Hello,
I am not buying one, I would buy one in a heartbeat if they make the battery expansion bay module that I think linus or some other official person said was in development, please get that done so I can buy your computer instead of one from HP et al, I want to buy the framework laptop and as it stands it’s not worth the extra price without that.
Welcome to the community!
For my needs, the FW16 is worth it even without an extended battery module – but learning that the expansion slot was designed to allow an extended battery is what finally decided me on the '16 instead of the 13-inch model. As always, “your mileage may vary.” 
I definitely share your feeling on this point and holding out on buying one myself.
There is just no point in a modular design if there is only one module to choose from (or no module in case of the shell). Gaming laptops with mid-tier GPU exist on mass and for prices where you can buy a new one every couple years.
There are a lot of ideas for expansion bay modules that would make the FW16 unique and worth its pricetag, but with only the gpu module it is just a heavy, expensive gaming Laptop
At the moment I am hoping to get as much live out of my current laptop as possible and hope that FW starts investing in alternative modules, but currently it does not seem like there are even interested
To be fair, they are a small team and only just released the FW 16. They aren’t even done shipping all the pre-orders yet. So I don’t think the non-existence of other modules at this time is an indicator that they aren’t interested in developing additional modules.
Still, I understand that this doesn’t help sell you the laptop right now. No matter how much they may want and may even intend to make more modules, they don’t exist yet, so there’s no absolute guarantee there ever will be any. I’m sure they want there to be and probably even plan to build them. And I sure hope more become available at some point. I think a lot of the folks who pre-ordered are at least somewhat counting/betting on it. But that doesn’t help you right now.
In fact, I wouldn’t recommend someone buy a laptop based on what it “could” be later. If it isn’t worth it to you, as it currently stands, then hold off. I only ordered it because I like the quirky, modular nature of it and I can make use of it, as it currently stands, either way. I hope it develops into a large ecosystem of expansion bay modules and input modules. But if it isn’t worthwhile to you as-is, by all means, wait until it is. I was willing to take a risk, knowing there is a chance that how it is, is all it will ever be.
My joke post got hidden so I’ll provide my opinion on this:
It makes sense for Framework to not offer any other expansion bay modules at the moment, they haven’t even finished sending out pre-orders. Once all pre-orders are fulfilled, we should start seeing things like this pop up.
Framework’s official stance on more expansion bay modules is that they have nothing to say at the moment. Obviously they’ll announce when they’re ready.
The expansion bay supports a second battery, so it is possible, but we just have to wait and see if Framework will deliver.
On what basis do you say ‘they aren’t even interested’?
Framework have a proof of concept PCB to put two PCIe NVMe drives in the expansion bay.
Someone is even taking hold of the Framework concept of allowing third parties to develop add-ons for the FL16 and is commercialising that idea to make an Oculink attachment using PCIe facilities in the expansion bay, and is offering it in three variants for oculink, m.2 drives or a mix of the two.
Others have looked at the possibility of adding batteries to the expansion bay. But quite frankly why would you? That becomes a lot more weight to lug around, and if I needed to extend the battery life, a seperate power pack would seem a better idea to me.
I’m not sure who told you it doesn’t support eGPU’s, because it’s not true. I use one on my FW 16 no issue.
I have considered making a battery extension module as a 3rd party module, but it would likely require a custom made battery, which is quite painful for me to do, not to mention liability issues (especially since its a high capacity Li-on battery right next to the cooling system)
Why?
IIRC nrp previously suggested that a battery module could have just a line of four 21700 cells along the back of the module.
Personally I think five 18650 cells would be a better option for size reasons. (Would be a similar form factor to the current laptop with dGPU module)
Regardless doing that would avoid the custom battery issue and would allow for the user to replace the cells when they get old or when newer higher capacity cells are released.
IMO my ideal battery module would use the expansion bay sheet to have the charge controller and other circuitry inside, then would have rails (or some other strong connection) to allow a battery to latch on to the back of the module through the cutout. Ideally hot-swappable.
A custom battery would be able to cram a little bit more capacity in, however 5 18650 cells would be ~60 Wh capacity and still fit within a similar footprint to the graphics module.
Something I appreciate about Framework is that that they (at least try to) avoid making promises they can’t keep. You can’t say that about most tech startups. Occasionally they give ‘politician’ answers but I’ll take that over false promises and wildly optimistic time-frames.
Way back in the day I had a Compaq laptop that had it’s internal battery, a battery dock, and a 3rd handle battery (you could carry the laptop by the battery pack like a suitcase handle). I loved the battery life, maybe with Framework’s extensibility they, or more likely some 3rd party could bring that concept to the platform.
SunWork 16!?
LETS GOOOOOOOOO!
That is what is so strange to me. They have completed the development for this 2 nvme PCB and instead of providing it as the second option for the expansion bay, they choose to provide only a shell. This would result in an actual choice: More Storage or more GPU power.
It is cool that they provide the design for the PCB, but no private person would go out and build it for themself
What are the specs of the solar panel? how well do you find this solution works?
I’ve started quite preliminary work on a secondary battery, mainly to do with the mechanical structure as the electrical information on the power path to the laptop hasn’t been completely defined/released to the public.
The one in the picture is 28W… but only when you use all 3 usb type A ports, so there’s no usb C power delivery keeping any 1 device capped at about 10W… obviously an oversight on my part. I’ve since bought this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHF6PFJ1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
This is a kickstarter company that made it to Amazon, it’s the only portable solar panel I’ve found with USB-C PD at 60W, highest other brands seem to do is 45W. The panel itself is rated at 60W, so unlike the first one I bought, I can dump all the panels power into one usb c device.
In practice, it works surprisingly well. If I can get a seat at my local coffee shop with a window, I can set this up and it’ll provide enough power to charge my laptop while I’m using it… which means I can disable my battery saving features for a more “luxurious” experience. Granted… there’s an outlet right next to me, but not being dependent on the power grid for my laptop to work is a nice peace of mind.
The highest I’ve seen it go so far is 28W, but I’ve not had great sunlight yet to test under ideal conditions.
To be honest I don’t see the point of a second battery module, when I had a ThinkPad T480 really cared and was dissapointed to see the feature go on future models, but as PD matured on powerbanks I started to think it doesn’t make sense, why should I use a specific complementary battery when one can just use PD Powerbanks capable enough, creating a very big battery or combined battery “inside” the laptop can give problems on airports due to the 100Wh restrictions.
And due to how the Expansion module works or one create a module to connect batteries on, or you’d need to slightly open the laptop and use a screwdriver to change between potential battery Expansion modules
Somehow I missed this thread, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for sharing your suggestion, just want to emphasize that Mr. TechTips is not a Framework employee 
