You probably should wait until the Librem 5 is released and read the reviews to see if it fits your needs before ordering it (although the price will probably rise to $699 when released).
Here are some details that might address some of your concerns:
- There are 107 apps currently listed for mobile Linux in mglapps.frama.io, and most of them will probably be available for the Librem 5. With an active community, I expect most of them will be quickly added to the PureOS Store. The work of adapting existing Linux desktop applications to work with libhandy will take longer, but there are potentially thousands of mobile apps that could be available in a couple years.
- Purism is developing Chatty for SMS + XMPP messaging.
- Purism started planning a Messages app last year to incorporate an adapted version of Fractal into the Librem 5, but there is currently no code in the Messages repo so I wouldn’t expect this to be available on day one. However, Fractal is already available as a mobile Linux app, so I expect that the community will make it available in the PureOS Store even if Purism doesn’t. Fractal is a Matrix client, and Matrix which has bridges to IRC, Telegram, Discord, Gitter, Slack and libpurple (which supports 20+ protocols including Skype, Lync and XMPP).
- The elephant in the room is messaging with Whatsapp. In a standard Linux desktop, you can run an Android virtual machine with Whatsapp installed and then use the mautrix-whatsapp bridge to communicate with a Matrix client. I doubt that it will be possible to install an Android VM on day one, but I expect that the community will make this happen if it technically feasible, because a lot of people will want it. The question is whether 3GB of RAM is enough to adequately run both PureOS and an Android VM. It probably is possible, but Purism says “RAM: 3 GB minimum (subject to change)”, meaning that there is some possibility that we will get more, since Purism is aiming for convergence to be able to also run a Linux desktop.
- There will be a MicroSD card slot for expandable storage, so you aren’t limited to 32 GB of storage.
- The cellular baseband will be in an M.2 slot, so it can be changed, and they are considering offering alternative cellular modem to support other frequencies. A 5G modem can probably be added in the future, but most regions won’t get 5G in the next 2 years and it will only be available in the center of cities. LTE is also speeding up, so it is unlikely that you will ever need 5G. (Some experts think that 5G will be like Blu-ray, and won’t be widely adopted, since it is too expensive to implement and poses potential health problems.)
- There is a good possibility that an Android mod, such as LineageOS, Resurrection Remix OS or AOSP Extended, will be ported to the Librem 5, so you can use all the standard Android apps. This won’t be available on day one, but I would be shocked if it takes more than a month or two for an Android mod to become available after release.
- In terms of the SoC, screen, RAM and Flash memory, you are essentially getting a $150-$200 phone, but you are paying for 2.5 years of software development, custom board design, a non-standard SoC which requires more development work, higher prices on parts due to a small production run, and the extra overhead of running a software and hardware development company based in San Francisco. Most phones on the market take a reference design from Qualcomm, Mediatek, UNISOC or one of the Taiwanese ODMs and do some minor tweaks to the hardware design. They add a skin to Android and a few apps. Then they contract with a Taiwanese or Chinese OEM to build it for them. Their development costs are tiny, especially when averaged over millions of units, compared to what it is costing Purism to develop the Librem 5.
So the price is high for the hardware that you are getting, but keep in mind a few factors:
- You are paying for the development of a new OS and essentially making a donation to the cause of user digital rights. Other companies will be able to take the work of Purism and offer cheaper mobile Linux devices in the future. If the reform of the tech industry and starting a movement for digital rights on mobile devices is important to you, then $649 is not too much to pay.
- You are getting the only smartphone on the market that runs on 100% free software, has 3 easily-accessible hardware kill switches, comes with a free BIOS and has an M.2 slot to upgrade the cellular modem, and is open hardware in the case and board design.
- This phone could potentially last you 10 years, because:
– The battery is replaceable (with tools),
– It works without binary blobs so the Linux community will provide drivers as long as there is community interest in the device. Plus, NXP is offering 10 and 15 year support plans for the i.MX 8M, so the SoC will likely be produced and supported for a long time,
– The M.2 slot allows the cellular modem to be upgraded,
– Parts for the Librem 5 are likely to still be available in the future. Purism promises to release its Gerber files after it has recovered its development costs, so that anyone can 3D print the case and any 3rd party board builder can make the motherboard. Even without the Gerber files, much of this will still be possible.
– The tech advancement in smartphones is slowing down, so there is less need to have the latest hardware, since it doesn’t make much of a difference in real world usage. - The Linux/Wayland/GKT+/GNOME/libhandy/phosh software stack in the Librem 5 will likely require less RAM and fewer processing cycles than Android, which runs in a Java virtual machine, so you are unlikely to notice the slower Cortex-53 cores in the Librem 5 and the fact that it has less RAM.
At this point we don’t know what camera the Librem 5 will have, but I wouldn’t count on it being too good, since the i.MX 8M Quad doesn’t have a dedicated image signal processor or digital signal processor, and we don’t have the proprietary AI magic of Google or Huawei. Likewise, I wouldn’t count on the battery life being too good, since the i.MX 8M Quad isn’t very power efficient. If you need flagship quality in your phone, then you should look elsewhere.
Hopefully that answers some of your questions. Also, it is rumored that Purism will be announcing the final hardware specs for the Librem 5 at the beginning of July (July 1 or July 4), so maybe you want to wait and see if that happens before you decide.