Unfortunately, that’s the world we’re living in right now. Other manufacturers seem to be having the same price and supply difficulties.
Edit: Tariffs are likely a significant factor here too.
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Purism just can’t catch a break on market conditions when they release new hardware.
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Congratulations to all who worked on this new Librem 16 laptop!
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Random additional links:
Product: Purism Librem 16 – Purism
CPU: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/232130/intel-core-i713620h-processor-24m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz/specifications.html (for those who really like to dive into details)
Tech Specs in the product link seem to be missing the memory card reader and don’t state explicitly whether it’s µSD card or (full sized)SD card. Looks like the former to me, based on the image but … @JCS ?
You are correct - it uses a Micro SD card reader. More information is published in the user documentation.
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RAM (and flash) costs. As for why:
Onderzoek: populaire AI-modellen overtreden op grote schaal de wet - Security.NL
(scroll down about halfway to the only post in English)
“The reason RAM prices went up 4x is that a massive amount of not-yet-manufactured memory was bought with money that doesn’t really exist to be put into GPUs that haven’t been made yet, to be installed in data centers that haven’t been built, powered by infrastructure that may never exist, to satisfy demand that isn’t actually there, in order to generate profits that are mathematically impossible.”
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and as they have been found in court several times since the 1980s that they were cartellizing to raise the price.
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Speaking about RAM, if one orders the Librem 16 with 16GB RAM, will that come with 1 x 16GB module or 2 x 8 GB modules? E.g. one or both slots occupied?
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Good question.
My understanding is that which choice is more desirable depends on what you intend to do.
a) If you are ordering with 16 GB RAM and that’s all you need then you want 2 x 8 GB.
b) If you are ordering with 16 GB RAM and you intend to add a second 16 GB module in order to get to 32 GB RAM because that’s what you actually need then obviously you want 1 x 16 GB.
In the absence of an answer from Purism and in the absence of a choice at Ordering time, I would guess (a). Edit: Noting that the answer from Purism shows that I guessed wrong. So “see below”.
The Librem 16 Custom really ought to give you choices at Ordering time i.e. so that you can express which of the two possibilities you want.
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Let’s not forget that tariffs still are in effect in the USA, contributing to higher costs…
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| Product | Memory configuration |
|---|---|
| Librem 16 Base | 1 x 16GB |
| Librem 16 Plus | 1 x 32GB |
| Librem 16 Max | 2 x 32GB |
| Librem 16 Custom | Customer choice |
If customers later wish to upgrade to the RAM configuration of the next product “tier,” they only need to purchase a single RAM module.
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That’s a slightly confusing answer because the Shop UI doesn’t explicitly give the choice. It just gives three options (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) but doesn’t give memory configuration options e.g. 16GB as a customer choice between 2 x 8GB and 1 x 16GB.
This is a complicated choice for the customer, if the choice were available, weighing as it does:
- Future expansion.
- Current cost (which in turn varies up or down depending on where the sweet spot is, as well as depending on market price fluctuations).
- Performance (which may be only a small difference but under some workloads may be a bigger difference).
If Purism just says that “Customer choice” will simply match the corresponding memory configuration for the non-custom configs, that’s fine. As long as it is clear.
Actually, this is not a bug per se, that’s the price I put in when a component is not supposed to be purchaseable on its own. The product here is the “Librem 16” barebones part (needed for proper inventory tracking). WooCommerce requires an item to have a price to be purchaseable (even in a bundle when the item price isn’t actually used), so I have to put something there.
@JCS While fulfillment right now is using these configurations, we specifically did not list the configurations in the shop (only total capacity) due to DRAM prices and availability being a huge problem right now. If you buy e.g. Plus, it’ll come with 32 GB of memory, but that could be 2x16 or 1x32 depending on component availability.
We don’t plan to inventory 8GB parts any more so 16 will be 1x16 for the foreseeable future, but that’s not a commitment either.
64 will always be 2x32 because 32 GB is the largest DDR4 SODIMM available.
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That’s an OK answer too. The main thing is that potential customers get a clear answer and on the relevant Shop pages. Two posters in this forum have already specifically asked this question - and an unknown number of other potential customers who didn’t ask.
So, if I am understanding now, the correct answer for all Librem 16 laptop configurations is actually: Purism’s choice
and ideally that would carry a footnote to explanatory text along the lines of: due to DRAM prices and availability being a challenging problem right now, Purism cannot commit to the specific memory configuration, only the total memory capacity.
(I take your point about 64 GB but I don’t think it will be helpful to make a special case for 64 GB. So just “Purism’s choice” for all configs.)
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I do not know. However i do not need more then a trusted computer to connect through some secret device and connection to another one in the future.
Librem5 with Linux was enough to build every connection to a future i ever need. So thank you. I do not need new Hardware.
Has anybody already ordered and received a Librem16? Any unboxing pics?