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Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

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Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#41

Post by JoshTriplett »

mrob wrote: post #18
JoshTriplett wrote: post #12

> 5.7″ IPS TFT screen @ 720×1440 Sad that this didn't end up using a low-power OLED screen. I can live with 720p resolution, but I'm surprised that for the cost an OLED screen wasn't possible. I was hoping that such a screen on an open device would help drive the adoption of dark themes in applications for power-saving reasons. Still looking forward to trying the device, though.

I prefer LCD. AFAIK, all OLED screens on the market use PWM brightness control in the 100s of Hz range, which for many people causes phantom array effect during eye movement. LCDs can have DC backlights, avoiding this annoyance.

First I've heard of that; interesting. From what I can tell, that's something software can potentially mitigate and smooth out on some displays?

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#42

Post by cal5k »

canadaduane wrote: post #8

I love that there are 3 hardware kill switches, and that turning all 3 off "additionally disable[s] IMU+compass & GNSS, ambient light and proximity sensors." There are so many ways in which clever hackers have teased out information from thin streams of always-on sensor data. It would also be kind of cool if they added physical LED lights reflecting hardware activity, normally covered by some physical blinder that yo…

Exactly. I absolutely detest the fact that my carrier can remotely activate my phone's baseband processor to conduct surveillance. Without a hardware kill switch there's basically no way to prevent this other than, perhaps, using a faraday bag.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#44

Post by ahmedalsudani »

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…

That’s ok. You don’t need to buy it.

The smartphone market is filled with phones subsidized by information harvesting money and where the economies of scale side with entities in a race to the bottom.

I’m personally happy to pay a premium for a product with different priorities.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#45

Post by moftz »

Endy wrote: post #36

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 t…

https://puri.sm/faq/supported-networks/

They already have a list of LTE bands that will work depending on if you buy the Europe or US variant. That list is only for the Gemalto PLS8-US and PLS8-E. There is another Broadmobi BM818 module as well.

For the US, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile support the 2, 4, 5, and 17 LTE bands that work with the PLS8-US.

All of Europe should be supported on the PLS8-E.

The BM818 mention doesn't specify which version. On the FCC's website, there is a manual that lists bands 2, 4, 5, and 17 so at least it will work in the US.

When buying any sort of unlocked phone, you usually have to check all of the bands with your carrier just in case. When you buying a phone from a carrier, they have already done all of the work for you in terms of checking compatibility.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#46

Post by cal5k »

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…

Does anyone know if the Librem 5 has some sort of secure element for storing encryption keys?

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#47

Post by RandomBacon »

cal5k wrote: post #42
canadaduane wrote: post #8

I love that there are 3 hardware kill switches, and that turning all 3 off "additionally disable[s] IMU+compass & GNSS, ambient light and proximity sensors." There are so many ways in which clever hackers have teased out information from thin streams of always-on sensor data. It would also be kind of cool if they added physical LED lights reflecting hardware activity, normally covered by some physical blinder that yo…

Exactly. I absolutely detest the fact that my carrier can remotely activate my phone's baseband processor to conduct surveillance. Without a hardware kill switch there's basically no way to prevent this other than, perhaps, using a faraday bag.

And if they really wanted to, your phone could record the audio, GPS, etc and then transmit once it's out of the faraday bag.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#48

Post by ThreeFx »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #34
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.

That was my motivation as well when I prepurchased the phone. Even though you might not get a $600 phone, Purism and the entire Linux community gain a lot of experience about the difficulties of designing hand-held hardware, applications and operating systems.

In my opinion their progress has been fantastic, and I am quite excited for the future of Linux smartphones.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#49

Post by kop316 »

kapnobatairza wrote: post #9

I've been looking for a "FOSS" phone that is based purely on AOSP. I don't want a custom ROM, Play Store, cloud, or to have to create any accounts or sign into anything. I just want a simple Android phone with decent specs that I can install APKs on. Does this exist at all? Or do I have to buy/pay for a "full" Android phone and reflash it?

Hello,

I did just that with a Google Pixel 3a, but you should be able to do that with any Google Android Device. I actually compiled AOSP and LineageOS from source.

But to keep in mind, those all have proprietary Drivers.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#50

Post by ThreeFx »

cal5k wrote: post #46
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…

Does anyone know if the Librem 5 has some sort of secure element for storing encryption keys?

The specs mention a sim-card sized slot for some hardware token, such as a smart card. Is this what you mean?

Edit: [1]: https://postimg.cc/G9FVvQgm

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