The librem 5 is out. Has anyone reviewed it or said anything about it yet? How many have actually been put out there into the real world??
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Kinda:
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this is not even a hands on video 
As if we shouldnāt see it all. Kinda disappointing.
we should see a full review soon.
I expect reviews are still about a month away.
But you can have a look at the software on my channel.
</shameless plug>
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It was a great video up until he ended with
For some who may mistakenly think this is a phone that will fully replace your iPhone or Android on day 1 the Librem 5 may feel like a step backward but in reality itās a giant leap forwardā¦ Get this phone.
This was a really weak ending to an otherwise good sales pitch. Itās essentially saying āsome people think X, but theyāre wrong.ā Any high schooler tasked with writing a persuasive essay can tell you this is not a particularly compelling argument.
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@Jt0 Iāll take āgenuineā and ātransparentā over ācompellingā any day. Marketing BS from literally every other company is the main reason this product has my interest. Iām 100% okay with them making that statement at the end!!! And I know it to be true. I, for example, need watsap for my work (sadly) and I know this isnāt going to be overcome any time early.
BUT I donāt think reviews should be 1 month away (as said above by @hackersgame) . And if they are, I feel perhaps Purism hasnāt been as transparent as they pretended to be. Suppose they didnāt meet their Q3 deadline. Instead they pretend to, send out about 5 or 10 phones and call it āthe first batch Aspenā. Thatās hardly genuine. Iām not suggesting they did that? But if no-one answers my question about how many have been sent out, and then no reviews hit the internet, Iām going to be awfully suspicious.
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No reason to wait that long.
For detailed review it usually takes around 7-10 days of use - as a daily driver.
For a detailed hands-on takes 1 day. Or rather day of delivery.
And for a comment on the quality of the case, the feel of the buttons, the responsiveness of the screen etc it takes about 1 second. So if that doesnāt hit the internet like today or tomorrowā¦wellā¦that probably wont be consistent with what weāve been toldā¦
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In that case, it means that they just shipped a very small number to associates and trying to use that time to test ir. Regular consumer, wouldbe all over this phone - video, showing every little thing. This guy diesn look like one .
It should have been a prototype unit anyway - if it wasnāt for this deadline pressure.
Iām OK with that too. Just wish , it was communicated differently.
As long as it gets the basic job done , we should be all happy
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It could very well be that so far only a hand full are out the door. Nothing wrong with that. Rather have good QA than rush it.
Keep in mind, the Aspen window is one month. Clearly they will ship several hundreds. Give 'em some time 
Two things Iām certain of:
- the usual suspects for reviews were not Aspen backers
- Purism has little reason to give out testing samples right now
- they have enough pre-orders to ship until Q2/Q3 2020
- every week the prouct gets better - why now review something that new customers will never see?
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It could be less than a month, but they do have a window here. Even if they send out one phone on September 30th it āshippedā Q3. Even so, the last thing purism said was Aspen would ship September 24th ā October 22nd. Iām guessing most Aspen phones will be sent out near the end of that window. People close to the project are getting them now. (At least the chairpersonā¦ So jealous)
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Because customers can interpret the review in the context of this fact. And also because when reviews hit the internet, a lot more money is going to flow into purism. The fact that they have defined which aspects of the product will improve with time is great. But I still want a review to tell me where the project is really up to. So far all I have is information from purism, who appear to be honest and transparent and have impressed me so far. But I still want information from an external independent source before I place an order at all. I know I wont be the only person waiting for this - there will be an influx of orders once the internet has this.
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Iāll give you genuine, but Purism has been anything but transparent these past few months. Iām happy at the progress theyāve made, but we had almost no updates on the hardware development after April until July or August. I bought the phone in January under the impression that it would be shipping within the month, then shipping was delayed until April, and then shipping was delayed by āone quarterā which ended up meaning prototype versions of the phone were given to the chairman of the board and various Purism employees, but none of the backers outside of Purism, days before the end of Q3. The āruns on Librem 5ā video series was supposed to ālook at something new running on the Librem 5 dev kit every single dayā which proceeded to skip several days at a time until it was quietly retired before August was halfway through. The video series never gave any more insight into shipping than āin Q3,ā which was strange considering the entire series took place in Q3.
In a forum post in August, Nicole implied that the mechanical design of the phone wasnāt yet complete, then went silent when asked if the design was complete yet. Now Purism is claiming that phones are shipping, but apparently nobody who doesnāt work for Purism has even been asked which modem they would like. Iām keeping my preorder because I want the phone and I believe in what Purism is trying to accomplish, but as far as Iām concerned Purism has failed to meet a third shipping deadline for all practical purposes, and Iāll hold that opinion unless someone gets an email with a tracking number for shipment on Monday.
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If all the Librem 5 does is to make calls, browse the internet, give me a working bash prompt, and lock those bastards at google and verizon out of my private business, Iāll be happy. I think we can expect a lot more than that from the Librem 5 in the long run. A lot of people are going to expect a lot more in the early stages, no matter what it does. If I were Purism, I would be careful about everything I said too, given these conditions and some peopleās unrealistic expectations. I believe that what Purism has told us is more likely to be true than not true. Purism is taking big risks and are accomplishing great things. I figure that Iāll know a lot more about this phone, long before my deadline to refute the credit card charges expires. But in fairness to Purism, I think the bar to measure their success needs to be measured based more on privacy and freedom, and possibly less on the features we have come to expect on our Android or Apple phones that we use now. I expect modest reports on the technical front and a revolutionary breakthrough on privacy and autonomy features, and still a huge increase in demand when these modest features are reviewed and reported on. Thatās pretty much all they have claimed so far. We might be pleasantly surprised.
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Several hundreds in the Aspen batch? What makes you think that, have Purism said anything about the number of Aspen phones?
I agree that itās quite possible no package to an āexternal backerā is shipped before the end of Q3. We donāt know. But obviously it exists and works. Sure, more transparency would be nice.
But honestly, after two years I donāt really care about a week more or less.
Thatās a drip of water on the grand scheme of things.
(Also, as I ordered in Oct 2017, Iāll not get an Aspen anyway 
)
Besides, those who assume the batch must be very small,
somehow overlook that the Aspen shipping window continues until Oct. 22nd.
So, the assumption they made like a dozen Aspen and gave it to their employees puzzles me.
If they only manage to assemble 10 a day, it would be easily 200+ Aspen devices, but that seems a low estimate.
Certainly, something is holding them back, maybe a pending bugfix. Iād rather have them do it right than caving in to the pressure.
It makes total sense that they donāt tell the batch size yet. First, they didnāt know beforehand how many really want it. But the main point is, I guess, scaling up assembly.
And QA!
Maybe they got 50 assembled in the first week. Maybe itāll be 100 in the second week.
Due to those effects, Aspen might be less than 1000, but in general they have to ship about 1000 a month to clear the preorders in the envisiond timeframe.
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For some it could be the last drip of patience tbh. Thereās nothing wrong at being honest and say smth alike āwe just want to make sure the HW is at state it wonāt require RMA in the future and it takes us longer than anticipated due to this and that issue, hereās tracker, bear with us, stay tuned.ā
I understand RMA (replacement) is what killed many startups but concealing it may actualy cause more RMA (refunds) and thus same consequences.
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I think exactly the same thing
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My point was, it is unreasonable to expect all of Aspen to be shipped within the first 4 of 20 business days in the shipping window.
For a batch size of 200ā¦1000, they should push out 10ā¦50 per day on average, and likely considerably less in the first days.
Maybe they shipped a handful, and maybe some are already delivered, but only in CA.
Certainly the first ones (or rather all of Aspen) go to the earliest and most faithful of backers and not to reviewers. I also donāt expect many of the privacy minded early backers to put unbox videos on YouTubeā¦
I backed this not because I desperately want to hold it in my hands, but because it needs to exist, so that in a few years RYF phones are available to everyone.
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If this was meant to be a prototype (had to be :)) which under the deadline pressure turned into āconsumer - early backer deviceā , they could still treat it as such. All big OEMs even when the final hardware is ready and OS is 99.9 polished, still wonāt allow reviewers to go public , until they are sure all bugs they find important are ironed out.
They basically have a legally enforced ban, lifted on a specific date.
Thatās something Purism overlooked. Perhaps, they should have made this ābanā as a condition for all of the impatient backers , willing to deal with bugs in the first place. You canāt assume that all of the enthusiasts gonna be careful what they publish. Even with best intentions in mind, they can cause serious PR damage.
To me, this was a rushed decision.