For just over a year, here on the blog the follow-up has been carried out about news and updates from Purism's Librem 5, of which the most talked about news were about the constant delays of the launch that Purism announced. Time passed and arrived the promised launch time in September, the release of the first installments of your GNU / Linux smartphone aimed at security and privacy was finally released.
With this, the company also launched a delivery schedule of four lots as follows: Aspen Lot (Sep 24, 2019 - Oct 22, 2019), Birch Lot (Oct 29, 2019 - Nov 26, 2019), Chestnut Lot (Dec 3, 2019 - 31 December 2019), Dogwood batch (January 7, 2020 - March 31, 2020), Evergreen batch (estimated delivery period in Q2020 2020), Fir batch (estimated delivery period in QXNUMX XNUMX) .
With this the people who have acquired one, they would know when their devices would be shipped. However now in a post recently on your website, the company announced a postponement of the delivery of the Birch batch.
The cause: the absence of a 10 kilohms resistor on the printed circuit which caused the USB port to malfunction.
"We hoped and hoped that the resistance problem did not delay delivery, but it turns out that it caused a few days of delay." We have just officially learned that the last pieces for the Birch batch are being delivered to us right now and we look forward to receiving them on Tuesday, November 26 (next week). At that time, we will send phones to those who will receive this batch of Librem 5 next week. (There is always the possibility that the final parts will be delivered earlier, but the tracking currently indicates November 26) «, writes the company.
This latest report follows two other also due to hardware problems. In fact, the Librem 5 is built around an i.MX 8M chip. According to explanations from company officials, this piece of the puzzle was the cause of the previous wave of postponements.
In essence, it is a bug in the SoC that caused extreme battery drain. Therefore, it was necessary, together with NXP, which delivers the system on a chip, to look for alternatives. The company had reviewed the i.MX 8M Mini (a lower-powered alternative, but with fewer options available), but an update to NXP's i.MX 8M software stack (which ran in February 2019) ended with Resolver. battery drain and overheating issues Post batch delivery schedule followed.
The Librem 5 is, due to its orientation, one of the most followed projects by fans of free and open source. Therefore, it is not surprising to collect various reactions, including those expressing doubts.
The company allows consumers to choose their delivery packages. Depending on their decision, they should receive alpha or beta species. Of the final product. The delivery period for the Fir lot is estimated in the fourth quarter of next year. In principle, any consumer wishing to take possession of a complete product must agree to the latter.
Until July 31st, the GNU / Linux smartphone was available for pre-sale at $ 649. But now for those who are interested in acquiring a piece, they have to pay a little more (the truth is not much) since the price for new parts is $ 699.
In the opinion of many, the cost of acquiring a device at this time is not relevant, since the difference is minimal.
Finally, it is time to wait for the missing pieces to reach Purism so that the batch that is on hold is sent as soon as possible. It should also be noted that since the option to purchase a part is available, Purism cannot take too many risks in overstocking (since the product is new) so the best option is to limit itself to some extent.