@Rae, I’m converging on getting a Google Pixel running Calyx OS as an interim device to the L5 for three reasons: 1) Ease-of-installation endorsement and VoLTE-functional confirmation by @Gavaudan, 2) Mission, organization, and projects of Calyx Institute and contents of the Calyx OS package, and 3) I consider the Google hardware of the Pixel to be a minor privacy concern compared to major privacy benefits of replacing Android OS on it with the Calyx OS package. To reduce e-waste, avoid directly supporting Google, and spend as little as possible on an interim device, I’m looking at a refurbished Pixel 3a, a 2019 release available for $100-$200 on Back Market.
@Rae, I may out-Luddite you here. I’m currently using a prepaid Tracphone LG 440 flip phone from 2013 as my only mobile phone by choice for mainly voice and only minor text. Tracphone uses the tower networks of all 4 (now 3) major mobile network operators, so I’m probably still good for voice and text on the AT&T 3G network only until next February when they will be the last MNO to reject all non-VoLTE devices.
I only started researching smartphones in earnest last August and come from philosophies of both anti-corporate dominance and privacy, so quickly settled on Purism and the L5 with great enthusiasm. Last fall, I understood from Purism’s messaging that I could order an L5 in October and have it by March, but have held off as I became aware, first, of the ongoing near-beta condition of the Evergreen batch, then the ongoing Purism manufacturing and shipping delays as a result of the pandemic and likely other factors, and finally the universal MNO sunsetting of 2G and 3G networks and their rolling exclusion of non-VoLTE devices from their 4G networks that actually started last summer, for which the L5 is not currently ready with their sole baseband modem option.
So, as a non-technical, non-GNU/Linux-literate, and non-tinkerer user who wants to actually buy and receive, as advertised, an essentially fully-functional smartphone out of the box (for me = voice + text + data + search + camera + MMS + VoLTE), and wanting as much yet this spring, I’m now looking at an interim phone that checks those boxes and at least leans toward privacy and away from the MS-Apple-Google industrial complex, until the L5 is actually ready for other than free/libre hardcores, tech-heads, GNU/Linux nerds, and tinkerers, is VoLTE-functional, and can be ordered from stock.
By all accounts I’ve seen, the Pinephone is a device even more ill-suited to general users and most appropriate for free/libre hardcores, tech-heads, GNU/Linux nerds, and tinkerers than the L5 and I would not seriously consider it for meeting my own needs and interests for an interim device at this time.