To quote myself in the post you responded to "It just wastes space that could be used for a larger battery, while limiting the number of ports that the laptop can fit at any one time."
The ports I personally need are HDMI, lots of USB-C ports, sometimes USB-A (but less and less), and sometimes an SD card. I know everybody has different requirements, but I'm also sure that's at least somewhat typical. And given that, I can't be the only one who thinks it's silly to reserve space for several 4x3x1 cm large USB-C-to-USB-C converters in a space-constrained device.
The replaceable ports are not interfering with the battery. The battery is under the touchpad, not up near the hinge like the ports. [1]
I love my Framework 13. The battery life on it is fine, I'd estimate probably 6-8 hours and charges quickly. The touchpad is quite large which I really enjoy, I believe that's thanks to the 3:2 aspect ratio? It took a second to adjust back from a haptic touchpad to a physical one, but doesn't bother me at all anymore. The arrow keys are a none issue, the half sized up/down arrow is standard on most 13" (and even some 16") laptops I've seen.
As far as I know, those aren't wasting the space for a battery. Framework opted for their current battery sizes. Larger capacities are available for the same size of battery they do have.
For example, my other favorite laptop, the Redmi Pro Books basically have the same physical size batteries but at 80wh/99wh ratings.
I just think Framework can't find a contract manufacturer for higher density batteries at their volume.
> As far as I know, those aren't wasting the space for a battery. Framework opted for their current battery sizes.
I don’t get that logic. There’s extra space; more battery could fit in there. The fact that higher density batteries exist in no way invalidates that.
(You might perhaps have a point if battery life was already excellent and the more important goal might be to save weight, but that’s not the case at all.)
In any laptop, if you have IO on both sides of the laptop, then the motherboard is at least going to extend to both sides. There is no room for batteries. Especially with high speed data links such as USB3 and USB4 these days, you need a nice impedance controlled PCB to the edge or some expensive cabling or in the case of framework, IO modules that are pcbs with a connector bridging the distance further.
The opportunity is then taken to stuff the speakers in the framework in that same space.
It's literally no different than a MacBook Pro or other mfgs.
The only thing I could see is they need to figure out how to miniaturize their speakers to expand the battery size a bit. Or move the speakers to the main board and project out the top. Their speakers are currently larger than the competition and not really any better while stealing battery space.
I would love to see them offer a larger battery with the trade-off of the user removing the modular speakers. Because personally I think using sound devices in public is just fucking rude and I'll use better quality earbuds/headphones both in public and privately anyway.
Eliminate or shrink the speakers and you can redistribute that space.
IO? There is no space redistribution possible if you want the IO on the left and right like every other laptop in the world. The alternative would be to put the IO on the top edge of the laptop, in which case you can reclaim space. The downside is you limit the display opening angle (it can't go flat), but that's a weird obsession in laptop design that came from Apple and thinbooks. (There used to be IO on the top edge in older laptops). Unfortunately being the ulgy duckingly would be bad for Frame.works business most likely as I guarantee every reviewer would whine about it
In particular Framework uses a 4 series cell battery pack configuration. Not unusual and they went for 4 equal sized cells put in series in a rectangular frame. Trying to fill awkward remaining space such as a "U" or "L" shape cavity requires a far more custom solution and Framework most likely does not have the volume to commission such an order from a custom battery pack manufacturer.
The ports I personally need are HDMI, lots of USB-C ports, sometimes USB-A (but less and less), and sometimes an SD card. I know everybody has different requirements, but I'm also sure that's at least somewhat typical. And given that, I can't be the only one who thinks it's silly to reserve space for several 4x3x1 cm large USB-C-to-USB-C converters in a space-constrained device.
[1] https://frame.work/de/en/products/usb-c-expansion-card?v=FRA...