The first production run for the NC_1 was 500 devices, whereas Purism is producing 10k, so you have a lot more overhead costs per unit, plus Necunos is assembling in Finland, which is very expensive compared to China. I think that the people who pre-ordered the NC_1 want a mobile Linux device company focused on security to exist in Europe. If Necunos doesn’t manage to ship soon, however, I can’t see the company managing to survive, because Purism will take its niche market.
However, Necunos plans to also offer a custom commercial version of the NC_1, and Necunos might be able find enough companies that have special security needs and need customized devices.
I predict that the second version of the Librem 5 will have more RAM and Flash memory, but it will probably use the same SoC. I don’t think that Purism will switch to the i.MX 8M mini despite the fact that it is more energy efficient, because it has a less powerful GPU and little video out, so it won’t work well for convergence as a PC, which is one of the goals of the Librem 5.
Maybe Purism can switch to Rockchip in the future now that the Lima drivers have improved, but it sounds like the future RK3588 won’t use the standard Mali GPU, so that probably won’t be a possibility. As I see it, Purism is probably stuck with the i.MX 8-series for the next couple years, so we have to pray that NXP will decide to either offer the i.MX 8M mini with a more powerful GPU/VPU or do a die shrink on the i.MX 8M Quad.
If the better version of the PinePhone with 3GB RAM 64 GB Flash costs $250 or $300, I think that a lot of people will order it, but PINE64 expects users to solve a lot of their own problems. It will be a great DIY phone, but probably not a good phone for people who aren’t tinkerers.
The Librem 5 will be a thick brick (and probably require frequent charging), so people who want a normal sized phone will have to go with the PinePhone. PINE64 doesn’t have many software developers and is relying on the community to provide a lot of the software, so I expect that using the PinePhone will be a real challenge in the first year.
Here is how I would summarize it:
PinePhone:
- Outdated SoC
- Low resolution camera and can’t be improved due to the SoC
- Economical
- Software will be very rough and don’t expect much hand-holding from the manufacturer, but can get help from the communities providing the software
- Slim case, so easier to carry
Librem 5:
- More modern SoC (but still underpowered compared to today’s Snapdragon, Exynos and Helios)
- Acceptable camera
- Software will be rough at first, but it will improve, so will probably be good enough that a normal person can use it as a standard phone in a year or two.
- Very thick, so only for people who don’t mind the large size
- First phone in the world with replaceable Wi-Fi and cellular baseband