https://forums.puri.sm/t/the-current-state-of-the-librem-5-i...
https://forums.puri.sm/t/nine-months-librem-5-as-my-only-pho...
> such as Signal
I saw people using Signal on the forums, but Signal intentionally doesn't directly support ARM desktop GNU/Linux, so it's not straightforward AFAIK.
> and a banking app
This depends on the bank. Some banks allow to use their apps with Waydroid.
The Furi Labs FLX1 sounds like a much better option: https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/
The development of their phone was extremely slow, but today they ship within 10 days.
> there's no way I'm paying $1K for a phone that has just 3GB RAM and 32GB storage in 2024
Fair enough, although I don't know about any other GNU/Linux phone with all free drivers and mainstream Linux support (which effectively means lifetime updates).
The battery life is terrible and the software still buggy as hell.
It's a great host for Linux phone development though. I haven't had any major problems with the hardware being unstable or anything along those lines.
But once you start expecting the whole package to function more as a primary phone than a portable devkit you're using to further the state of Linux phones, it gets ugly pretty quick IME.