Librem 5

Anyone pre-order the Librem 5 yet? I dislike smartphones (they've taken on a ball & chain type feeliing -keeping people on the grid, always connected, friends/family/colleagues get pissed if you don't email or text back right away, yuck). But damn, Im finally excited about a new smartphone! Anyone else stoked to give it a try? Any thoughts/feedback on Librem 5 phone, positive or negative -I'm super curious of other NBR readers' opinions on this thing. Thanks!
https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
or,
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

 

A "special price" of $649 is a big ask for the hardware offered... 720p display with big bezels, quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC (low power, very slow compared to Cortex-A76), 32GB eMMC (versus at least 64GB UFS 3.0)... No mention of the camera or battery capacity, but you can be sure the ISP is inferior to a mid-range SoC like the Snapdragon 670 found in the $399 Google Pixel 3a.

Then again, I'm not the intended buyer. I love smartphones and am not willing to compromise every aspect of the experience, only to overpay for the sake of security. It's nice to have options.

 

Good feedback, thanks! Options are nice (but I turn most off anymore, as TOS/Privacy Policies have become ridiculously intrusive (imho). The camera is a concern for me and something I'll miss from an iPhone. Im guessing the development $$'s going into it are significant, so since Linux runs light, the hardware $$'s spent is notched down to offset development costs? I'm still totally sold on the Librem 5... been rocking an old iphone 6 with a cracked screen for far too long awaiting the Librem5. Thanks again!

 

@Riley Martin I'd buy Librem 5... if it had:
* Larger display
* Camera
* Physical keyboard

As things are, I am currently using Gemini PDA + Xiaomi (for decent camera). Looking into both Fx Pro1 and Cosmo Communicator (updated Gemini with external camera and second display). I love the keyboard on Gemini, so may as well get some cheaper Xiaomi (or rather one of their sub-brands, Redmi or Pocophone) with decent camera - it will probably offer better camera experience (because decent Google HDR ports support) and cheap price, at the cost of carrying additional device - which I don't like, but learned to live with.

 

Gimme a phone with Thunderbolt that can switch to a desktop interface when hooked up to a display.

Headphone jack, thunderbolt/USB C, decent camera, competent CPU/GPU, 8GB RAM, expandable storage and user replaceable battery under linux with KDE (or w/e launcher) when in desktop "mode".

Then I will be happy to ditch google and venture into uncharted territory.

No really, I want it lol.

 

/me hacking @TheReciever back in time to 2012 when Motorola Webtop was introduced.

 

I was hoping the ubuntu phone might take off but it was also lackluster iirc

 

@TheReciever did you look into Sailfish?

 

Nah I haven't heard of it, busy working 80 hour weeks so I don't get much time to look into anything

 

@TheReciever it is basically Debian on a smartphone with some propietary software for calls, messages, etc. Official hardware support is very limited, though; there are some community ports, but they (and even some official builds) lack Android app support - and without Android apps the experience will be too rough for most, in my opinion.

 

Yeah true, most people interested would rather look at custom roms likely, but thanks for shedding some light on it

 

Me too TR! But since the Librem is actually coming to fruition/release, I'm pretty stoked to give it a shot.
@starfish -Thanks for the Sailfish mention. I was unfamiliar w/ it. Looking at it now and some of its variants. RU based project? (I respect the h3ll out of the RU tech minds).

 

@Riley Martin it's EU - developed by Finnish company Jolla, to be exact. There's supposed to be a RU fork called AuroraOS, without Android compatibility layer. Russian Rostelekom is a major shareholder, and in my personal opinion it is quite alarming rather than a good news, given that part of the OS is closed-source.

 

That is alarming. I genuinely respect RU comp. minds, but yeah, the closed-source aspect w/ any RU ties is kinda off-putting. More reason to go for Librem5

 

The OS itself isn’t all that special. All of the current, major mobile OSes are *nix at their core, just with different dressings. So having yet another *nix OS isn’t all that special, nor would it really excuse the poor value proposition given the hardware and the $650 price tag.

That said, most of the original complaints in the OP (peer pressure with keeping up on social media, etc) is a personal issue, not a technological issue, and isn’t something that can be solved simply with a phone purchase.