After almost a year of delays, Purism’s Librem 5 phones are shipping to users who pre-ordered from the first batch. If you have been following us, we earlier reported that 24th Sep would be the day when the phone starts shipping.
Purism is taking a unique approach in its rollout strategy of the phones. Each batch, codenamed a type of tree, contains gets progressively better with each shipment, be it with a more polished assembly/design or improved applications and software.
The batch scheduled released by Purism is:
- Aspen (24/09/2019 – 22/10/2019)
- Birch (29/10/2019 – 26/11/2019)
- Chestnut (03/12/2019 – 31/12/2019)
- Dogwood (07/01/2020 – 31/03/2020)
- Evergreen (2nd Quarter 2020)
- Fir (4th Quarter 2020)
Much of the reasons for the initial delays were due to NXP’s i.MX 8 chip availability and Qualcomm’s bid to buy NXP.
However, those delays are no more, and Aspen, the first batch of the Librem 5 shipments are en route to initial pre-orderers now.
The first Librem 5 smartphones are shipping https://t.co/hA7CG7X4yQ “This is a big moment, not just for us as a company, but for everyone concerned about issues of privacy, security, and user freedom.” – Todd Weaver, founder and CEO of #Purism #Librem5 #Librem5Aspen #Linux #GNOME pic.twitter.com/thZX7D34fx
— Purism (@Puri_sm) September 24, 2019
The Librem 5 is, arguably, the first smartphone available that focuses on privacy and security because it does not exploit nor track the user’s digital footprint. The Libre 5 features, hardware kill switches, layered security protection, decentralized and IP-native communication, user-controlled sourced code, and hardware encryption.
PureOS Linux serves as the Librem 5’s operating system and features the core apps along with support for software updates via the terminal.
PureOS, an open-source Linux distribution focused on privacy and security, is also a product of Purism. PureOS uses GNOME as its desktop environment. The latest release, PureOS 8.0, was released just last month.
Initial reviews of the Librem 5 smartphone are not yet available. FOSS Linux, however, will report on those initial reviews as they become available.
The San Francisco, California based Purism describes itself as ” … a Social Purpose Corporation devoted to bringing security, privacy, software freedom, and digital independence to everyone’s personal computing experience.”
