Librem 5 Phone, progress reports
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Librem 5 Shipping Announcement
This does not sound very good to me, rather more like they are going to push a small number of alpha or beta devices out the door just so they can claim to meet their thrice-delayed shipping date. A further delay to get the product right would have appealed to me more.
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@trainailleur
I'm not surprised. Look at how much time it took them to confirm full specs. They were still vague back in June, the announced 2019 shipping date was never realistic. I always thought that PinePhone would be ready for mass production first, and it's looking like I may be right. That being said, Purism had a lot more R&D put into their device than Pine64 (not to mention the OS and software as well). I wish both companies success, we need both their phones. -
BTW those first small runs with milled cases are going to be costly! This is basically prototyping.
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@normandc said in Librem 5 Phone, progress reports:
@trainailleur
I'm not surprised. Look at how much time it took them to confirm full specs. They were still vague back in June, the announced 2019 shipping date was never realistic. I always thought that PinePhone would be ready for mass production first, and it's looking like I may be right. That being said, Purism had a lot more R&D put into their device than Pine64 (not to mention the OS and software as well). I wish both companies success, we need both their phones.Not surprised either, but shipping something half-baked simply to fulfill a technicality seems disingenuous to me, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I do agree, we need them both, and I wish them both well, even if I'm a bit disappointed in Purism right now.
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It might not be the only reason. Take milled cases for example, tooling for injection moulding is very expensive, they're taking a prudent approach to get the dimensions and fit right before ordering the molds. I do agree that it's odd to ship early prototypes to backers/consumers.
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Librem 5 — Promise Delivery Chart
https://forums.puri.sm/t/librem-5-promise-delivery-chart/6959
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Bad press for Purism: https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/latest-phoronix-articles/1133747-an-interview-with-zlatan-todoric-open-source-developer-former-purism-cto
(sorry for being slightly off-topic) -
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So four weeks after they loudly congratulated themselves on shipping the phone, they finally admit they didn't actually ship it. And in the course of said admission - which proves that they lied and dissembled for the past four weeks - they congratulate themselves once more on their own transparency. Good grief. I am rooting for their success, but they sure are hard to root for.
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@kalle-kruse said in Librem 5 Phone, progress reports:
Wait, this post says that all the backers that wanted a device from the Aspen batch have been moved to Birch, i.e. the shipment of their device will be delayed. It also says that the Aspen batch will only be delivered to 'developers and staff'. I would assume that members of the UBports team that have been working on the port would fall under the former. Yet when Purim was contacted regarding availability of devices to continue the work, they informed the team that the priority was to ship to backers first.
It does make me wonder if these Aspen devices exist at all, and if they do, if they were ever really going to ship them to backers...
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A while ago, before I was interested in UT, I had an unfortunate experience with the Youyota Sailfish tablet, unfortunately never delivered. I would have liked the project to have been successful! All I can remember from this experience is an unfortunate communication from some actors who tried to drown the fish to the end by trying to make it look like the tablet would one day be delivered! We know the rest....
I would really like the LIBREM 5 project to succeed for all those who have invested in it and for the customers. I hesitated but didn't buy.
Indeed, all this already requires clear and verified communication from PURISM to maintain trust. And so far, this does not seem to be the case because everyone is asking too many questions: where is TRUE the state of development of LiBREM 5, which will be TRUEly delivered and when......................... !! -
Early adopters (summer 2017) begin to receive email with long awaited news from Purism about the shipping of Librem5 "Birch" batch (source reddit / forum Purism) :
"Hello [My Name]!
Good news! Your Librem 5 smartphone you ordered 8/24/2017 is being prepared for shipment to you in the next few weeks!
As we get your phone ready, we need just a couple pieces of information from you. Simply reply to this email (or contact [Purism email] directly) with the following information:
• Confirm your shipping address:
[My Name]
[My Address] Phone: [My Phone Number]
• Let us know if you would like a US or EU cellular modem (Broadmobi BM818, other cellular modem options are not yet available).
• And if you would like a US, UK, or EU power charger.
That's it! Once we have that information, we'll get your phone prepared, packed up, and shipped to you over the next couple of weeks!
Note: This is an early batch that might have hardware problems and has a limited warranty. If you agree to this batch, you are accepting that risk and understand that you will not be able to exchange it for a later batch when they come out. If your phone is dead on arrival, or has other unexpected issues, you can return it within 14 days of receipt. (This helps to avoid a situation where someone exchanges their phone for a new batch, every time one is released.)
This phone is in what we have designated as a "Birch" batch of phones. If you would prefer to delay your shipment to a later batch, for any reason, simply let us know and we can move you to a later shipping batch. If you would like our full standard warranty, let us know and we can move you to the Evergreen batch.
You can find more information on each batch here: https://puri.sm/posts/supplying-the-demand/
• The Purism Team"
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It is good to see that some hardware exists. I won't be seeing any of my own anytime soon however. Though I'd previous said I'd stick with Purism despite the setbacks, having originally ordered in the crowdfunding without expecting much if any finished hardware, this year's nonstop lies and dissembling finally wore me out, and I recently requested and received a full refund. Many others on other fora have reported doing the same, for the same reasons.
If they pull off delivery of a working phone someday, maybe they can become (or return to being?) a truthful and relatively transparent enterprise, and if so I might even buy a Librem 5 or successor from them. In the meantime however, their being the polar opposite of transparent whilst all the while trumpeting their transparency simply became too much for me to stomach. I still wish them success, and I hope that refund-seekers like me don't become a stampede that breaks them, but even as important as unfettered hardware is, there are to my mind more worthy recipients of $600 funding (in what was effectively a donation from the beginning given the murky prospects of results).
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Did anyone receive a Librem5 yet?
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Last news from Purism about Librem5, "mass production shipping FAQ": https://puri.sm/posts/the-librem-5-mass-production-shipping-faq/
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@libremax How many times they have said, that they start to ship devices now/soon?
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@makeixo pessimism, skepticism, optimism, everyone can choose...
