Librem 5 Shipping Batches

Yep.its all about the decibels :slight_smile:
Itā€™s been an obsession of mine ever since I started using phones for work. That and battery life.

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Wood would be amazing. Like rosewood or teak or something, it would float in waterā€¦lol. Just donā€™t get it too close to the fire.

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I hope whoever hears back from Purism first about their batch order will tell us immediately and when they purchased so we can all speculate

I waited to order after first hearing because of Canonical and the Ubuntu phone disappointment. I was hesitant so I didnā€™t order as quickly as I could have so I get if I wonā€™t be one of the first few lucky ones. I am just so excited.

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Same here. I occasionally would search for Linux phone because I wanted such a device so bad, after seeing other projects fail to actually produce a device I was skeptical with librem 5. I stumbled on the crowd funding campaign not too long after it launched, I read everything about it and was super excited but also hesitant to jump right in. I said to myself ok if it gets to so many backers then Iā€™ll pre-order. Well a bit of time went on and I forgot and then one day I was like oh yeah I need to check it and it had already surpassed the goal. I really wish purism would come out with a roadmap, if you ordered around this time youā€™ll most likely be in such and such a batch.

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Wellā€¦ I was joking, but in reality, woodfibers are used to do amazing stuff (one article), like bottles. But, yes, a hardwood case would look and feel nice too.

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Oh I knew you were joking, but I love things made of wood and it certainly would be unique. Maybe someone with their Librem will craft a wooden caseā€¦lol.

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I stand (gladly) corrected. As per an email from customer support, both the milled and molded cases will be of metal.

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Thatā€™s great news! Did they mention if this will be updated in the FAQ and shipping article?

Iā€™ve got an E-Mail over night asking which batch I want to be in.

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I didnā€™t see any promises to update the FAQ or other articles. This is the entirety of my communication (below, blue highlight is Mladenā€™s response). I generally find that shorter, more direct and relevant questions are answered, whereas more open-ended and peripheral questions are not. I imagine this has to do with the workload of the Purism personnel, and the number of info@purism requests they get.
image

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the poor WiFi performance of the laptops has more to do with the used chip than the antennas. You can replace the WiFi chip btw (M2).

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It is not clear what you mean by chip replacement as in M2. Can we buy from pur.ism and self install?

Yes , the cellular baseband modem as well as the wifi card ( or so it seems from the assembled soc pictures ) too is user replaceable as per M.2 modular slots .

I only recently learned the wifi module was also M.2 but I guess thats how they got a hardware switch on it .

Iā€™m not sure if Purism itself will be the ones responsible for selling these items however or if weā€™re going to have to source these parts on our own .

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Thanks. But what are the advantages of the molded case vs. the milled case if both is metal? Is the molded case thinner, smoother, whatsoever?

Creating a mold is a nontrivial process (AFAIK)
Some related info on molds: Librem5 silicone cover

Apparently it not only takes a long time but also a lot of money to create the mold.
But once the mold exists, it is cheaper (per piece) to produce molded cases than to produce milled cases.

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Will likely be smoother. If the milling process is high quality, youā€™re talking visible, but not meaningful difference. The big thing is the milling process is better able to adapt, and faster to develop. Itā€™s also more expensive per unit to produce. Assuming theyā€™re doing injection molding, the mold has to be manufactured to exact specification, which can take a while, and canā€™t then be further tweaked without lots of expense.

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Ok, thanks. So no meaningful difference for the customerā€¦ I balance between Dogwood and Evergreen.

not from Purism. Have a look in this thread: Terrible WiFi performance with Librem13, Librem15

The bad Wi-Fi and lack of Bluetooth in the Librem 13/15 is caused by the Atheros chip, but the Librem 5 is using a Redpine Signals chip, so in theory we wonā€™t see the same problems (although we might get different problems :wink:).

Think Penguin has managed to get decent Wi-Fi with an Atheros chip and a free driver, but Iā€™m not sure how Think Penguin did it.

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I wonder if Purism will release the STL files for the back case to try reproduce it in plastic with a 3D printer!

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