From the pictures I've seen of the Chateau LTE12, the Quectel EG12-EA modem is an LGA SMD component.
So I was wondering:
- Does this mean external parties are modifying these devices with thermal reflow soldering and discarding the EG12-EA for an EG18-EA?
- Or, are external parties making use of the unused M.2 slot?
- Or have I got it completely backwards and Mikrotik have done another sneaky product release?
The alleged Chateau CAT18 can be found here, here and here.
Edit: Unless both Quectel EG12-EA and EG18-EA share the same pinout, the first possibility makes no sense.