I can’t comment on whether the hardware is different (But it must be due to the addition of a USB-C port)
it’s been working 100% reliable for me so far. I can definitely confirm that the steering wheel buttons for answering the phone work perfect on the new dongle, but do not on the old dongle with the same date firmware.
Take from that what you will, but I have no regrets in my purchase of the new one.
Without pulling them apart (which obviously I will not do) I can’t see how the old internals would fit in the new internals.
It is of my opinion it IS new hardware, but using similar ICs that allow the firmware to be compatible.
It happens in every day life.....Windows or Ubuntu certainly doesn’t require the exact same hardware for each install.
Probably not helping myself here, but I’m happy to sell my old V1 dongles in UK if anyone is interested. I won’t be offering support, but I can verify they work by video before shipping