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Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

puri.sm

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Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#31

Post by rtkwe »

RandomBacon wrote: post #6
vbezhenar wrote: post #3

5.7" screen is HUGE. I wish someone would build phone with 3.5-4" screen. It's so handy to operate phone with a single hand.

It's on par with most other phones, which I agree is huge. Smaller would take a lot more work, so I'm okay with a larger first version.

Yeah larger screens gives them some more leeway internally but does kind of restrain them a bit too because the larger screen wants more battery which requires a certain amount of space.

If you've ever seen a tear down of the iPhone X for example the boards are actually stacked to maximize the space available for battery in the thin form.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+X+Teardown/98975#s182...

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#33

Post by ocdtrekkie »

redwards510 wrote: post #23
zeveb wrote: post #13

Ever since I saw the project come out, I've been thinking about what would be required for me to switch from Android. Right now I think that my hard requirements are: - Firefox (pretty sure they have it) - Signal (I use it all the time) I don't know if some kind of TOTP store (think Google Authenticator or andOTP) is a hard requirement or a soft one, but it would surely be useful. I can live without my banking app (t…

Without a browser, it kind of ceases to be a smartphone. It's just a flipphone. So I don't see how that is really something you need to note. For me it's Google Maps. There is just no comparison. I don't want to imagine trying to drive around finding places without it. It's not just the navigation and traffic, it's the business hours lookup feature and all that. I hadn't thought about TOTP stores (Authy), but that's…

See, the problem is, as long as Google is allowed to own services like Maps and YouTube, as well as Android, you've ensured you can't ever switch to a new platform: Google is extremely active in not only refusing to support competing mobile platforms, but actively blocking them from accessing their services, as they've done with Microsoft and Amazon's competing platforms over the years.

I've found for most map queries, Google, Bing, MapQuest, and HERE are all pretty much comparable/a wash.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#34

Post by camjohnson26 »

mpnordland wrote: post #25

So for me, this is roughly what I want in a phone. But the thing is, I bought a phone over two years ago, with better specs for $100 less. That same phone today is priced at $200-$300. The way I see it the real value add for this phone is the software, and this whole mainline Linux, FOSS, run whatever you want approach is very attractive to me. But is it worth $700? Is it worth $700 when my current phone is in great…

If you want good software you simply have to pay more. These are small teams with no prior experience trying to do something huge, it makes sense to expect to pay even 5 times more if the direction of the project is good. Hopefully future versions will be cheaper as they learn and gain experience.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#35

Post by moosingin3space »

jethro_tell wrote: post #15
zeveb wrote: post #13

Ever since I saw the project come out, I've been thinking about what would be required for me to switch from Android. Right now I think that my hard requirements are: - Firefox (pretty sure they have it) - Signal (I use it all the time) I don't know if some kind of TOTP store (think Google Authenticator or andOTP) is a hard requirement or a soft one, but it would surely be useful. I can live without my banking app (t…

Signals going to be a no go right? From what I remember it needs google services for push notifications. As far as the non mobile version, I think that is an election app that uses a pretty good chunk of ram

Signal can use WebSockets, as their non-FCM version (downloaded from their website) does. I've come to agree with Daniel Micay about the best way to separate apps from Google services: https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/b9j6pe/compatib...

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#36

Post by Endy »

I'm sorry, this device profile doesn't really sell me on why I need to upgrade from my Android TracFone; it doesn't even give me confidence that it will work with the networks I need it to. This is part of the problem I've found over the years with consumer Unix-derivatives - too many "figure it out yourself" answers, not enough "just works, or we'll show you how to figure out whether it works or not first". That's the big reason why Microsoft & Apple still are the default desktop OSes, I think.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#37

Post by allana »

redwards510 wrote: post #16
RandomBacon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, I want to get one of those also, but they're not selling it and I don't see any links about when we can buy it, for how much, and when it will ship.

I can't find the info for the price, but I remember seeing it before and it was very low, like $200, which would make this a very exciting entry into the notAndroidOrIOS market. The Librem 5 was cool at first, until they started delaying it indefinitely and the price is too high for mass adoption. By having a very low price on the Pinephone they are courting a lot more tinkerers to get one and help develop the OS ver…

The Allwinner A64 platform has numerous developers working on it compared to the iMX8, which has really fleshed out fully featured hardware support over the last few years. Running most Linux distros should be a breeze on the Pinephone!

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#38

Post by ocdtrekkie »

So we knew about the Gemalto PLS8, and I noted as someone on Verizon that the PLS8 wasn't approved for Verizon but other variants/similar Gemalto chips were. Still no word on an option for those, but the Broadmobi BM818 is new, and I haven't found much about it yet.

Most results on search link back to Purism, so it may not be a widely used chip. It got FCC approval last December, and the documents there say it supports LTE on bands 2, 4, and 13, which would technically make it capable of supporting Verizon? But it isn't on Verizon's approved modules list, so it's likely it couldn't be activated at this time.

I'd be curious what Purism's thoughts were on the chipset choices and what networks they're supposed to work with.

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