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All Librem 5 smartphones have shipped
- sacrosanct 3y agoAwesome!
- HideousKojima 3y agoWhat percentage were cancelled due to the huge delays?
- saulpw 3y agoI cancelled mine. I was told I couldn't get a refund until they were all shipped. So finally I can get my $750 back!
- martin8412 3y agoGood luck unless you get a lawyer involved.
- teawrecks 3y agoIf it was anything like the Purism refund situation featured on Rossman's yt channel, their wording was actually that, "you can request a refund once we reach your position in the shipping queue", and not that they would actually grant the refund.
- pengaru 3y agoThat's one way of saying you have a demand shortage.
- macinjosh 3y agoI believe the context here is that they have been very delayed in shipping orders and customers that requested refunds were being put off. I think this is trying to signal that those troubles with production are behind them.
- selectodude 3y agoWhy do they keep getting more expensive? $1299??
- tmtvl 3y agoProbably because in the USA people aren't as willing to work for peanuts as people in the PRC?
- doublepg23 3y agoI believe the USA manufactured version is the “Liberty Phone” starting $2199. The regular Librem appears to be made in China. https://puri.sm/products/liberty-phone/ https://puri.sm/products/liberty-phone/
- perardi 3y agoWell, people in the PRC aren’t really working for peanuts nowadays either. They’re not making US/EU wages, but they ain’t working for free, either. China has been doing its own outsourcing of cheap labor to places like Vietnam. Labor is nowhere near the only factor that makes Chinese sources cheaper. It’s the ecosystem. There’s an entire industry that can do every possible thing, and they’re doing it all the time, so they’re flexible and configurable and can quickly spin out a variant on your standard-issue smartphone like it’s nothing. (Well, assuming Xi’s recent megalomania hasn’t slowly started to destroy all that…)
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>Well, people in the PRC aren’t really working for peanuts nowadays either. They’re not making US/EU wages, but they ain’t working for free, either. Mate, forget about chinese wages being livable as an argument. First and foremost, US/EU workers aren't working in factories which have suicide nets on them, that alone shroud tell you everything. Secondly, workers in the US have it so good that they don't even want to work in semiconductor factories of TSMC (the better paid kind of skilled factories with weight on your resume), let alone consumer electronic factories where you're a disposable cog, least ones which need suicide nets to keep you from killing yourself after your 12h shift and living in a shipping container village.
- AdmiralAsshat 3y ago> Purism is the first to release a truly convergent operating system, beating Apple, Google, and Microsoft to this goal by years. I guess we're discounting Samsung and their Dex engine, then?
- ianbutler 3y agoI love DEX but it's not truly ready for be used as an everyday OS. I wish Samsung would devote more resources into it though. I've always loved the idea of unified computing and the phones in our pockets are really some powerful machines.
- Tijdreiziger 3y agoI suppose they do not consider it a ‘truly convergent operating system’ since you cannot (officially) get root on it.
- AdmiralAsshat 3y agoCan you get root on vanilla Android or iOS without jail-breaking, though? That seems generally true irrespective of the convergence factor.
- Tijdreiziger 3y agoYes, so the point is that people who care a lot about such things may not consider vanilla Android or iOS to be ‘true’ operating systems, but rather a sandbox with limited functionality.
- angeleye 3y agoBingo! I don't consider my phone a 'full computer', it's more like a 'computing appliance'.
- Matl 3y agoThere were things before Dex even, but I guess they're talking about the OS vendors.
- solardev 3y agoIs this negotiable? Can I offer half my personal data for half off? Oh wait, joke's on me. Google already has 100% of my info and I still paid full price for a Pixel.
- ansible 3y agoI bought a Pixel 6a earlier this year, and traded in my Pixel 3a for $150 USD off the $300 sale price. Other than the fingerprint reader being kind of terrible, it was worth it to get a new battery and OS updates for the next few years for $150 (plus tax and shipping). If you don't want to spend a lot on a phone, you can do that.
- solardev 3y agoIt's true, and my partner got a free phone by switching to Fi. My switch was just ill-timed... I tried out an iPhone on a new carrier for the first time, and hated both so much I paid to get out of the contract and start a new service with another carrier and Android again. Now I'm much happier. Just much poorer.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- howmayiannoyyou 3y agoMy Purism phone worked for about 48 hours. Then it bricked. Disgusted with myself for buying it on an impulse, though in my defense I was - at the time - happy with my Purism laptop. Purism is forever on my do-not-buy list after my phone experience.
- mattl 3y agoI'd like to know what percentage of people who bought this are using it as their smartphone? I heard the battery life and hardware quality isn't great.
- Hackbraten 3y agoBeen using it as my daily driver for two weeks. Battery life is not great but manageable. I bought two spare batteries as backups. I charge the phone at home, and put it into suspend when I’m on the go. Battery life may even improve as software and drivers mature. Build quality is very decent. Hardware performance is barely enough for web browsing. But you get used to it quickly.
- mattl 3y agoWhat does putting into suspend look like? Is that just you'd do on a normal smartphone by locking the screen? How fast does it come back from suspend? Sad to hear it's not performant at all. Have you looked at Pinephone?
- Hackbraten 3y ago> What does putting into suspend look like? Two ways to trigger it: timed (via Settings) and ad-hoc (via a software button in a separate Mobile Settings app). When suspend is triggered, the screen turns off. (You can tell it’s suspend because the phone cools down considerably after a while.) Calls and SMS will wake it up but other events won’t. Waking up with the side button is instant, but it takes a few seconds until wifi and mobile data come up again.
- weikju 3y agoSuspend button is now available in the power menu (top right on the drop down overlay), after being enabled from Mobile Settings
- Hackbraten 3y ago
- andrewmutz 3y agoHas anyone actually tried using the "convergent os" features for work? Could I hook this up to a monitor and actually enjoy using it for web/email/slack? I don't expect a good experience for using VSCode to develop locally on the device, but perhaps using VSCode via github codespaces or gitpod
- woodrowbarlow 3y agothe convergent UI is actually great. (i own a librem 5.) my keyboard, mouse, and speakers are connected to my monitor. i connect the phone via a single USB-C cable. suddenly i have full-blown gnome, exactly as i would on a desktop PC or laptop. applications and the launcher return to their normal, desktop layout when using the desktop mode. it's "just plain old linux with gnome" as long as it's connected to your peripherals, only going into a custom UI when you go mobile. much like the steam deck, but without the clunky "switch to desktop/gaming mode" transition. the oomph is obviously a little underwhelming but it's enough for lightweight development or (non-video) web browsing. i haven't had success with calls or text messages (verizon and t-mobile), though. i want to like the librem but i haven't been able to actually use it as a phone.
- ukd1 3y agoConvergent tech has been something I've wanted to work well for ages - I remember trying a Samsung Note and Linux on DeX, but it never really worked well. I see from a quick Google it's long since dead. It's likely the only thing that would prompt me to even think about moving from iOS. One day?
- andrewmutz 3y ago> the oomph is obviously a little underwhelming but it's enough for lightweight development or (non-video) web browsing. Does youtube work? Does zoom work?
- CameronNemo 3y agoWhat wasn't clear about the phrase "non-video"?
- robrtsql 3y agoI have a Librem 5. It's currently collecting dust in my closet. I was enticed by the idea of having a user-replaceable battery (my last phone upgrade was 100% motivated by battery life problems). However, the Librem 5's battery is basically as bad as my Google Pixel's was after degrading for several years. The evening I opened it, I set it down after tinkering with it for a little bit and came back the next day to it at 1% battery, with a notification saying "Your laptop will shut down if you don't plug it in soon". Typically, I'm used to mobile devices using extremely low amounts of power when you're not using them for anything at all. It's also extremely slow--I figured that it wouldn't be as snappy as a flagship phone but I was surprised to find out that video playback (or, at least, YouTube in Firefox) is basically unusable. That's basically a non-starter for me. I'm hoping to find something fun to do with it (I don't expect to get refunded, nor do I think anyone else will or should pay $600 for this thing) but haven't come up with anything yet.
- dsco 3y agoCould this be a software issue? Did you check if there are background processes draining your battery?
- SamuelAdams 3y agoThere probably are, but this comment highlights the problem with OSS. Many people want a phone that just works for a full day, without needing to tinker with settings. Maybe the default settings for Libre 5 are bad? Maybe the software can be improved to improve battery life?
- cesarb 3y ago> Did you check if there are background processes draining your battery? These kinds of problems are often not background processes, but instead parts of the hardware which haven't been powered off or power gated correctly; even a small leak of a few mA could be enough to drain a battery much more quickly than the user would expect.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoIt would have been helpful to specify the time when you had that disappointing experience with the Librem, and then put in the closet. At least for PinePhone, going to 1% within a day was a flaw of very early software, and good hibernation settings were released years ago already. That said, I wouldn’t recommend the current Linux phones. Years after I got my PinePhone, the experience still pales compared to my old Nokia N900. I wonder if the lack of a physical keyboard discourages hacking. (Yes, a keyboard was released, but you have to order it separately and it has been reviewed as clunky.) Moreover, sometimes I wonder if the tough economy of the last decade has put a lot of idealistic people, who might have hacked FOSS in days of yore, into the precariat and there are just fewer man-hours available for mobile-Linux progress.
- nothingneko 3y agoI'm shocked they delivered all of them at all
- ognarb 3y agoThey only managed that by not refunding tons of people and constantly lying.
- TheAceOfHearts 3y agoI also got one and was pretty disappointed, so it has been left sitting on a shelf. I didn't fully understand what I would be getting. The software is unstable, in particular sometimes the app store equivalent just doesn't work. I really wanted to support the ecosystem outside of the existing duopoly but it just feels too unpolished and limited. Tried figuring out how to setup a development environment but it didn't seem like it was possible on macOS or the instructions were too inaccessible for me to penetrate. The hardware kill switches are a neat feature but I don't actually have a strong use case for them, and I'm not a big enough enthusiast. Honestly, I'm wondering if it would be more effective to buy up some mainstream phone and sell modded versions of it with kill switches. If I had a strong desire for a phone with kill switches I'd probably hire someone to mod an existing phone, rather than build one from scratch.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoYou don’t need to use the app store. You can just SSH into the device and run the usual apt commands from the command line. Yes, this is obviously nothing the general public would ever do, but we are on a news for nerds site here. > buy up some mainstream phone and sell modded versions of it with kill switches Making the connections for the several different kill switches (cellular, wifi, microphone) on a phone whose form factor was not expressly designed for that, would probably result in a rather ugly-looking hack. Moreover, on the PinePhone at least, the cell modem is separate from the wifi chip, so you can kill one while leaving the other on, but I believe that on most phones they are part of the same SoC.
- femiagbabiaka 3y agoWhen will refunds be fulfilled? I've been waiting months on one.
- martin8412 3y agoNot until you get a lawyer.
- saulpw 3y agoI pre-ordered mine in May 2019. I asked for a refund in August 2020, and again today. Here is their response: --- First of all, we would like to thank you for your patience and for your support. We do acknowledge that things take longer than we all want and we apologize for any inconvenience. Sadly, we do not process any refunds at the moment (not just pre-orders), but we do offer two other options which may be ok with you. One is to get the phone which you have pre-ordered (we could ship it within several business days). Another is to receive a store credit +20% gratitude on top of the amount paid. As I do not have any timeline for the refund all the information I currently have indicates it will not be processed any time soon. I'm very sorry and wish I had a better answer for you. ---
- femiagbabiaka 3y agoOk, time for me to get a lawyer.
- chunk_waffle 3y agoThere have been a few "dumb" phones that have looked interesting lately but they have major issues or are really short run, two that come to mind: lite phone: https://www.thelightphone.com/shop/products/light-phone-ii-black https://www.thelightphone.com/shop/products/light-phone-ii-b... The reviews of this phone that I've seen have been pretty brutal so I've avoided it. mudita: https://store.mudita.com/store/mudita-pure-minimalist-phone-pebble-gray https://store.mudita.com/store/mudita-pure-minimalist-phone-... Out of stock, but looked interesting. Anyone aware of any others?
- danielnoiz 3y agoThe Light Phone not being open source killed it for me. Or at least having an easier option for alternative os.
- klardotsh 3y agoYep. Open source the OS and allow sideloaded applications for folks who draw the line somewhat differently for where to trade off "dumb" vs "smart", and the LightPhone would be a winner, but alas... I met someone in Bellingham with one of these things once. It was pretty sweet, and they'd explicitly cited their having culled their smartphone addiction with it as a selling point, so I guess it works to some degrees. I forget off the top of my head exactly which feature I wish it had that I wanted to sideload on, but whatever.
- fevangelou 3y agoI have a hard time understanding how regular people in need of "security/privacy" would pay 1200+ USD for this device. I'm not even touching on specs etc. The only ones I can think of needing such "security/privacy" would probably make a great sidestory in Breaking Bad or get their own post-mortem show on Netflix. Kudos for using Linux, but that alone (and the hardware gimmicks) is really not enough to justify the cost. P.S. For comparison the (somewhat) similarly spec'ed PinePhone costs 150-200 USD.
- wmf 3y agoPeople in need of security and privacy would be far better off with GrapheneOS. For the Breaking Bad crowd there are specialized crimephones like Anom that are pre-compromised by law enforcement. Librem is more for people who want to run traditional GNOME/KDE on a phone instead of Android.
- jancsika 3y agoWhy GrapheneOS and not, say, a stock Iphone?
- CameronNemo 3y agoThey said privacy.
- Hackbraten 3y ago> Kudos for using Linux, but that alone (and the hardware gimmicks) is really not enough to justify the cost. Much of that cost went into Linux driver/app/phosh development. It made libhandy happen, which become libadwaita. Future Linux-based mobile OSes will be able to stand on the shoulders of all that. So it’s really more of a donation, plus I got a Linux phone on top of that. Besides, if I’m lucky and the hardware and battery last long enough, I’ll be using the Librem 5 as a daily driver for a decade, which would help amortize the cost even more. During those years, I won’t have to worry much about software obsolescence. All the drivers have been mainlined into Linux so I’ll always get to use the latest kernel version – even if something happened to Purism.