Librem 5 Phone, progress reports

[libremax]

And today, plasma mobile on board

[doniks]

10, Initial Developer Documentation for the Librem 5 Phone Platform

[A Former User]

@doniks I have to say, I do like this idea of producing a SBC with this chipset and GSM.

[doniks]

Can it make a phone call?

[libremax]

@doniks

Added, thanks, with now the "last Call for Librem 5 Dev Kit: order yours before June 1st 2018"

[libremax]

Today two new posts from purism about Librem 5 whose launch is postponed to April 2019.

[libremax]

@libremax Librem 5 Development Kits: "we are doing our very best to ship out all boards in the early part of December, so that all backers should get their new toys well before the end of the year (given the shipping carriers don’t cause delays)."
So, hopefully Ubports core devs should get a Christmas gift from Purism...

[HendriXXX]

Good news!
https://puri.sm/posts/2018-devkits-are-shipping/

Anyone here getting devkits? I am waiting how soon we see UT running on that dev board.

[libremax]

@hendrixxx thank you, added to the news list

[HendriXXX]

Little stats from Purism forums about ordered Librem 5 devices.
https://forums.puri.sm/t/3500-phones-ordered-almost-2-5-million-raised/3275/8
https://forums.puri.sm/t/3500-phones-ordered-almost-2-5-million-raised/3275/11

[libremax]

A lot to read in this last post : End of Year Librem 5 Update, including:

"we are only finalizing the I.MX 8M or 8M Mini by benchmark testing."

To know difference between I.MX 8M and 8M Mini:
https://www.nxp.com/jp/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-based-processors-and-mcus/i.mx-applications-processors/i.mx-8-processors:IMX8-SERIES

Previous posts about Librem5 are here

[libremax]

A lot of good news and a less good but expected one, massive progress, CPU selected (iMX8M Quad CPU) and "Minor Shipping Adjustment" (Q3 2019)

[trainailleur]

@libremax said in Librem 5 Phone, progress reports:

A lot of good news and a less good but expected one, massive progress, CPU selected (iMX8M Quad CPU) and "Minor Shipping Adjustment" (Q3 2019)

I do not follow the bit about kill switches, since they didn't qualify what they said about GPS with it having an AND or an OR relation to the kill switches:

Purism said:

3 - WiFi, Cellular, Microphone/Cameras (all 3 will turn off GPS)

Does this mean the GPS will be available to hardware unless all three of the kills switches are off, or does it mean that GPS cannot be used unless wifi and cell modem and camera are all switched to available?

I asked for clarification and will post it here if I receive it.

[libremax]

@trainailleur IMHO, it means that if one switch is turn off then GPS is also turn off.

[trainailleur]

@libremax said in Librem 5 Phone, progress reports:

@trainailleur IMHO, it means that if one switch is turn off then GPS is also turn off.

I believe that is probably the case, but they should have worded it completely unambiguously. If that is what they mean, it will axe the utility of the kill switches for many use cases.

[trainailleur]

@trainailleur said in Librem 5 Phone, progress reports:

Purism said:

3 - WiFi, Cellular, Microphone/Cameras (all 3 will turn off GPS)

Does this mean the GPS will be available to hardware unless all three of the kills switches are off, or does it mean that GPS cannot be used unless wifi and cell modem and camera are all switched to available?

I asked for clarification and will post it here if I receive it.

Purism replied: if all three kill switches are engaged, GPS will be disabled in hardware.

[trainailleur]

I noticed today that the baseband was announced as the Gemalto PLS8. It is good that Purism will keep the modem user replaceable on a card, because the LTE coverage of each version looks from this product sheet to be fairly basic.

• PLS8-E: Has GSM modem. LTE Bands 1, 3, and 7, three of the four primary bands in most of Europe, Band 8, the "global" band, and Band 20, a common secondary band in much of Europe. No band usable on a US Big 4 network.

• PLS8-US: Has GSM modem.
  Not much in the way of LTE bands for international roaming outside of the Americas.
  AT&T - Band 17, giving partial coverage on the AT&T primary bands 12 and 17 (the former is a superset of the latter, but exactly what this means in terms of reduced coverage for not having Band 12, I am not sure), Bands 2, 4, and 5, three of AT&T's 7(?) secondary bands.
  T-Mobile US - Bands 2 and 4, two of T-Mobile's four primary bands, and Band 5, one of T-Mobile's two secondary bands.
  Verizon (I would guess mainly through roaming agreements with another carrier) - Bands 2, 4, and 5, all secondary Verizon bands which might be useful if other carriers have roaming agreements.

• PLS8-J: No GSM modem. LTE bands 1, 3, and 19. From what I can tell (as no expert), these are decent bands for LTE in Japan.

• PLS8-X: Has GSM modem. LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 13, and 17. These seem like good bands for Latin American and the Caribbean, and should also work on AT&T and T-Mobile in the US, but I'm not sure if there's much application in the rest of the world.

• PLS8-V: "V" presumably for Verizon - No GSM modem. LTE Band 13, Verizon primary band, and Bands 2 and 4, two of Verizon's four secondary bands.

Perhaps there are some other varieties of this modem which aren't listed on the spec sheet, but I'm not seeing much in the way of coverage for Africa or most of Asia among these five. Maybe Purism will choose a different modem for those markets.

Edited to add GSM info and clarity on the Verizon coverage.

[libremax]

Librem5, how to disable sensors and other hardware that could be used for tracking and spying: Lockdown Mode: Beyond Hardware Kill Switches

[trainailleur]

Purism posted a few videos yesterday of bootup, calls, and browsing, and SMS on the Librem 5:

Purism’s Librem 5 Progress in Videos

[trainailleur]

April Progress Update – Librem 5 Hardware