9 ms·

Edit: seems that the usb-c ports are in fact thunderbolt-capable, per the responses below, just not certified by Intel (yet). That makes the modules a little mo

by least 4y ago

Edit: seems that the usb-c ports are in fact thunderbolt-capable, per the responses below, just not certified by Intel (yet). That makes the modules a little more interesting though I still think the current offerings for the cards is very lackluster. I can only suppose it is getting design awards because it was designed to be modular rather than looking at it from a pure aesthetic point. It looks fine to me, it's almost reaching the perfectly boring laptop aesthetic. This isn't a denigration, I like unbranded simple clothing like uniqlo and the like as well. I personally do not own one, but my impression from the videos I've seen is bifurcated between appreciating the modularity and hating the implementation. A framework owner might be able to enlighten me on this, but the display bezel being attached by magnets just seems a bit flimsy to me. I like the idea of the different expansion cards, but it does mean that there is no thunderbolt which is a miss for me. The full sized display port expansion card is definitely a win, but the rest seem unremarkable and frankly does the same or less than a usb hub. This could of course change depending on your own inclination to build expansion cards or third party/future first party cards, but right now the offerings aren't exceptional. I do hope they are making enough money to see a second generation and see just how flexible their current chassis is. The new 12th gen intel chips or a ryzen version would be very welcome to see.

rozab 4y ago
My understanding is that it does have thunderbolt, on any of the 4 ports. It just doesn't have thunderbolt certification yet.
stormbrew 4y ago
To me the 'plainness' of the design is a feature, not a bug, because I plan to own the case for a long time and that means I can make it my own however I want. Other laptops are essentially disposable, so there's no point in putting any of your own effort into their aesthetics. Also, the ports are TB4 ports. I use mine with a TB4 hub.
gepoch 4y ago
Hi, I own a framework laptop. * The magnetic bezel works great and I've had no problems with it at all. It's completely secure and you pretty much need to lever it off with your fingernail if you want to change it for a different color, or clean around the edge of your screen. The lid spring is slightly wobbly as others have reported, but not too bad. * It does have thunderbolt and it works great. I've use mine with a Razer core x for gaming without issue. It also works with my Kensington dock.
- least 4y ago
  Thanks for the clarification! It's good to know that it does support thunderbolt, that does assuage some of my concerns regarding the expansion cards, though it does still make me question why you have something like a single usb type a slot as one of the options.
  - stormbrew 4y ago
    Do you mean that you'd think it should be a two port type-A module? The modules are just really really small. You might be able to fit two A ports on one but it'd be very tight. Especially since the sides need to be a bit thicker to accommodate the mechanical groove. It'd be much more possible to physically fit a 2 port usbc module, but of course that comes with all sorts of annoying caveats and/or expensive hardware because properly port multiplying usbc (let alone thunderbolt) seems to be quite difficult.
    - least 4y ago
      Yeah, it just seems like a peculiar choice to turn a thunderbolt 4 port into a single type a port. I get that it's modular so you can just swap it out whenever you like, but then again, you can also just carry a dongle with you that has a whole plethora of ports. The expansion card options that exist right now don't really seem to fully utilize it (though I really like the full sized displayport expansion card). There's certainly a lot of potential for more interesting expansion cards like an hdmi capture card, 10gb ethernet, or perhaps even some older serial ports or vga for compatibility with older equipment. I just hope that they survive to see some more iterations.
      - stormbrew 4y ago
        > I get that it's modular so you can just swap it out whenever you like, but then again, you can also just carry a dongle with you that has a whole plethora of ports. I think you're missing a middle ground here, and that's that most people don't really want to carry around a dongle or swap things around all the time. The ability to swap the modules around is more about being able to choose a setup for your own needs that you keep in like 90% of the time, but still have the flexibility to change that over time or for short periods as needed. Like, I absolutely want a usbc port on either side so I can plug power in either way, and then I also want an hdmi port and a usba port every now and then, so that's my standard setup. I don't really change them out much (in fact, I'm much more likely to rearrange them for the sake of convenience, like swapping the hdmi port and the usb port because that's where the cable I need is). But that's a unique setup to me, and while I'm sure there are laptops that have a setup roughly like this the last thing I want to be constrained by when buying a laptop is stupid questions about where and how many ports there are. Meanwhile there are people who just WILL NOT EVER buy a laptop without an sd card reader and that's just a waste of space for me. We both get what we want. I would probably buy an ethernet port though, and I might swap that back and forth with hdmi depending on what I'm doing that week. That said, narrow profile ethernet is such a mechanical pain in the ass I do not blame anyone for not trying to make it. I think maybe they could make a model with 6 bays instead of 4, but I assume for this version they were constrained by the thunderbolt controller in the intel chipset they're using.

by least 4y ago

rozab 4y ago

My understanding is that it does have thunderbolt, on any of the 4 ports. It just doesn't have thunderbolt certification yet.

stormbrew 4y ago

To me the 'plainness' of the design is a feature, not a bug, because I plan to own the case for a long time and that means I can make it my own however I want. Other laptops are essentially disposable, so there's no point in putting any of your own effort into their aesthetics. Also, the ports are TB4 ports. I use mine with a TB4 hub.

gepoch 4y ago

Hi, I own a framework laptop. * The magnetic bezel works great and I've had no problems with it at all. It's completely secure and you pretty much need to lever it off with your fingernail if you want to change it for a different color, or clean around the edge of your screen. The lid spring is slightly wobbly as others have reported, but not too bad. * It does have thunderbolt and it works great. I've use mine with a Razer core x for gaming without issue. It also works with my Kensington dock.

least 4y ago
Thanks for the clarification! It's good to know that it does support thunderbolt, that does assuage some of my concerns regarding the expansion cards, though it does still make me question why you have something like a single usb type a slot as one of the options.
- stormbrew 4y ago
  Do you mean that you'd think it should be a two port type-A module? The modules are just really really small. You might be able to fit two A ports on one but it'd be very tight. Especially since the sides need to be a bit thicker to accommodate the mechanical groove. It'd be much more possible to physically fit a 2 port usbc module, but of course that comes with all sorts of annoying caveats and/or expensive hardware because properly port multiplying usbc (let alone thunderbolt) seems to be quite difficult.
  - least 4y ago
    Yeah, it just seems like a peculiar choice to turn a thunderbolt 4 port into a single type a port. I get that it's modular so you can just swap it out whenever you like, but then again, you can also just carry a dongle with you that has a whole plethora of ports. The expansion card options that exist right now don't really seem to fully utilize it (though I really like the full sized displayport expansion card). There's certainly a lot of potential for more interesting expansion cards like an hdmi capture card, 10gb ethernet, or perhaps even some older serial ports or vga for compatibility with older equipment. I just hope that they survive to see some more iterations.
    - stormbrew 4y ago
      > I get that it's modular so you can just swap it out whenever you like, but then again, you can also just carry a dongle with you that has a whole plethora of ports. I think you're missing a middle ground here, and that's that most people don't really want to carry around a dongle or swap things around all the time. The ability to swap the modules around is more about being able to choose a setup for your own needs that you keep in like 90% of the time, but still have the flexibility to change that over time or for short periods as needed. Like, I absolutely want a usbc port on either side so I can plug power in either way, and then I also want an hdmi port and a usba port every now and then, so that's my standard setup. I don't really change them out much (in fact, I'm much more likely to rearrange them for the sake of convenience, like swapping the hdmi port and the usb port because that's where the cable I need is). But that's a unique setup to me, and while I'm sure there are laptops that have a setup roughly like this the last thing I want to be constrained by when buying a laptop is stupid questions about where and how many ports there are. Meanwhile there are people who just WILL NOT EVER buy a laptop without an sd card reader and that's just a waste of space for me. We both get what we want. I would probably buy an ethernet port though, and I might swap that back and forth with hdmi depending on what I'm doing that week. That said, narrow profile ethernet is such a mechanical pain in the ass I do not blame anyone for not trying to make it. I think maybe they could make a model with 6 bays instead of 4, but I assume for this version they were constrained by the thunderbolt controller in the intel chipset they're using.