Future reduction in expansion card size?

Creators & Developers
1

I was generally disappointed with only four ports being available and having to have at least one USB-C port to charge. I’m curious as to whether or not future cards (lets say 2-3 years, maybe more) could have their width reduced, so that in the future we might get a laptop with 6, possibly 8, expansion ports. Assuming this would be possible, new slimmer expansion cards could theoretically come with a small attachable piece to allow for compatibility with the first model of the Framework laptop. Perhaps future laptops could come with two regular expansion slots, and maybe 4 reduced size expansion slots. This could allow for use of the expandable memory cards, or ports like the HDMI/DisplayPort/fullSDcard which might be harder to reduce in size.

Or, if future laptops came with two regular USB-C ports on either side for charging and data, and then all four expansion slots could be used for non-USB-C ports. The headphone jack is already built in, it would be nice to have charging ports built in as well. Or, yet another suggestion, have the charging ports on either side use a really skinny expansion card so that you still have the replaceability if things get damaged.

2

Disagree, the replacability of these ports should help with longevity.

A common request on the Expansion Cards thread is “any expansion card with two ports.” I personally am a fan of USB A colocated with USB C.

If you really need many more ports, you could consider a thunderbolt dock. This machine is no Toughbook, the limited number of ports shouldn’t be a hindrance where this machine excels.

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3

Have you ever seen the PCB, it pretty crammed. The USB-C port has chips for USB-C Display Port, USB PD and everything. Making different expansion cards is already hard.

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