[delfinom]

In any laptop, if you have IO on both sides of the laptop, then the motherboard is at least going to extend to both sides. There is no room for batteries. Especially with high speed data links such as USB3 and USB4 these days, you need a nice impedance controlled PCB to the edge or some expensive cabling or in the case of framework, IO modules that are pcbs with a connector bridging the distance further.

The opportunity is then taken to stuff the speakers in the framework in that same space.

It's literally no different than a MacBook Pro or other mfgs.

The only thing I could see is they need to figure out how to miniaturize their speakers to expand the battery size a bit. Or move the speakers to the main board and project out the top. Their speakers are currently larger than the competition and not really any better while stealing battery space.

I would love to see them offer a larger battery with the trade-off of the user removing the modular speakers. Because personally I think using sound devices in public is just fucking rude and I'll use better quality earbuds/headphones both in public and privately anyway.

[codeflo]

Is your claim that redistributing that space would be physically impossible?

[delfinom]

Eliminate or shrink the speakers and you can redistribute that space.

IO? There is no space redistribution possible if you want the IO on the left and right like every other laptop in the world. The alternative would be to put the IO on the top edge of the laptop, in which case you can reclaim space. The downside is you limit the display opening angle (it can't go flat), but that's a weird obsession in laptop design that came from Apple and thinbooks. (There used to be IO on the top edge in older laptops). Unfortunately being the ulgy duckingly would be bad for Frame.works business most likely as I guarantee every reviewer would whine about it

In particular Framework uses a 4 series cell battery pack configuration. Not unusual and they went for 4 equal sized cells put in series in a rectangular frame. Trying to fill awkward remaining space such as a "U" or "L" shape cavity requires a far more custom solution and Framework most likely does not have the volume to commission such an order from a custom battery pack manufacturer.