Librem 5 Phone – telling revisions apart

This page describes differences between L5 revisions.

Quick guide

  • 0.9.7 (Birch) & 0.9.8 (Chestnut) have the camera flash in the corner, where later revisions have it closer to the middle than the lens.
../_images/camera.jpg

The corner flash placement in Birch and Chestnut

../_images/camera1.jpg

The flash placement in Dogwood and later

  • you’ll need a charger to quickly discriminate between 0.9.7 and 0.9.8: on 0.9.8 and later, the red LED shines while the phone is turned off and charging.
  • versions up to 1.0.0 (Dogwood) are shorter at 150mm compared to later ones at 153mm - there’s less space below the screen than later versions.
  • look at the sides on the phone, where the buttons and switches are. Trace them towards the end with the USB port. Near the turn, there might be a stripe of a different shade of black. 1.0.0 does not have one. 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 have one, on the left side of the screen. 1.0.6 has two, on either side.
../_images/spacers.jpg

The differing antenna spacer between 1.0.3 and 1.0.6

The top phone is 1.0.3, and the bottom is 1.0.6. The spacer is less clearly visible in reality.

If you open the battery compartment, additional differences become visible:

  • after removing the back cover of 0.9.7 and 0.9.8, circuit boards are immediately visible. Later models have a cover.
../_images/cards.jpg

Cards are seen on 0.9.7 after removing the back cover

../_images/cards_cover.jpg

The 1.0.3 hides the cards behind an additional plastic cover

  • on 1.0.2 and later there is a screw just above the USB port in line with the battery contacts.
  • 1.0.2 and later do not have the center screw just 1 on the left and 1 on right corner.

Note that if you have a Librem 5 USA, there’s a very small chance that your phone might look like 1.0.6 but have a 1.0.3 board.