The card reader isn’t relevant here. We are talking here about the USB interface to the modem, which goes through the same USB hub multifunction chip but is not obviously influenced by the card reader function of that chip. See the diagram here: Why is internal card reader so slow? - #2 by FranklyFlawless
The question here is about the bottleneck for download via the cellular modem (either the BM818 or this one).
It’s still true that we will need Librem 5 v2 in order to get full value out of either 4G or 5G.
Can you help me understand what “Librem 5 v2” means? Are they working on a whole new board, chassis, modems, etc? Or are you referring to the “Liberty Phone” which I’ve noticed has a little more RAM than my L5USA?
Not really. It was just a “hypothetical” device. I have no inside knowledge.
Purism has publicly stated that they are testing new modems.
Purism has publicly talked about the Librem 5 v2 but I had the impression that it is in pretty early planning stages e.g. as compared with the recently publicly mentioned roadmap for 2026:
Librem 16, Librem 14 v2, Librem Mini v3.
“Public” means any or all of: this forum, newsletter, blog post.
I guess it is an open question as to how the Librem 5 and the Liberty Phone / Librem 5 USA move forward to v2 i.e. together in parallel v. diverging v. converging. I do think it is too early to answer that.