a haptic click like the MBP's trackpad, for whatever that's worth.

My one complaint about the trackpad, in comparison to the MacBook Pro's, is that while both support using two fingers to right-click, I have to be a bit more conscious about spacing my fingers slightly apart on the Framework laptop's trackpad (in Windows, if that matters) to register the right click, compared to on the MacBook Pro.

The build quality of the Framework isn't totally on par with the solid aluminum chassis of the MBP, but it's totally fine for me. The Framework's fan sounds less annoying, probably on account of the wide airflow through the bottom of the case.

The Framework is much faster than my old Intel MBP, but not quite as fast as an M1 MBP would be. The battery life is middling (but fine for my purposes). Overall I'm very happy with my choice after a few weeks.

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