Librem 5 upgradable hardware?

vrata 2017-10-07 08:26:50 UTC #1

Is is a viable possibility to look at swappable hardware for the Librem 5?

One of the strong points of the Librem laptops is the ability to upgrade some of its hardware such as the RAM/disks.

A Librem phone with upgradable ram / camera would make it a very attractive piece of hardware.

What are the possibilities with today’s technology?

Design demands, features request, opinion for several details

mladen 2017-10-09 21:10:43 UTC #2

Yes, but costly to manufacture and larger in size. And requires more time. So, no go for us. At least not at this time.

twinkybot 2017-10-09 21:51:07 UTC #3

Yeah about the hard work and tripwires you can ask the people of Fairphone
They surely can share some insights.

vrata 2017-10-11 06:37:49 UTC #4

the thing is that Fairphone approach is making swappable hardware for the everyone and anyone, ie without having to open the phone itself.

On the other hand, a Librem phone with ram that could be swapped out by actually opening the phone and replacing its ram chip, wouldn’t be for everyone, but I am sure would be appreciate by our community of techno-able tinkerers.

I was wondering if something similar to the cam on a laptop would be feasible, possibly a camera-on-a-chip type of swappable hardware. I guess this is something that shouldn’t be too far in the future but maybe not the immediate priorities for a first Librem phone.

reynum 2017-10-14 12:52:31 UTC #5

Maybe doing an upgradable software for a phone is too long and difficult with the budget that Librem 5 have.
But I think designing the hardware (or/and collaborate with Fairphone company) and keep in mind to create something easy to self repair and as modular as possible would be very awesome.

Thank for your project I just back for a Librem 5 and hope this will be the best open source (hard and soft) phone that we have never see.

mdt 2017-10-14 15:54:55 UTC #6

i think while the idea sounds great the reality shows otherwise. if you follow the mailinglist or have friends with a fairphone you will notice the many problems they have. swappable parts mean connectors and connectors tend to break. i think a swappable battery and a sd connector is nice (you noticed many vendors removed it?) and a swappable sim as well (even this is already questioned too). everything else is better to be static.

twinkybot 2018-01-12 07:41:33 UTC #7

I have a FP2 and I cannot complain about the swappable parts. Even on the contrary it is an amazing feature.
My screen got broken but still usable so I simply order the part and could very very easy swap it then.
Another friend could change his microphone as well.

Yes connectors might break but this is valid for any electronic part. I’d still rather go with easy replacements.
And the components will improve given time.

So I have to object @mdt