PinePhone vs Librem 5

Hardware Librem 5
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If you look at the schematics for the Librem 5 and the PinePhone, the hardware kill switches on both cut the electrical current, so there is no way to access them when set to OFF. When the hardware kill switches are set to ON, then you can use software kill switches in the graphical user interface.

The PinePhone’s screen is a bit larger than the Librem 5 (5.99" vs 5.7"). The PinePhone is 9.2 mm thick, whereas the Librem 5 is 15.6 mm thick. The PinePhone weighs 185 grams, whereas the Librem 5 is 231.3 grams (Birch batch). The PinePhone is all plastic in frame and case, whereas the Librem 5 has a metal frame and plastic back cover. According to the reviews I have read, the PinePhone feels like a normal smartphone in the hand, whereas the Librem 5 feels like a PDA from 2005 in terms of its thickness and weight.

Here are the innovations these two phones are introducing in the mobile phone industry:

Librem 5:

  • First hardware kill switches (3 switches for cellular model, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and camera/microphone)
  • First replaceable cellular modem and Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth (on two M.2 cards)
  • First smart card reader (for 2FF OpenPGP card)
  • First running 100% free/open source software (Pure OS with Linux/Wayland/GTK/phosh)
  • First convergence as PC, based on using the same software in both phone and desktop and adjusting with responsive classes (libhandy)
  • First to offer lifetime software updates, designed to avoid planned obsolescence

PinePhone:

  • First bootable from microSD card
  • First development model where OS outsourced to many communities (postmarketOS, UBports, Sailfish OS, Nemo Mobile, Maemo Leste, LuneOS & Manjaro)

In my opinion, the Librem 5 is the most innovative mobile phone produced in the last 5 years. I compiled a list of 1050 innovations in the mobile phone industry. Here are the number of innovations for the most innovative mobile phone models:

  • Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983): 6
  • Technophone EXCELL PC105T (1985): 8
  • NEC 9A (1987): 4
  • Motorola MicroTAC 9800X (1989): 5
  • Hagenuk MT-900 (1992): 4
  • Motorola MicroTAC Elite (1994): 4
  • IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1994): 12
  • Hagenuk / Toshiba GlobalHandy (TCP-6000) (1996): 5
  • Nokia 9000 Communicator (1996): 6
  • Nokia 6110 (1998): 5
  • Samsung SPH-M2100 (1999): 5
  • Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone (1999): 5
  • Benefon Esc! (1999): 4
  • Nokia 3310 (2000): 4
  • Siemens / Casio SX45: (2001): 4
  • Sharp mova SH505i (2003): 4
  • Motorola E398 (aka ROKR E1) (2004): 5
  • Pantech PH-S6500 (2005): 4
  • Samsung SCH-V770 (2005): 4
  • HTC Universal (2005): 4
  • Sanyo FOMA SA800 (2006): 7
  • Vertu Constellation (2006): 4
  • Apple iPhone (2007): 7
  • Sharp FOMA SH905i (2007): 6
  • NEC FOMA N905i (2007): 4
  • Samsung S8500 Wave (2010): 4
  • Apple iPhone 4 (2010): 7
  • Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot S006 (2011): 4
  • Motorola ATRIX 4G (2011): 4
  • Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 (2011): 4
  • Nokia 808 PureView (2012): 5
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II (2012): 5
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 (2013): 8
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (2014): 6
  • Apple iPhone 6s (2015): 5
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (2016): 4
  • Samsung Galaxy S8 (2017): 5
  • Planet Computers Gemini PDA (2018): 4
  • Samsung Galaxy S10 (2019): 4
  • Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator (2019): 4
  • Purism Librem 5 (2019): 6
  • PINE64 PinePhone (2020): 2

Both the Librem 5 and PinePhone are going to be important models for the the mobile phone industry, but I predict that the Librem 5 will be a collectors item and will have a better resale value five years from now. In my opinion, the Librem 5 is the most interesting and paradigm-changing phone model to be released since the original Galaxy Note in 2011.

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