Maybe, but I decided to choose Evergreen over waiting for Fir with my Librem 5 order over 4 years ago, and looking back, my decision is still correct: Fir has not released since. From my perspective, it is always better to have a Linux phone now then to risk not having it later.
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Also don’t forget that Purism has not spoken about Fir for years. We don’t even know if they’re working on or if they decided to cancel those plans and just moving directly to L5v2 some day.
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Okay, time to ask for the community then.
@nicole.faerber, how is the status of the Fir batch? Will the next CPU continue to be based on the i.MX 8 series, or has the situation changed due to unforeseen circumstances?
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While 2280 is far and away the most popular size for NVMe drives, as @carlosgonz says, that would be awkward for fitting inside the Librem 5, which is big enough already. The next most popular size, and far more practical here, is 2230.
At 2230 you can get 1 TB at reasonable price and 2 TB at a price that would start to be painful. “1 TB should be enough for anyone”, right? 
Being a bit more realistic, for Fir I would love to see
a) faster than now (but not as fast as NVMe speeds), and
b) higher capacity than now.
Indeed.
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Waiting for first pics of Librem 5 Fir with 1TB internal, but also external USB-C HDD with 16TB to carry around. 
Most important is power efficiency in my mind, without changing the idea behind the design concept. 128GB storage like L5L is enough for me needs - everything else can be done with internal SD slot. But I also would prefer more repairability and upgradability. We waste enough resources of the world and every way to reduce it just a bit, is a good way.
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Most mainstream consumers seem to be happy with non-expandable storage on their smartphones, and storage sizes chosen are typically 128GB or 256GB. Very few go past that into the realm of 512GB or 1TB, as they usually use cloud services for those needs.
For educational and comparison purposes only.
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I have dropped the phone a few time on asphalt and I would say it is because of the heavy duty metal frame that the screen and nothing ever got damaged. The key from a CG perspective is to lower the CG towards the bottom of the phone so it tends to land on the back not the front (broken screen). Now it tends to land on the edge. So maybe having a metal back cover could actually help in that regard (still would be best to keep the metal edge frame though)
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I disagree.
That metal is in my humble opinion adding protection.
Better option would be: a case that delivers better protection.
So you gain by not burning your fingers and I’m less afraid for dropping the L5.
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I’ve tested a portable USB-C drive with my Librem 5 and it works normally. SSD only though (not magnetic). And nowhere near 16TB. Unfortunately it doesn’t look as if I measured the speed.
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It’s difficult to tell without the “Core Team” page, but I recall that on one of the last “Core Team” pages, she is no longer CTO or even “Director of Product” … her title was “Distinguished Engineer”. Frankly,
who knows if she is even still working for Purism???
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Correct, she shares her title with @guido.gunther.
Her last post was this November, which is quite recent.
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Add a HDR Monitor/Display for Fir as the Freescale i.MX 8M+ s.o.c.s. still support h.d.r. Of course all under Free Software.
Purism is Emperor for Gnu Mobile Phone.
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Add an ultra low noise antenna to GNSS.
Add Carbon technology.
Add a Phosphorescent circle around the USB port, for visibility at night Charger.
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I think that Purism should cancel the Fir version alltogether and build another, more improved phone, from scratch.
The purose of the Fir version was actually to assure everyone that a reasonably completed final Librem 5 would eventually be released as it was necessary during the initial development prosess to rev the Librem 5 several times before the hardware could be considered to be complete and fully functional. But they got it right or close enough in Evergreen. To have a Fir version now would likely slow development. Samsung doesn’t release something like a Note 10 and then a few years later release a Note 10.1. They move-on, radically innovate, and give the next product either a new number or maybe even a new name. It’s all in the marketing. The next phone should be “new and improved”, as opposed to “the same but a little better”. Technology marches forward, hopefully in bigger steps.
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The arm architecture is ridiculous in performance and this arm cpus seriously depends on others accelerators to final purpuse, these accelerators are still on construction(Libre) to be enabled in the Librem 5. Asking for another phone with a better CPU is falling into the same hole again and start again.
Fir it is super super super import on the same SOCompat.
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Fir is a batch though, not a version. The differences between batches A through E are relatively minor, and if Fir comes into being, the same may be true again. That may not accord with the expectations of those who have deferred their order to the Fir batch however.
The Librem 5 v2 is a whole different (hypothetical) device. The Librem 5 v2 has unfortunately, in this forum, also been misleadingly named the Librem 6.
… so the extent to which Fir would slow development depends on what Fir encompasses.
A possible compromise: Fir is Evergreen but with the 4GB RAM upgrade and/or the 128GB eMMC upgrade (whatever is most practical without disrupting things).
One unknown for us as outsiders is … how many phone orders are in the Fir batch?
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Purism is in no position to dump what they have learned making the Librem 5 and starting from scratch. Samsung, sure they have very very deep pockets.
I think the main thing with the Fir batch is if they can improve the battery life/power management, network reliability (modem/bluetooth/wifi) and perhaps figure out a way to shrink the footprint a bit so it’s not quite so hefty, like a weight loss program.
These further refinements to the existing platform will set them up nicely for a next full revision of the device, but like I said there is really no starting from scratch here unless they get some sort of windfall of money in which to do so.
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Add a dedicated website for Librem 5 Fir plus Free Software Fundation VERIFIED Device stamp.
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