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Comment by Alupis | Hacker News Reader

Librem 5 - Lead Time: 52 Weeks

Sounds like vaporware more than anything...

They do ship continuously, but its pretty slow. The ones who received there Librem 5's in the last days waited some 1270 days (180 weeks).

Have a look at https://forums.puri.sm/t/estimate-your-librem-5-shipping/112... that's a better prediction then Purism's 52 weeks...

> They do ship continuously, but its pretty slow.

This is what you get for "Assembled in the USA."

No. The ones that have a 1200 day lead time are the normal ones made in China. The "assembled in the USA" ones have a 10-day lead time (and a $2000 price tag).

Seeing the celebration from folks on receiving the items they paid for 1200+ days later was uhh, an experience.

3.5 years average wait time is pretty damn bad for a device that has a life span of not much more than 3.5 years.

I'd love to try one of their phones, but I can't convince myself to pull the trigger at the price/performance/delay triangle they've settled into.

I ordered mine back in August of 2019, and just received it a couple of weeks ago. I ordered it back when it was $699 and when I had regular cellphone service. Now instead of cellphone service I use jmp.chat (voice and SMS over XMPP). I never expect there to be an XMPP client that supports all the extensions needed for me to have phone service and to also not murder the battery life. So it'll sit around and be a curiosity like my PinePhone. The usability gap between my GrapheneOS Pixel 6 and either of those phones is just too wide to bridge right now and for the foreseeable future.

It's still shipping through backorders as it caught many delays across development and production (including the whole COVID supply chain disruption), but it's pretty close to the finish line now. Once the backorders are fulfilled, it will be available in stock with no lead time (the version produced in USA already is).

With several-year-old hardware designs? Who is actually interested in this thing?

The SoC that was initially supposed to be used was older when the crowdfunding started than the actually used one is now, so to answer your question - everyone who backed it, I guess?

It works fine and it's not like there are any significantly more modern alternatives out there anyway. And to put things in context, a few years ago there was not a single phone out there that had working 3D acceleration with open drivers, for example.

The switch to the i.MX 8M was already going to be a thing during the Kickstarter if I remember correctly. The chip was also intended for automotive use and is much worse than the snapdragon that was out at the time. Processors are now an order of magnitude faster than what the Librem 5 has at fraction of the price with a much better user experience, with a much bigger app ecosystem, and with a much less bulky form factor.

>everyone who backed it, I guess

That was 6 years ago before it had even released. The value proposition of it now, especially now that people can see what it's actually like has tanked its desirability.

And none of those processors are available or suitable for projects like these. You pretty much get to choose between i.MX, Allwinner or Rockchip. Although things do change in this regard, it happens very slowly.

I backed the project on the initial campaign and the switch to i.MX8M from i.MX6 has been merely mentioned as a big "maybe" back then.

(sent from my Librem 5)

They still haven't finished shipping all of the orders from 2019. It's practically a scam. They still are trying to trick people into buying this outdated hardware.

And they don't allow you to get a refund until your spot in the queue comes up (or if you report their business to the government and you get lucky).

The submission is about Librem 5 USA, which is shipped within 10 days.

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