Convince me to commit (or not) to a FW 16?

ShadowChaser · January 31

Batch 5 Pre-order (Barebones with GPU and Expansion Bay) and I'm, like many others, very excited about this laptop. I really hope they address the lack of support in the keyboard deck but if it truly is as easy as shimming with a thermal pad (or something similar) I think I could live with it.

I'm still on the fence about it though. Based on the timing of the upcoming batches, this will essentially be a graduation gift for myself as a Bachelor's degree well-earned. I'm expecting to pursue a Master's so I will still need a fairly powerful & portable machine. Thankfully the FW16 looks to be just that. My thoughts are below.

Pros:

Modularity - 6 user defined ports + ability to add/remove a dGPU is amazing.
Solid battery life - I've missed the old days where thin & lights got 12 hours of battery life and this is going in the right direction.
Bring your own everything - I'm so happy I can kit this out with 64 or 96 GB of ram and not have to also get a giant SSD with that config or vice versa.

Cons:

16" Footprint is huge - I used to daily a 15" thin & light and couldn't live with it in a college setting. 13 and 14 inchers are far more appropriate to me.
Panel gaps - I'm sure these will get grimy fast and I hate dealing with little crevices that dust can collect in. Speaker grilles are my worst enemy.
Price - the preorder is $2.2k plus another $200 for storage and ram. Over $2.5k after tax.

It's funny that the primary contender I'm considering isn't in the same class in just about any metric, except for CPU performance. I've had a Flow X13 for a few years now and my alternative would be to upgrade to the latest iGPU only model because the 780m would be good enough for any gaming I do, but if we're keeping things fair then I should use the one with the 4070 as a comparison since that's $2.5k retail. The X13 checked all the boxes for me personally because it was the only 13" 2-in-1 performance laptop that has good battery life. I'm reasonably certain this is no longer true, however, but the latest version is quite compelling.

And it's this apples to oranges comparison that makes choosing one over the other so difficult. Maybe I should just throw in the towel and split the difference by getting a FW 13 AMD edition instead.

ShadowChaser · January 31

Breaking down my options and what I personally want in a laptop, it does appear that the FW 13 leads the pack. Funny how that works, right?

Daily Use	Flow X13 (2021)	Flow X13 (iGP)	Flow X13 (4070)	FW 13 AMD	FW 16 (iGP)	FW 16 (7700S)
CPU	5900HS	(+) 7940HS	(+) 7940HS	(*) 7840U	(+) 7840HS	(+) 7840HS
Memory	16GB DDR4	(-) 16GB DDR5	(*) 32GB DDR5	(+) 32GB DDR5	(+) 64GB DDR5	(+) 64GB DDR5
GPU	3050 Ti (40W)	(*) 780M	(++) 4070 (60W)	(*) 780M	(*) 780M	(+) 7700S (100W)
Display Size	13.4" 16:10	(+) 13.4" 16:10	(+) 13.4" 16:10	(++) 13.5" 3:2	(--) 16" 16:10	(--) 16" 16:10
Display Res.	1200p 167ppi	(*) 1200p 167ppi	(+) 1600p 225ppi	(+) 1504p 201ppi	(+) 1600p 189ppi	(+) 1600p 189ppi
Refresh Rate	120hz	(*) 120hz (7ms)	(+) 165hz (3ms)	(-) 60hz	(+) 165hz (9ms)	(+) 165hz (9ms)
Touch	Yes	(+) Yes	(+) Yes	(-) No	(-) No	(-) No
Storage	1TB	(-) 512GB	(*) 1TB	(+) 1TB	(++) 1TB	(++) 1TB
Battery Size	62Whr	(+) 75Whr	(+) 75Whr	(*) 61Whr	(+) 85Whr	(+) 85Whr
USB 4	0x	(*) 1x	(*) 1x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x
USB A	1x	(*) 1x	(*) 1x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x
USB C	2x	(*) 2x	(*) 2x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x	(+) 2x
DP/HDMI	HDMI	(*) HDMI	(*) HDMI	(+) DP+HDMI	(+) DP+HDMI	(+) DP+HDMI
Weight	1.3kg	(+) 1.3kg	(+) 1.3kg	(+) 1.3kg	(*) 2.1kg	(-) 2.4kg

Sub-score	0	3	9	8	8	8

Servicing
Storage	2230 M.2	(*) 2230 M.2	(*) 2230 M.2	---	(*) 2230 M.2	(*) 2230 M.2
Storage	---	---	---	(+) 2280 M.2	(+) 2280 M.2	(+) 2280 M.2
WLAN	None	(+) E Key M.2	(+) E Key M.2	(+) E Key M.2	(+) E Key M.2	(+) E Key M.2
Memory	Soldered	(-) Soldered	(-) Soldered	(+) 2x SODIMM	(+) 2x SODIMM	(+) 2x SODIMM
I/O	None	(*) None	(*) None	(+) 4 Modules	(++) 6 Modules	(++) 6 Modules
GPU	No	(*) No	(*) No	(*) No	(+) Yes	(+) Yes
Dust	Fair	(*) Fair	(*) Fair	(*) Fair	(-) Poor	(-) Poor

Sub-score	0	0	0	4	5	5

Other
Build Quality	Good	(+) Good	(+) Good	(++) Excellent	(*) Fair	(*) Fair
Skin-ability	Good	(*) Good	(*) Good	(+) Excellent	(+) Excellent	(+) Excellent
2-in-1	Yes	(+) Yes	(+) Yes	(*) No	(*) No	(*) No
Fingerprint	Yes	(-) No	(-) No	(+) Yes	(+) Yes	(+) Yes
IR Cam	No	(+) Yes	(+) Yes	(-) No	(-) No	(-) No
Stylus	Yes	(*) No	(+) Yes	---	---	---

Sub-score	0	2	3	3	1	1
SCORE	---	5	12	15	14	14

Price	$1,200	$1,100	$2,500	$1,403	$1,877	$2,240
VALUE		0.455	0.480	1.069	0.746	0.625