So if one fails you have to replace the whole module ?
I think also you will find the audio jack is not just a jack but a Digital to Analogue Converter and so would not fit in a module with a USB C
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It depends on how often you change from workspace, if someone has a laptop that should be the case, otherwise why choose a laptop, nowadays home office is sort of common, so you can change between a minimum of 2 workspaces, and yes, if I have 2 fixed workspaces I will choose to have on each one a dock and only have to hook one cable, but what if your workspace in the office is not fixed, it depends on which desktop is free or work with different teams or need to do presentations in different places. As I see it, the purpose of a laptop is staying in movement and therefore it has to make life easy and not challenge or limit it
It will be better than not having the extra port or have to change it all the time
the card is thick enough to allocate 2 pcbs or simply use a multilayer pcb
I don’t think that is a good argument against it.
That’s a better one but given the fit dacs into much smaller spaces for phone usb-c to headphone jack cables (not all phones have an analog output on the usb-c so those aren’t all passive cables) I am confident one could fit into a module along side a usb2 only usb A port or something (using the 3.0 portion for the dac, could also got the other way around but an usb 3 only usb a port would be non standard and potentially confusing).
It seems you haven’t read Frameworks text on that from a year ago 
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I have, this isn’t quite the same though. Retaining full fearues on both ports would indeed probably exceed the space. just breaking out the existing io into different parts is a whole other story, especially since pd is out of the picture. Route the usb 2 data lines and 5v to the usb-a socket and the usb 3 data lines to the dac.the only extra components needed would be the dac, the rest is just traces.
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Please consider how this remark contributed positively and meaningfully to the conversation and then go back and edit your message accordingly. I encourage you to read the Community Guidelines as well. Here’s a prudent excerpt:
I fully understand, it is limiting to have to choose or need to carry around expansion cards and it leaves you unable to deal with unexpected needs so easily, the idea of carrying around cards is not something I’m a huge fan of either.
While there are other reasons to have a laptop (such as it taking up less space and being able to pack it away so you don’t need a dedicated desk, energy efficiency etc.) I see your point and maybe 5 ports just won’t be enough for your needs while 6 would have been and that would be frustrating when it’s for a headphone jack that would take up very little external space. It might be that this iteration just doesn’t work for you or maybe dual cards like you suggested could be a reality in the future and that would make the difference…
I’m curious (if you don’t mind me asking) what would be your ideal or minimum acceptable port selection for your laptop? My minimum would be 2X type C, 2X type A, RJ45, headphone jack, HDMI and a card reader, 8 ports and not unobtainable in the 13-14" form factor let alone 16".
Seems interesting to see what people in this community need.
For me 2 USB-C, 2 USB-A, 1 HDMI. That’s it I don’t need a headphone jack. Plus I am used to dongle life anyway.
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Good point it might be worth making a new thread, maybe one with a poll? 
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2 C, 2 A, 1HDMI (because is more common on projectors and displays), 1 LAN, 1 jack, 1 SD.
On the GPU module 1 HDMI, 1 DP
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and what combination in the case of the dual
I agree with you, @pani_alex. Framework’s approach is tolerable, but it’s ultimately a bad choice IMO. On the 13" Framework, my ports look like this:
- USB-C for power
- USB-C for USB-C cables, sometimes an external monitor
- USB-A x2 because I often have a mouse and a thumb drive, or a hard drive and a gamepad, or two thumb drives, maybe a micro SD card reader and I’m charging something… gotta have ports.
On a 16", the audio jack is in there permanently, so I’d probably just add another USB-C port. It’d feel almost optimal to have room to add a USB-C port and a Micro SD card port (and an HDMI port if I hadn’t already bought multiple cables for USB-C to monitors). Expansion cards are somewhat better than dongles that protrude, especially for thumb drives, but they’re still effectively dongles. I’d rather never swap them and not carry them separately.
Then as a separate issue, I’m never going to forgive Apple for getting the ball rolling on abandoning headphone jacks. This Framework design is one more nail in that coffin, normalizing a broad trend toward Bluetooth and away from cheap, reliable, high-quality, universal audio between devices. People don’t understand how rare and valuable universal standards like that really are. Sure, this laptop won’t be the last straw, and the camel was already looking pretty unhealthy…
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That’s bit off.
Since tapes all audio is in effect a series of digital numbers, so the jack didn’t help at all.
All phones and pc convert digital to ‘analogue’ for speakers and earphones etc. so the only difference is the connector.
Given that the lack has limited options then having a USB C seems to make a lot of sense, even if it does mean some devices will now require an DAC 3.5mm adapter where there isn’t a choice of slotting in a 3.5 jack to the device.
So we have a few options for the general people.
- Connect via bluetooth
- Use the USB C port
- Add a 3.5mm Jack socket
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I know what a DAC is. My emphasis with that last bit was on the “broad trend” part. You must be missing that point entirely to not see how old analog audio jacks “help” – the connector is the point.
… rant incoming, I guess.
There was this underappreciated thing with headphone jacks. For a normal consumer, all devices producing or consuming audio could be relied on to be compatible with all other devices producing or consuming audio, without any special adapters. It lasted that way for a long time.
I could plug my GameBoy, phone, radio, iPad, CD player, Kindle, laptop, camera into my headphones, or my dad’s headphones from a couple decades ago, or my stereo, or my car. Laptop into TV, or into speakers next to the TV. No matter which device, there was going to be a low-effort, reliable way to make the sound go in and come out, because everything agreed on this one very basic analog signal and connector as a mutually supported interface that was built into everything. It was too simple to be screwed up by bad implementations, didn’t need batteries, didn’t require pairing, couldn’t be locked down by companies like Sony or Apple, didn’t cause interference with your mouse. Your good headphones had a 0% chance of being unusable to listen to a particular device.
To make it even more magical, by tech product standards, this connector was ancient. You could practically feed a Victrola into the speakers in your hover board. That’s what’s getting casually discarded so Apple can more easily sell AirPods.
There will not always be options to connect audio, especially over time. A lot of modern headphones only support Bluetooth, while the batteries last and while the standards are compatible. A lot of devices don’t produce Bluetooth, and pairing is always annoying and sometimes unreliable. HomePods are great for listening to Apple-approved audio, but there’s no Bluetooth in and no line in. I had a third-party Alexa cylinder, and you couldn’t set up the Bluetooth without connecting it to your Amazon account, as I remember. Apple Bluetooth and Android Bluetooth don’t use the same codecs.
Just so nobody loses track: I’m not saying Framework’s design makes a significant difference. I think the difference between 5 ports and 6 ports is more significant. But it is one more small step towards eradicating the utility of the oldest, best, and most ubiquitous tech standard that will exist in my lifetime.
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I agree with 99% of what you say but far from eradication I now have a 3.5mm module that can interface with any USB C port, I think, I hope . . .
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Audio Jack gone means working without a dock might go from difficult to impossible.
- LAN
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Second Screen
- Charging
xxx audio jack
xxx USB-Stick
xxx third monitor
xxx storage expansion cards
xxx connect phone with cable (e.g. to load pictures)
xxx …
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like the ones for the mac that uses both usb? Because of the card slot, it will be stronger
The laptop already has a keyboard, touchpad and screen. It seems like you want to use it as a desktop PC and in that case, needing a dock is quite common. Get a dock that includes a HDMI port and a USB hub will already reduce the used ports by a lot, getting one that additionally includes power delivery and a LAN port and you can handle all that stuff with a single port.
Maybe, but any third-party dock that supports USB4 or USB-Altmode should work fine. I wouldn’t expect an offiical dock from Framework.
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I don’t think that docking station would suffice because it would be limited by a single USBC cable. And you said you wanted to connect two monitors and transfer data through it. So a single cable doesn’t work if you want to keep a good transfer speed for your data.
I do expect to use FW16 both as a laptop and as a stationary.
But I think that there won’t be a need to take keyboard+mouse+monitor with you and you could use USB splitter inside your monitor to connect mouse+keyboard. This would mean that these would be your connections instead of what you wrote about (I numbered them in brackets):
- LAN – that’s a fair one [1]
- Keyboard+Mouse – USB splitter in your stationary monitor, so one USBA port (you don’t even need usb3 here) [2]
- Second Screen – one more port [3]
- Charging – one more port (not sure if every monitor would provide enough to charge this laptop so IMO it’s fair to use one port for charger) [4]
xxx audio jack – gotta keep that one too [5]
At this point we didn’t make any compromises in transfer speed of data but we did a compromise that you would be connecting your monitor through DP port (because USBC would do that anyway if you’d be using HDMI so it’s better to simply use one port and pipe your monitors through one cable).
So at this point one would be left with one free card slot. And other expansion cards would be forced to be: LAN, USBA(hub), DP, USBC(charge), 3.5mm.
xxx third monitor – this one can be connected via DP via daisychaining them so no additional ports are needed here.
xxx storage expansion cards – do you want to use USB stick and storage expansion together? Why not buy a second M2 SSD and put it inside?
And now it’s the time where the compromises begin:
xxx USB-Stick – this would be USBA
xxx connect phone with cable (e.g. to load pictures) – This one would be USBA too
You forgot to mention a memory card. And I actually use a memory card to flash my RPI’s OS.
So I would want to have one USBA and one memory card slot. But now I’ll be forced to use the monitor’s USB hub to transfer data from my phone and then my last expansion card would have to be USBA to connect my USB dongle to it.
The problem is – if I want to use MicroSD card then I have to swap the expansion card.
So how do I prevent this card swap?
This is not deliberate maxout, but now I miss one port (actually two).
I’d really have liked that the laptop would offer 8 expansion cards. I think this is very doable. The thinning of the chassis is not needed at the front of the laptop and this is just a designer’s choice. The cards could also be added via the back expansion panel. But I’d really like to not have the bottom-left+bottom-right thin chassis and have additional two expansion cards.
They could be placed a little diagonally to allow just a little of oval-like bottom design and it wouldn’t matter for an audio jack that doesn’t have a direction and the rarely-used microsd port.
And if anyone would want to put storage cards they could actually put them into these locations if they don’t want a jack or if they have OCD.
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