Librem 5 Chestnut Hardware Changes

Hardware, Librem 5
Purism

Purism

Beautiful, Secure, Privacy-Respecting Laptops, Tablets, PCs, and Phones
Purism

Latest posts by Purism (see all)

Librem 5 Chestnut devices have been in the hands of the community for a few weeks now and we have some initial impressions to share. The team made a number of small hardware improvements to Chestnut devices which have had a big impact on the usability, charging and heat dissipation. The hardware schematics have been updated for Chestnut.

Hardware changes from Birch

Phones in the Chestnut batch have the following improvements over the Birch batch:

The red LED always indicates the charging state, even when the phone is off. Birch devices only showed the charging stage while on.

We fixed an issue where the TPS65982 was not entering its APP mode when VBUS was presented before the PMIC’s BUCK6 VDD_3V3 rail. This means that rapid charging now occurs regardless of whether the TPS65982 is first powered via USB or via the battery – power delivery rapid charging always works!

The microSD card is now read-write.

The USB 2.0 D+/D- is now routed directly to the USB-C receptacle so it does not rely on the TPS65982 entering its APP mode to use the data interface. This prevents an extremely unlikely brick situation (only possible on Birch if done deliberately).

Improved the WWAN kill switch inrush current such that using a PLS8 M.2 module would not cause the device to reset if you flip the switch off and back on.

Updated hardware schematics

Hardware schematics for the Chestnut batch are available on our developer documentation and our GitLab instance.

Chestnut impressions

Reddit user xecius shared their positive impressions on Chestnut’s unboxing, hardware, general software, calling and texting, Bluetooth, browsing and was impressed by the dev teams frequent updates. xecius also had this to say about calling, “I was pleasantly surprised at how well calling works,” and going forward would use the Librem 5 as their “main phone” for calling and texting.



HackersGame shared a Chestnut overview video showcasing various apps, calling, texting, Bluetooth support, Firefox desktop, Mesa and app publishing options for developers. He also put the Librem 5 Birch and Chestnut under a thermal camera and demonstrated the improved heat dissipation, charging and power-saving.

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the-people stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

Recent Posts

Related Content

Tags

Advanced readers AweSIM Battery life Boot and BIOS Chipsets and components CISO Communications infrastructure Consumer Privacy Crowdfunding Customer Feedback cybersecurity Enterprise FLOSS applications Giving and contributing back Graphics infosec Laptops Liberty Phone librem 5 Librem 5 USA Librem 14 Linux kernel Made in USA Electronics most secure computer most secure laptop most secure pc most secure phone Newsletter and status updates Phones Press Privacy Product or service launch PureOS secure computing Secure Supply Chain Security Software freedom Supply chain Testimonials and user stories Tips and tricks User empowerment User experience design User interaction design Videos Website
Purism

3D renders are artist renderings, for illustration purposes. Images and specifications are subject to change depending on manufacturing requirements.

Unless otherwise noted, contents created by the Purism team on this website are copyleft with a CC-by-SA 4.0 license.