wow… have never used this WA nor had a spacebook account or tweeted. sounds like powerful stuff though and doesnt sound lilke many can kick the habit. i think ill stick to regular drugs. the whole bringing whatzapp to librem 5 seems a bit silly like to try and go solar and off grid but brin shore power for emergencies. i think its wise to have something for everything, if you require a bedazzled phone with 10k followers inside. you dont have to surrender it to have a Librem 5. Keep your personal biz and interactions with mom on a more secure device and post nude photos with your address on the other. besides. other options are abundant, wire has no ads and your carrier cant retrieve those conversations and provide them to authorities when youre accused of stealing pet names from the akc database. idk but now im curious. think ill boot up windows and see what the hype is. can we run tinder on the librem 5?
I honestly don’t care about the delay, the main thing that concern me is the lack of support for the LTE band B28 (700MHz) in the modem. What is not clear to me, is if it will be possible to swap the modem user side with another one, but if not (or at least not without involving heavy tinkering with the software/hardware), I have to ask for a refund, because unfortunately it will be not suitable as my main phone in that case.
On the hardware side, it should be as simple as swapping the SIM card. AFAIK, you have to take the modem out to insert the SIM there.
On the software side, I would assume that all 4 modems officially supported (including those on the dev boards) and those sufficiently compatible should work.
The harder part might be to actually find other modules with specs that are acceptable for you.
Do you think this modem could be compatible? https://www.sierrawireless.com/products-and-solutions/embedded-solutions/products/wp7609/
Except that it does not come on a M.2 card, maybe. The devil is in the details. Data will most likely work but voice can be an issue because of all the different digital audio interfaces and firmware support by the modem.
We are currently also evaluating another modem with more supported regions.
Cheers
nicole
I realize that this must be a real hassle for Purism to support, but I really want to commend you for trying to design a phone that isn’t based on planned obsolescence:
- Cellular modem runs on M.2 slot so it can be changed for different regions and upgrades.
- Removable battery.
- CPU has 10 years of support from the manufacturer
- 100% free software so the community can maintain it without manufacturer’s support.
- MicroSD card slot, so more memory can be added.
Since 80% of the GHG emissions from a phone come from its initial fabrication, making a phone that lasts longer significantly lowers the environmental impact. Kudos for making the right design decisions.
Thanks Nicole. I will keep waiting for (hopefully good) news regarding the modem.
One of the reasons I joined 
We have enough electronic waste as it is.
Definitely. That’s why I’m psyched we’ll be able to easily repair the phone instead of just chucking the whole thing every couple years like certain other companies want us to. I’d love to have this one device that, in addition to replacing my need to buy a separate PC and it’s associated consumption with the convergence/desktop mode feature, will be something I can keep functional and use for virtually as long as I care to.
I’m completely happy with this; I just presume 2020 at the earliest.
We’re a tiny tiny number of phone purchasers having a tremendous development capability devoted to our desire, I expect because the company so doing expects they’ll benefit more from that development work down the line.
We’re getting vastly more than we’re paying for.
My personal hope is that they’ll reward us by keeping this as simple as practicable, by supplying a product whose core functions work reliably, and by having the back-bone to take the time to achieve those objectives even in the face of criticism.
That’s a good way to avoid disappointment. 
At LinuxFestNorthWest, Bryan Lunduke took bets that it’ll ship this year, so you might be up to a pleasant surprise 
Kyle Rankin was interviewed by Fast Company for an article. In the article, it is mentioned that the Librem 5 is launching “this fall”.
These major electronics makers are catching up to the niche hardware company Purism. Founded in 2014, Purism sells two Linux laptops that have two different switches: one that disables the device’s webcam and microphone and one that cuts power to the Wi-Fi. This fall, Purism will launch a smartphone that adds a switch to take the modem offline completely along with the other two in the company’s laptops, finally bringing hardware kill switches to mobile devices.
I will be perfectly happy if the phone ships in the fall
Let me be pessimistic
Fall ends on December 20.
Well, we could probably wait until Christmas 
As I’ve said before, this is a very difficult thing. It’s kind of like waiting for food at a restaurant. You don’t really want them to hurry up cooking it. And just like in a restaurant, I’d prefer to wait a little longer, and be sure I’m going to get good food.
and while i wait i can study the recipe too …
So I get everyone’s concern and apprehension. It’s been said before but this is a huge task the folks at Purism are doing. It’s not just putting a bunch of pieces together and powering them up. More importantly Purism has to look at this from a marketing standpoint. They are not a big company. They cater to a small PC market. How would it look from a marketing standpoint if they shipped a faulty phone given the phone was crowd sourced? Take their time, get it right, and we will reap the benefits.
If it is still delayed, the Pinephone may come out at the same time or even earlier with a slightly slower processor (same cores, different clock speed) and a little less RAM (2GB) but for only $150. Also, the modem covers a greater variety of countries.
I would like the Librem 5 specs to be higher, but there is really no way to do better on the CPU side given the constraints and I’m not sure more RAM is useful for anything.
How did I miss this post!? This is great news, and very much appreciated!
Heh, I can always do with more RAM. If you think about how much will be left after the base system is running, 2GB seems quite small to me.
Interesting, I would like to learn more. Is there any way to stop the device from transmitting all unnecessary metadata? is the absence of metadata another way to track effectively?