Librem 5

I've had my Librem 5 for about a year and the improvement in that time has been amazing. I don't disagree with anything you said, but I also like to think about the Librem 5 differently from other smartphones. [...] With respect to the price, there is a lot of subsidizing that happens with modern phones (for example companies that want their app to come preinstalled and not be able to be uninstalled), Purism certainly doesn't do that yet and the assumption is that they never will. Also, volumes on the Librem 5 are pretty low. I expect that any large phone manufacturer would never develop a phone that they expected to only sell as many as the Librem 5 has sold. More volume means lower prices. I was never really all that interested in the privacy aspect of the Librem 5. I just wanted a smartphone running Linux and the Librem 5 is that. [...]

[...] All the things that make the PinePhone so painfully slow (GPU performance, RAM bandwidth, eMMC speed, small caches) are significantly higher spec'd on the Librem 5. It also takes much longer to thermal throttle. Performance isn't defined by CPU cores and RAM size alone.

6:19 Might be worth the wait to test it after PureOS Crimson is released, hopefully soon. [...] I'm daily driving a Librem 5 with pmOS phosh and can confirm that everything really important works reliably enough for me to use. This includes VoLTE calls and SMS texts (although I avoid both now after Salt Typhoon), 4G data, Wi-Fi, GPS navigation with PureMaps, camera, Firefox web browsing, email, Signal Messenger, etc. Camera app doesn't record sound though atm and Bluetooth is hit or miss. I'm a headphone jack fan btw and don't put radiation sources beside my brain anyway : ) If the unit you got is old, make sure to update the modem firmware and enable VoLTE if you intend to use it with a SIM card. [...]

I have a Librem 5. [...] I use it for web browsing, SMS, XMPP, and email. The drawback I have is the battery life which usually lasts me 3-4 hrs. [...]

The request said 'shrink it down,' it didn't also say, 'neuter it to 3 gigs of RAM and cut CPU and GPU performance to a small percentage of what it was such that many modern websites won't function.' The T480 as a daily driver, while slow by current standards, would still meet the needs of many. I use mine often and with plenty of RAM and storage it's still very capable, if underpowered for some tasks. Incessantly trying to make the Librem 5 happen, as if it's the answer to everyone's needs without a shred of practical reasoning, just makes the project look like a silly novelty.

[...] Of course I knew that the Librem5 existed, but at the time I was thrown off by the price and the smell of "impending shitstorm" the device reeked of. [...]

Taking photos is one of the things I got accustomed to not having. The picture quality on my Librem 5 is just too disappointing [0]. In the past I used Bluetooth for keyboard and mouse when I connected the phone to a monitor. (I no longer do because the USB port on my L5 has broken down so badly that it can no longer maintain a DisplayPort Alt mode connection.) I’ve never used Bluetooth for music or similar, it keeps stuttering horribly on my L5. [...] Signal barely works via the Electron app (and signal-cli), so that’s what I use for messaging. [...]

i wanted the librem5 to be awesome. some things really bothered me about it , as a smartphone alternative: shitty screen shitty camera shitty cpu shitty battery life shitty os shitty support for modern video codecs shitty physical security if i cant take decent pictures, watch locally stored hd h264/265 videos, have a full day of battery life, and resist cellebrite extraction attempts... [...] they shoulda targetted it as a secure hotspot for a wifi only or tethered device, rather than the smartphone usecase.

For starters, the Librem 5 costs $799. [...] Also, PinePhone is so much slower than Librem 5, which in practice feels closer to the (now discontinued) PinePhone Pro. [...] Though of course, Librem 5 being a 2019 design isn't a speed demon these days either - but I'm still using one and it's manageable.

[...] They burned through a ton of goodwill by holding many people's money for many years, while being non-responsive to depositors, refusing refunds if they did respond, and so on. [...] Their laptop effort seems to have evolved into something almost reasonably non-scummy, but the Librem 5 put a lot of people off. [...] I can't see putting family members on a Librem 5 or a PinePhone (much less a PinePhone Pro) without it being an absolute train wreck of a time for anyone but the most extremely basic and patient user. [...] How exactly that works when one needs to use a site requiring JS to function has me feeling like I'm daily driving Nokia N-series tablets in the late 2000s again, except Nokia tablets were somehow a more polished experience two decades ago than one gets today out of either the Librem 5 of PinePhone due to the lack of real manufacturer and community support. [...] I would carry my Linux ThinkPad with a built-in cellular radio or an external hotspot everywhere before it would make sense for me to try to pretend the PinePhone or Librem 5 meet even a basline level of utility value. [...]

[...] Mobian and some others possibly worth a mention as well. [...] Librem 5 and PinePhone should be among the best supported devices but you may get better performance / $ with a OnePlus 6T or other formerly-Android phone (again, verify most stuff is already working before buying something if possible). [...]

I'm loving the potential of the FLX1 but sadly I can't use mine yet as it isn't working with my sim card. Also having issues logging into Firefox Sync. Overall though I can see it being my daily driver before my Librem 5 because the battery life is great.

[...] A device which first shipped seven years ago still requiring someone to properly configure a post-processing software stack to get viable pictures out of it (with no path to viable video) kind of makes my point for me. That the hardware can perform significantly better with post-processing is more of an indictment of the overall device than it is an endorsement of the camera hardware itself. For me, from a camera standpoint (among others) the device isn't good enough to be a viable alternative to switch from Android (the post's topic), or from iOS (likely the most commonly used device family by HN readers). [...] As I said, your photos are the most convincing I've seen, at least the ones in the most forgiving circumstances. [...] As switcher targets go, the Librem 5 is a poor one. Ask any normal person to do what you call basic to get them looking like a midrange camera from a decade prior. [...]

I was working at an amazon warehouse fresh out of high school when I placed a preorder for a Librem 5. [...] Within ten days I got my refund. At first they were giving out refunds to everyone, but once people started putting in mass amounts of refund requests later on, they stopped likely because they were running out of money. I did end up buying a Librem 5 off someone brand new in 2023, when Purism was finally shipping theirs. [...] But it was slow, updates stopped coming through, and things like Bluetooth headphones in calls didnt work, and Bluetooth could be hit or miss. [...]

[...] The Librem 5 uses the Cortex-A53 low-end ARM designs from 2012, and that particular NXP chip is not among the better implementations. [...] camera) provide only a bare experience. If we're honest about it, the Librem 5 is not something to use as your main phone, it's a toy to experiment with.

So PureOS 11 (crimson) on Librem 5 has become daily driveable, as evidenced by me upgrading the system of my daily driver to it and not having much to complain about. From oldoldstable to oldstable - heading towards modernity one step at a time 😂 pureos librem5 linuxmobile mobilelinux

[...] The promise of, 'it's FOSS and these issues will be addressed,' sure didn't pan out with the PinePhone Pro, and it isn't panning out for the Librem 5. [...]

[...] Sent from my daily driver Librem 5. [...]

the need to disable JS to render some modern sites You hatred towards Librem 5 spread all over HN prevents you from correctly reading my statements. The correct statement is "I disable JS for more security and for unreasonably JS-heavy websites. I do have it on when I want."

[...] Sure, the interface is far, far slicker than what is available on the Librem 5, but there are already hints of "you are not really the owner of the device" (for instance default "safety" contacts in the contact app that you cannot delete, the inability to easily use "reverse tethering" (getting Internet by USB through a computer) and so on) that will make me keep the Librem 5, with all its own issues, as my daily driver for the foreseeable future. [...] What it does (if anything) is fully handled in software.)

[...] I've already traveled internationally with the Librem 5 and it can do what I need it to do. [...] Whatsapp I never use, Signal and Delta Chat work fine.

I had wondered about Pine-phone. I bought a Librem 5 early on and initially it had lots issues with battery life and functionality, but now, after lots of software updates, it's improved a lot. Battery life has improved significantly.

[...] The performance level of that SoC would have been challenging to get what typical phone users would consider a good experience out of a decade ago. The 2016 Pixel 1, for example was a much higher performance device. Apple's iPhones from that era required considerable tradeoffs to achieve the performance they did. Some owners apparently disagree with you that the Librem 5 still usable. [...] We need an open modern device, and the Librem 5 just isn't it, despite the loud assertions of a few to the contrary.

[...] Go ahead and continue to educate people about the Librem 5. [...]