I forgot to mention something important:
The Librem 11 does not actually support PCIe 4.0, even though it uses the Kingston KC3000, which is a PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe drive. There is still a very real possibility that the Librem 16 may use a CPU that supports up to PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0 or above.
@jonathon.hall Thanks for sharing the L16 preview! A few points of feedback before you make a full BOM commitment to the factory:
That keyboard is a disaster if it’s the same chiclet design as L15 (can’t tell from the photos). It cost me an entire L15. (Maybe I could have just replaced the keyboard, but water usually finds its way around, once inside.) Realistically, between drinks and citrus fruits, liquid spray is going to find its way into the chiclet gaps. In the early stages of keyboard disease, the trackpad experiences spurious wake events 24/7 (which might wake you in the middle of the night). In the later stages, it induces increasingly frequent key repeats at random, making typing all but impossible. I almost lost my current L15 due to a major spill, but I was quick enough to unscrew the whole thing and hang the boards in front of a fan all night long with the dehumidifier on. Yeah, I could just not eat or drink anywhere nearby, but that’s not a realistic constraint for most people who are glued to their machine all day. And the stray light from the gaps is quite annoying. There are better solutions, ideally a fully sealed water-resistant keyboard. Does it add $100 to the BOM as an upgrade option? Fine. Anything but another destroyed laptop!
Please put in a firmware menu option to disable the battery etc. LEDs. (I assume the keyboard LEDs can be dimmed or shut off with Fn+F3.) There’s nothing more annoying than extraneous light sources when working in the dark, especially when they’re a different color than the keyboard itself.
The keyboard layout is better, notably the conventional right shift. I do wonder, though, if removing those speaker panels would buy enough space for a number pad. If so, I think more people would want the latter. What privacy-conscious customer is going to blare their audio through speakers as opposed to a headset? Not a show-stopper but worth considering.
At least as an option, a CPU with more cores and lower GHz would be preferable. Nobody is fooled by GHz anymore; GPU won the compute war years ago. It just wastes battery, heats up your lap, and makes fan noise. At minimum, maybe add a firmware menu option to disable Turbo mode so we don’t have to listen to the noise (How to reduce annoying fan noise).
DDR5 would be highly desirable, especially considering that many of us run Qubes which utilizes memory-intensive VMs.
I presume that the 16" diagonal is necessary because that’s the smallest form factor that will provide 3840x2160 (4K) with a matte finish. Seems like most people would prefer smaller, as would I, but any lower resolution or a reflective screen would be a deal breaker. Perhaps those who don’t care can opt for the next L14 spin instead.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s a plastic case. Hopefully it doesn’t have the L15 metal bottom panel, which just flexes and induces trace stress, fan misalignment and grinding, and popping screws over time. Metal is a nonstarter unless it’s got the integrity of a Macbook Air.
It would be nice to have smaller and larger battery options for the same reason you support 30W and 100W chargers. Granted, maybe this is moot if I can plug a power bank into the USBC(?) charging port.
I agree with others who consider the fingerprint scanner to be nothing more than an annoyance.
Nevertheless congrats to the team on the very substantial progress!
Yes, although it looks like you will need to contact Purism support for an out-of-warranty repair, as the shop listing for a refurbished keyboard no longer exists.
I do, but I am fine with the speakers being on the bottom of the laptop again in exchange for a number pad.
Still machined aluminum.
you will need to contact Purism support for an out-of-warranty repair, as the shop listing for a refurbished keyboard no longer exists.
Thanks but…
Dear Purism: this just underscores why “do it right the first time” with a waterproof keyboard is the way to go, at least as an upgrade option. Nobody is buying your devices to save money.
Still machined aluminum.
Hopefully not the same flimsy thickness. I literally can’t travel with my L15 anymore because the screws will pop out and the hinge will get stressed. They really need to drill down on mechanical integrity.
Just for the record, i dont like aluminumed machines.
Or alternatively, do not consume drinks and/or citrus fruits near electronics for your own safety.
Survey says:
If you want to exclude my vote for yes, then the poll results changes to:
In summary:
Yes, that’s a good indication. 2/3 would favor this format.
It looks also as though the competition is thinking along the same line…they just released a 16"!
Purism replaced my keyboard on my L14 (it had problems on some keys, no water problem) for about 300$ if i remember right.
I see that there are 4 ports on the (user POV) left side. Are there any additional ports on the right and back sides? If so, what are they? (I know that final details are subject to change.)
The right side has a microSD card reader, headphone jack, a USB-A port, Ethernet, and a hole for a lock. There are no ports on the back.
It’s not worth much of a fight over this but I would actually vote against Ethernet because there are plenty of fast USB dongles for that purpose, and removing it should allow you to shrink the height. Even USBA is going the way of the dinosaurs; a USBC-to-USBA hub will do the trick, permitting an even thinner form factor, not to mention the exploding availability of natively USBC devices.
I fully disagree, as USB has a significant attack surface compared to Ethernet. It would be incredibly problematic for Qubes OS users to rely on sys-usb for networking purposes.
The lack of built in ethernet on the Librem 15 has been very inconvenient for me and its presence in the Librem 16 is important to me.
As to USB A only via a hub, needing dongles and hubs for almost everything is a hit to quality of life. In addtion I have an approximately 50mm x 50mm x 12mm USB logic analyzer that refuses to connect at full speed via any hub I’ve tried.
Fair. Sounds like we should have a referendum on this, although the presence of Ethernet for those who need it is probably more valuable than a reduction in height is for those who don’t. But then again most probably don’t. I guess there could be 2 form factors, although that cuts into economy-of-scale.
Dongles aren’t all bad. To the extent you can travel without them, they lighten the load. I realize that there are exceptional cases such as your logic analyzer. Again, maybe a referendum would help.
There are mini ethernet jacks. I believe System76 has used them in their laptops. If I recall right, they pivot in place to make the opening accessible.
This.
Given that 28 days ago Jonathon said that it has ethernet and given that the original (rather old now) post said release in Q4 this year … I would assume that it would be too late to change. So a vote would only be of theoretical interest.
Go ahead and make a new topic with a poll in it! (There’s already a category for the Librem 16.)
Likely a customer’s vote would depend on the use case.
“Mostly road warrior” could suggest that ethernet would be a waste and WiFi would be used most of the time.
“A substantial amount of time as desktop replacement” could suggest that ethernet would be useful.
WiFi has a larger attack surface than ethernet hence, where ethernet is available, it should be preferred.