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Comment by craftkiller | Hacker News Reader

> If you are inserting/removing cables like a gorilla

You've never moved your laptop without realizing it is still plugged in? I've done that a couple of times. My framework gives me peace of mind because I know the only port that will be damaged from that is the one on the $10 card because the card is firmly attached to the laptop body. Your suggestion of a 3" dongle doesn't have that benefit so yanking a plugged-in laptop could still cause a loose or broken port on your motherboard.

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> You've never moved your laptop without realizing it is still plugged in?

No.

This damage usually happens by tripping over the cord, which results in the laptop falling on the floor, so a USB-C port is the least of your worries.

There's a reason Apple went back to MagSafe.

But in that situation, you know the damage _wont_ be to the USB ports on the motherboard. The motherboard is screwed to the case, and the expansion cards are locked to the case, so they won't move relative to each other. You expansion card might get damaged by the initial tripping over the cord, and some other parts might get damaged from the fall, but you can trivially buy first-party replacement parts for anything you broke. MagSafe would be nice, but the expansion cards are doing their job to protect the motherboard.

Apple solved this with a $1 internal flex-circuit vs a fist-sized external module.

That specific issue, but they didn't get the other benefit of expansion cards: being able to "change" the ports on your laptop without needing some external dongle. Also, your fists must be tiny.

If you drop a framework on its side the impact on the dongles will push them onto the board. Plastic flexes. There isn’t any shock absorbing happening. I don’t see any strain relieve on those dongles.

Perhaps framework can learn from Apple here.

Strain relief would be nice, but framework has been shipping laptops for 5 years. Has this hypothetical happened to anyone? It sounds unlikely to me.

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