I again quote /u/whiteinge on Reddit¹:<p>“<i>Let's assume the project is over-promised and will be late and under-deliver. […] None of that is as bad as NO smartphone alternative to Google and Apple, let alone an open and privacy-focused alternative. I'm a Linux user and I very much want a Linux phone. And there has been so, so many false starts and near misses over almost a decade. My patience and goodwill for Purism and the Librem 5 is effectively infinite. It's not over until they shutter the doors or can the project. Until that happens I will continue to hope they limp over that finish line no matter what.</i>”<p>1. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/dm2smy/is_the_librem_5_being_targeted_in_a_viral_media/f54gaur/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/dm2smy/is_the_libre...</a>
> The most frustrating part of the Librem 5 right now is easily the power management, which isn't nearly complete. The phone is dead nearly all the time, because so many basic charging features we normally take for granted don't work. First, the phone doesn't seem like it has any kind of idle power mode. It is hot from the minute you power on until the battery dies, even with the screen off. You can't leave the phone on the charger overnight to charge it—you'll wake up to a dead phone. I think what is happening is that there's no trickle charge, so the phone charges to full, then stops charging, then the battery dies.<p>Yikes. In my mind, this isn't actually a phone in its current form. It's like a small desktop computer put into a plastic case with a battery.<p>I have never seen the case up close until this point. It truly looks like a crude hobby project, almost to the level of being 3D printed.<p>I have no idea why Purism didn't leave most of the hardware design to someone who already has a generic modern smartphone done and completed, then they could have added on to it by swapping out some proprietary bits. Instead we get this Frankenstein of a project, sold to the public long before it's done (along with marketing copy that makes the company look unethical - there should be big warnings on the store page about how far along this project truly is and what you're getting for your $750).<p>The worst part about this is that it makes all open source projects look bad. It makes them look like a bad compromise. And that's not true at all - a lot of open source projects are great alternatives, and many are even better than their proprietary competitors.<p>$750 gets you an iPhone with sophisticated cameras, the fastest mobile processor on the market, and software support for 5 years if not longer. Walk into stores across the country to get service and support. What Purism is telling us is, essentially, if you want to take a stand against the proprietary world, you have to <i>give up everything</i>. You have to use a chunky, ugly, crudely assembled phone. You have to give up acceptable power management. And you <i>still</i> have to pay $750, all of this on the cusp of Apple releasing a new $399 phone according to rumors, Google selling $399 phones, and budget brands like Motorola providing an absolutely acceptable experience for under $200 on some models.
The article doesn't mention the PinePhone, which I consider pretty shoddy journalism.<p>The PinePhone is a competing project with slightly lower specs, similarly good FOSS purity, that is slimmer, ships today and <i>costs 1/5 of the price</i>.<p>They clearly market it as being for tinkerers at this point and all the software support Pine64 is working on is getting the kernel running, leaving the rest up to the 5 (!) involved distribution communities.
The unintended consequence of this phone being modular and, in theory, upgradable, is interesting. Some people wouldn't mind having a thicker phone as a consequence.<p>Unfortunately, the case is just awful and there's no excuse for this. Low standards - as seen in many consumer-facing FOSS products - must be to blame here.
FTA: "You can make phone calls, and you can receive text messages, but you can't start a new conversation with a contact."<p>Did the author actually make a phone call?
If so, what was the quality?<p>FTA : "There's no way to access the camera."<p>So no idea if the device actually will take a photo or video or know what the quality of those outputs will be.<p>Considering that an iPhone 11 Pro would cost $60 per month over 2 years, could some of us Patreon this project at like $30 a month and let them hire up enough to land this?<p>I have doubts that a sales model vs the incumbents is going to have enough runway. Given the quote from teddyh / whiteinge, maybe it's just better to do more upfront funding instead of expecting open projects to follow the same physics as venture capital.
They really need to lower their specs to make this more affordable. I have no problem using slower hardware, on the contrary, it saves battery. Maybe they planned a cheaper version?<p>I'm also a little curious why they didn't choose an open android fork.
So it's effectively unusable due to power management problems. Weird that they're selling something so broken. Let's hope they can fix the power management.