I tried plugging in various expansion modules from my Framework laptop to see what would work.
USB-C
Unsurprisingly, it worked, but why would you want to give your USB-C port a USB-C port?
Audio
It worked right away without further configuration. When playing music, it immediately switches audio sources to the audio adapter as soon as it is plugged in. First thought that comes to mind is “but no point in having a second headphones jack”, but this does mean that other dac/amps or similar USB-C audio devices might be used instead of the internal one. For example, if there are a pair of headphones that have an atypical impedance or are already USB-C.
HDMI
Unsurprisingly, plugging it in resulted in absolutely nothing occurring.
Storage
At first I thought nothing happened. After opening Discord and trying to attach a file, I noticed the drive was listed and files could be transferred to and from the module with various apps that made use of files.
MicroSD
Behaves like the storage expansion module. I was able to load files onto my 3D printer using it.
USB-A
I plugged a mouse dongle into it to see what would happen. I heard a chime and cursor appeared on the screen, with the mouse operating like a normal mouse. Again, I am not sure why I would ever use this configuration but it worked. I would likewise expect it to work with a wired keyboard but I have not directly tested this yet.
Overall, it seems MuditaOS keeps the USB device compatibility that is typically baked into Android.
The Framework Ethernet adapter does not work but that makes sense, the phone is running kernel 4.19 and I think out of the box support for 2.5G Ethernet adapters wasn’t popular until 6.X. Tested an old 100Mbps Ethernet adapter I have and it works fine.
EDIT: Well, I thought the 4.19 kernel was the issue but apparently that’s also what my Pixel 5 is running despite being on Android 15 and both of the 2.5G Eth modules I have work on it fine.
This is cool! Didn’t even occur to me before that Framework modules can be used with other devices.
A bit offtopic but still wanted to ask: how is your experience with Framework? I consider getting my next laptop from them for repairability and linux-first mentality reasons. But I saw mixed reviews
Yeah they’re just USB-C dongles in a uniform form factor so they can be plugged into anything that uses USB-C, they just look a bit out of place.
RE the Framework, I love it. I have a 12th gen Intel 13 inch. When I’m plugged in I’m almost exclusively on a UPS and/or quality surge protector of some kind but the one time I wasn’t we went through a series of power surges that fried a chip on my motherboard. A few emails back and forth with support over the course of 3-4 days and they had a new motherboard sent out to me at no cost, despite my assumption it wasn’t on them at all since it wasn’t their fault. Some people have nightmare stories about their support but my anecdotal experience was amazing. I’m itching at any excuse to upgrade to a new AMD board but it just does everything I need it to…part of me was preparing myself that the original board getting fried would be that excuse until they replaced it haha. It’s great knowing if anything needs to be replaced at any point I’ll be able to #1. buy it, and #2. actually swap it though. You pay more up front for that, you can definitely find cheaper laptops today that match or outperform it, but in a couple years I can buy a new mainboard for half the price of a new laptop with all the performance, and have a perfectly good mainboard to either sell and recoup some cost or use to replace a server or something.
The #1 reason I selected a Framework 16 will sound kind of dumb but I got it specifically because it had a super key instead of a windows key, and it wasn’t just a sticker over a windows key.
Short answer, yes.
Long answer: Anything I say about it you will likely already have heard. I think it is the best possible option for an officially supported Linux laptop. The ability to swap ports has been shockingly convenient for my highly varied use cases so I have a 3D printed holder for a number of modules in my laptop bag that I use all the time. I much prefer that rather than installing docks at each possible monitor or carrying a dock around. I also upgraded the WiFi card later on. Swapping it was a breeze with a single tool and clearly labelled & ordered screws/plugs. Basically, it does well the things you expect it to do well.
Now that my phone no longer has a web browser or email client, if I needed a more portable laptop I would immediately look into a Framework 12.
yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking as well. I also think that company with the focus on repairability worth supporting over tech-giants doing all they can to sell their customers new stuff every year (even if it means paying a bit more).
hm… I’m not sure I know what do you mean, can you explain?
This is exactly what seems to be so great about it – the fact that you own your device and can modify it as you see fit, and the company behind it provides you with the necessary means instead of gatekeeping.
Companies that want to ship a laptop with Windows are forced to have the Windows key on the keyboard in order to ship Windows preinstalled on the laptop. This is because there are licensing requirements for the software. Unfortunately, this means a laptop that can offer both Windows or Linux as options will have a Windows key on it since it is cheaper to make one model with one keyboard.
Some companies that sell Linux laptops work around this by placing a sticker on top of the Windows logo so that the key will show some other non-Windows logo. Because Framework has a swappable keyboard module, they are able to more easily offer a keyboard that doesn’t have the Windows logo and without the compromise of simply using a coverup sticker Super key (keyboard button) - Wikipedia
Anyway, I really dislike Windows after recently reinstalling it. I realized it takes me 20 minutes just to go through all the menus to try to disable ads, and still ending up seeing more ads for Microsoft products than there were settings in one of the settings menus. Ads for subscribing to 365, onedrive, copilot, gamepass, etc. were everywhere. I’m completely done with Windows. Never again. This is why not having a Windows key on my laptop was important to me.
