eh that’s a lab sample …probably.
i wouldn’t say for sure that the first batch will have them but if they will then all the better 
2 Likes
I’m so happy they’ve started to actually ship! Hopefully that will stop all the “When you getting that phone? Ha Ha” that I’ve been getting from my sceptical friends!
Now the expected arrival anxiety starts to build1 But that just makes the process more fullfilling. I think
4 Likes
So, if they have actually shipped, who are the lucky people that have received the second email with the choice of the modem? Anyone on this forum?
4 Likes
So, batch 1 actually does have switch caps. Damn it. That’s the reason why I wanted to hold off for a later release.
Oh well. I’ve waited 2 years (4 years, if you count the GTA04 that I hoped to get), what’s another 2-3 months.
2 Likes
As soon as I saw the image posted earlier I was a little irritated. I might have included Birch in my choices had I’d known.
…roll off the assembly line and ship to customers…
are they sent directly from the assembly line?
I respect this company very much but this company is not very good at communication and marketing.
or maybe we demand too much 
3 Likes
I kinda think that it’s not their strong suit, as in, they do not have a huge marketing and communications department - that’s not where they’ve put resources. The effect seems to be that received communication does not meet expected communication - which are a bit slanted away from realities as we only want more and the best example. From resource allocation point, it’s good that most chips are on the tech side - something real is being made and not just fancy words and renderings. Even that seems to be done with minimum, as is evident from the missed previous deadline and although the mountain of work may not have been a surprise, the actual size may have. From communications view, it would have been nice to see some extra coms and pr muscle (there are pros who do just this) for launch and introduction hastle - not just for us, but to drum up more publicity, as this does not seem planned communication or marketing but reactive. Then again, these are also choices and several internal and external factors contribute. Could have been managed better I quess, when compared to what some bigger and more experienced entities have done.
I’m hoping that after this hard deadline has been reached and frantic development is changing into normal process and production ops, they have time to have some event, publish more info, have a Q&A, intro vids, tech presentations, show it to experts for review etc. And still, we have to remember that all that is kind of extra, as they have been communicating (several times a month in fact) - our appetites just haven’t been met. It’s a balancing act for sure. At some point I’ve already stated that it would be nice to hear all the stories from behind the curtains and analysis - sometime in January, when everything is rolling and there has been time to look back (which is not the same as product info).
4 Likes
I think you’re on the right track, but I think there is a little more to it. Today in a information rich world we live in, it is very easy to set an expectation and then fail. Unfortunately that failure is no longer fixed with an apology, and being sued is a very real reality. Legal battles are something no small company needs.
When everything you say is being scrutinized and criticized sometimes it is best to just not say anything. Legally this is prudent. For the information hungry customer this is usually a problem. Finding a balance is a struggle. But honestly, I don’t think Purism hides much at all. Todd has responded to me several times on Mastodon / Librem Social, and their staff have talked with me repeatedly through their matrix channels. They aren’t hiding anything, but aren’t answering until they have an actual answer they can legally stand behind.
Customers conditioned to have it all, have to wake up from the marketing schemes they’ve been fed, and realize the real world can’t operate like that, especially when it isn’t a billion dollar corporation behind it.
9 Likes
Ay, size matters. Though, I don’t think this in terms of legality or secrecy. Both, to me, seem overblown and unrealistic when talking about common marketing coms. I think they want to be open but don’t have resources or experience (referring to how many times a similar product launch has been done - I think this is different form laptops) to pull it off well - coms, marketing, managing of expectations, control of flow of info, timing…
And we have to remember, Purism is more than just L5. Now here is a new product specific audience [edit: and probably several within that] that they’ve yet to connect well to, that has new needs and isn’t familiar (might not be interested in) with previous Purism message. But on top of that, it’s probably a bit difficult to tell anything, when you don’t have a solid product in your hands to tell about yet - which has now changed. So, hoping and waiting…
4 Likes
It looks like the display has rounded corners. I’m thankful it doesn’t have a notch or bullet hole. 
Edit: updated with a clearer picture.
4 Likes
Rounded corners don’t sound nice if they cut into the screen; that means that some user interfaces might not work as well, and is like having dead pixels, IMO. It also might be harder to get a replacement screen when this model is no longer produced, depending on how this is implemented.
1 Like
You can see in the picture right above your post where the screen ends. It looks pretty squared.
1 Like
I agree it’s a dumb feature that phones have these days, cut out screen real estate… I think just the corners looks ok though. But I think it’s likely that it’s all they can get these days. Maybe even more so if you want a decent quality screen. At least it’s only the corners and won’t affect most things, unlike a notch. I don’t think it will make any difference for difficulty to get replacements. In fact a non rounded one might be more difficult to replace.
1 Like
You don’t think it looks rounded?
From the photos, it looks like to me that the screen is rectangular, but the glass on top extends farther and is rounded around the edges.
2 Likes
ahah, unfortunately they stopped to support the phone officialy with lineageOS 14 (android 7.1)
I use it daily and it works fine. There are unofficlal ports of lineageOS on XDA, they would bring the phone up to android 9, but i’ve never tried them
Yes, from that updated photo, it does look like the LCD has rounded edges.
That is disappointing. I wonder if Purism deliberately chose that, or if they are using it because all screens now come with rounded edges so it was the cheapest option.
So many of the “modern” features in phones are anti-features in my opinion, but at least it doesn’t have a notch.
3 Likes
. I completely agree.
1 Like
Re: Marketing, one could argue that it doesn’t make much sense anyways to invest at the moment; they exceeded their crowdfunding goal by a notable margin and the bottleneck/priority is likely getting an ecosystem that’s convenient enough for the masses to be able to switch over which even the early adopters want as well I would imagine.
Now if they return to the Librem10 tablet next year they might invest in marketing since by that point the PineTab will likely be out and have FOSS tablet first mover advantage.