To Purism: As you say “…Here, we will post the answers to some frequently asked questions, and update this document as new questions come in.”, could you please mark new questions/answers or changed answers to old questions somehow, for example in colors or whatever makes sense.
Thanks
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Please give us a table, purchase date against shipping date?
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if it were possible, the company could give a generic indication of the number of phones available for each individual lot and indicate, based on when the purchase order was made, to which lot to refer. So everyone would have a general idea and decide in time if they would accept the lot. moreover, everybody would know when he can think that the phone will arrive.
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They are developing the case in retrospect - this is why some people (me) feel that the company have been at best disingenuous with their shipping release info.
I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with you. I will never think that the company is in bad faith. But do you know how many there are and how many things they have to deal with? what they are doing is mythical.
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I am confused about the shipping announcement and the batch faq, one states unfinished switch caps (handcrafted) for aspen and birch, and the other states that the switches will just be the bare switch pole. So does unfinished mean no switch caps?
That is my understanding of it. I hope there may be some kind of cap later on that can be added. I like the Aspen for its collectibility, but bare switch caps is kind of a bummer.
Yes, that’s a bit weird.
Announcement:
Aspen: unfinished switch caps (hand crafted)
Chestnut: capped switches
Which I read as “handcrafted switch caps in Aspen + Birch, nicely capped switches in Chestnut+”
However, the FAQ indicates that this was a bug (contradiction) in the announcement.
FAQ:
Aspen: bare switch pole, without the ergonomic covers on top
@Richard, the available info leaves a definition gap for Birch. FAQ says bare switches for first batch, announcement says caps for Chestnut. Could it be that the bug in the announcement was that the cap-info for A+B was combined and should have been this: ?
Aspen: bare switches
Birch: handcrafted switch caps
Chestnut: capped switches
On the topic of kill-switches and the caps, or uncapped versions, I just thought for the first time what a problem it is to do kill-switches on a phone. I’m not an engineer, but it seems like one of those things that sounds easy until you start to try doing it.
- a dust-tight seal for the opening in the case despite variations in the tolerances of manufacturing the boards, components, and cases
- accessibility to operate the switches for the majority of human finger & nail variations
- assurance that the switches will operate quickly and easily
- assurance that the switches will NOT operate by an unintended interaction with a pocket, purse, case, or other things that come in contact with the phone
- caps that will look natural in the case and not discolor or degrade in the finish over time and use
- etc.?
Sure, this might be an hours work for a pro, but this is something that I don’t know if it’s ever been done before on such a device, so not an easy feat. I’m guessing that if the case of the Aspen batch is made so that you can work the bare switches, you also wouldn’t be able to get caps to install after the fact because it would screw up the 3rd & 4th item above. Maybe a case and caps from a later batch would fit the rest of the system though.
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I would like to know about the logistics preventing people from being able to choose Fir. Considering there was a significant percentage of people that replied to the poll saying that they would choose Fir.
Fir is the (notional) next version of the phone.
I think the ‘(hand crafted)’ is referring to the whole case/product not the switches specifically in that sense. I think it may be just an unfortunate placement of the ‘(hand crafted)’ next to the ‘unfinished switch caps’. It probably should have said:
Mechanical Design: Individually milled case, loose fit, varying alignment, unfinished switch caps, hand crafted.
So from my understanding I believe any form of capped switches begins with Chestnut
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Problem 1: Fir (probably) doesn’t exist yet beyond the base design of the Librem 5v1 and could be canceled.
Problem 2: That poll wasn’t posted by a Purism employee, so Fir being an option in the poll doesn’t mean that anyone should have expected to be able to wait for Fir.
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Those were the same problems facing the Librem 5v1, shouldn’t stop v2. If v2 gets cancelled then they can just give v1 instead.
I would hope that Purism saw that poll and would consider giving people the option to move their pre-orders to Fir
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Well this is my opinion on it…
Purism have invested time and money into developing the hardware and software for v1. They have also bulk purchased the components for v1. So I don’t think they could offer v2 to existing backers with no additional fee without losing some money. Or at least there is a greater risk of not recouping development costs.
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Exactly. A pre-order now pays for the development and production of the 5v1. To shift a pre-order to the 5v2 is to ask for Purism to foot the bill for developing the next phone.
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i do not agree with you, the librem v2 is not another phone, is the same phone with the same cpu, it just got a shrink process, that’s it.
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So on the https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ page there is clearly pointed at stock keeping unit: L5V1. Is it to expect from Purism that there will be (any time soon or latter) new pre-order page for SKU: L5V2? Looks like you expect that the new development and production process will cost more than $699.00 (when new pre-order page published). And, it is not about shifting my current pre-order to batch Fir but an unofficial answer may help myself to know more about what price is to expect for v2 and if there is already enough willing power to start new (in parallel or by ending the current one) pre-order process, even if not tomorrow.
@eagle as far as I am aware, they haven’t released specs for v2 beyond saying it will have a newer processor. It’s possible there will be other changes. Well it may be unlikely but I’m hoping for NFC and Infrared. 
@Quarnero I think it may be a while before there is any more talk of v2. It’s possible they will have a pre-order page or maybe they’ll just announce it and add it to the shop when it’s ready like the laptop revisions.
I don’t think it will necessarily be more than $699. The v4 laptops were upgraded without increasing the price. It’s just that I assume they have already made a lot of large payments and production agreements for the first phone and many people paid $599 and $649. So if a lot of those people now want to move their order to the v2 phone they will have over invested in the v1 parts and production. A smaller run of the v1 would probably also increase the cost of the phone, compounding the problem.
Having said all that, if anyone is really keen on waiting for v2 there is no harm emailing them to ask.
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@zero nicole faerber wrote it in this forum, they are in touch with nxp that will release a shrinked version of this soc and that’s what will be in the v2
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