Most likely. The slot cannot possibly face towards the gold-black-jack. That would be a design fail.
So, unintuitively it seems to face the other direction. Possibly, both M.2 cards are fixed by those two big screw spacer thingies. That would make sense to me.
Like I said. The linked reveal video very much indicates this. Also, I just noticed in the day 16 reveal video that the cavity in the top left of the PCB is most likely not for the USB-C, but rather the front facing camera (or even both cameras).
That would be logical too. That usb-C is playing hide-n-seek (maybe with that surfing wifi-board ). It has become more or less standard to have it centered on either end and since everything else follows that, it would be more convenient to have it so. My earlier placement to the hole was based on hope to have it as a some sort of separate changeable part.
Actually, the video indicates (21:30) that the USB-C is centered on the bottom. Not being soldered onto the PCB should at least not make it harder to repair it.
I’m not (yet) placing much on those pics (same as early designs). Note, that the stereoplug seems to be on the opposite side to the three switches in that (sides seem mirrored - other has volume or some other rocker type switch and smallet button). And no visible holes for cards.
Looking at the older day 16 “red overlay” pic, I agree with the front camera placement. Notice in that how the rectangles (kinda Tetris-block L-shapes) are positioned over the M.2s…
I don’t know how final that casing design is but I do wish it was just a little more rounded on the sides to match the newer more rounded front design, but even still, it’s very nice! Can’t wait!
No, that pic was not posted, but we were just talking about it
Nicole mentioned that the dimensions might not be accurate.
As @JR-Fi says, the sides don’t match the rest of what we know. The kill switches should be on the right side to match with the phone jack. Also, here they seem to slide left-right, but the final switches seem to go up-down. So this is most likely not up to date.
I don’t think the cards are meant to be accessible directly. I’d assume we have to remove the back cover.
Thanks for that. I was looking at the Moto g6, which is a little wider. It also looks like the Librem 5 will be thicker, probably because of the (user-replaceable) battery.
I know we are just speculating but I think it would be a strange design decision to put the CPU on the inside next to the screen. If the picture is a bit out of date, perhaps they will have slots on the sides for the cards.
I think that the SoC will be facing away from the display. Look at where the hardware kill switches are placed in the case image (posted by zero), so the board has to be turned around.
However, something is wrong with the case image, because the audio jack should be on the top-left side, and it is on the top-right side in the case image. The hardware kill switches and audio jack should be on the same side in the case image, so I don’t know if we can trust the case image.
I’m guessing that the M.2 card with the Wi-Fi/BT will have a flexible cable that plugs into M.2 B Key slot, so the M.2 card can be placed anywhere. Still, I wonder why they faced the M.2 slot upward.
Another reason why I don’t trust the case image is the fact that the hardware kill switches in the case image show the switches moving forward-backward, whereas in the PCB the switches move up-down.
If they move up-down won’t they get toggled every time the phone is put in or pulled out of a pocket? Or maybe I’m just confused about what’s being called up-down.
Yes, they could get flipped going in and out of tight pockets. I assume that these are stiff switches that lock into a position, and can’t be moved without a bit of force. A case would be nice to stop rubbing against the switches when sliding in and out of pockets.
I was thinking the same, however in the mock up picture the switches look flush. So assuming that it is something similar, I don’t think it would be a problem.
Reveal video kinda disagrees, but looks otherwise matching
CCC video kinda agrees, but then it would have the front cam + phone jack reversed.
In that case, the back cam placement would make sense on that picture.
I realized that card slot on the display side is not a problem, even without a slot in the case:
When removing the cover
you have direct access to two M.2 cards, likely only fixed with one screw (see big spacer screw thingies)
3 card slots (SIM+SD+smartcard) are then accessible on the sides
I had somehow assumed that you’d have to see the side with the card slots. But it confused me that they point outwards. Now it all makes perfect sense:
When you remove the cover, you see the “interesting” side of the board.
But you can still access the three cards on the “boring” side
). It has become more or less standard to have it centered on either end and since everything else follows that, it would be more convenient to have it so. My earlier placement to the hole was based on hope to have it as a some sort of separate changeable part.
