- Joined
- Mar 21, 2020
So keep in mind this was circa 2020. The current Librem 5 batch must surely have improved on my early release model. I went into the Librem 5 as a believer- I was fully prepared to love the phone, warts and all, before it arrived and was pretty crushed with the reality of what I received. My negative experience with the Librem 5 can be best summarized briefly in four key areas;
- Battery Life - My Librem 5 had less than 3 hours of screen on time and handled standby so poorly to the effect that it was unreliable for any trip outside the house where I did not have immediate access to an outlet.
- Modem - The modem my unit initially shipped with was factory flawed, resulting ultimately in very lengthy troubleshooting with customer support followed by Purism sending me a replacement modem. During the wait period my $1200 piece of hardware was effectively useless to me. To their credit at least the replacement part did not cost me anything.
- Screen Responsiveness - Ghost taps and failure to register inputs were incredibly frequent. This hindered my ability to perform even the simplest of tasks. My own informal troubleshooting led me to believe this was a hardware issue and not a software one, and thus would not be correctable on my own.
- Build Quality - Soldering was sloppy. Two key screws were pre-stripped, creating a headache for me when I needed to inspect interior components for my review video. Backplate was poorly fitted and had rough edges that made the whole device feel cheap.
I wrote in my above update about the Pinephone that I could forgive flaws and software issues for the price point. The inverse is likewise true for the Librem 5; If you charge me $1200+, I am going to expect a hardware experience to justify that $1200+. Software can be improved with time but hardware is hardware.
I went into the Librem 5 expecting bugs and issues. That's just life if you use Linux at all. But what I couldn't absolve the phone of was how overhyped and oversold it was in the community. Purism spent a lot of money buying key Youtube reviewers and then shipped a product that wasn't remotely prepared for general consumption. Nothing about the Librem 5 justifies the price. The actual hardware itself is not expensive or modern. "Paying more to support the cause" is just corporate bullshit.
This is a direct contrast to Pine64. There was no pretense or self aggrandizement from Pine64; You know exactly what a mess you are purchasing straight up from the start and are given access to community solutions to the vast majority of these issues. Additionally, they publish even more hardware documentation openly to help you source replacement compatible parts as needed. Totally free of needing to go through them alone. (Though they do offer virtually all components on their own storefront as well)
Purism talks a big game about their social purpose and hypes their brand up like they're the second coming of Christ but is worrisomely short on actual solutions to problems their device still suffers from. If we're going to have a device that requires a lot of coddling to get a good experience out of we can just as easily if not moreso do that on the $149/$199 Pinephone- And frankly, as of 2022, the Pinephone has gotten *really good*. I can forgive the slower processor and cheaper camera at this price point until a newer model matures.
