I was looking to upgrade but I don’t want to shell out the money until the phone ships. Is there going to be an option to upgrade to the USA version and bill the credit card when the device ships?
You could wait until parity is reached for the librem 5 usa. Or you use splitit to not have to pay the full amount at once.
1 Like
This.
I would say there is low risk that the vanilla Librem 5 will resume shipping any time soon after the Librem 5 USA reaches parity, but to manage all the unknowns I would say that you can safely wait for Librem 5 USA parity and then assess your options then: pull the trigger on the Librem 5 USA (upgrade) v. continue to wait for the vanilla Librem 5.
It could also depend on when you ordered the vanilla Librem 5 i.e. you are at the front of the waiting queue (ordered October 2017?) v. you are even further back in the queue.
I ordered mine December 2020 so I guess I will wait and see.
Thanks!
I wouldn’t wait until Purism announces the resumption of shipping activities, to pre-order your Librem 5. I fell for that trick a few years ago. I saw the shipping announcement by Purism and then placed my order. After a lot of broken promises and lame excuses, Purism has put my shipping of a nearly two year old order on hold, and they are now claiming that they will ship a more expensive version of the phone to others in only sixty days from now. Who knows if they’ll ever honor that promise either? If I hadn’t already paid and waited for nearly two years now, I would wait, knowing what I know now. Don’t send them any money until after they reach shipping pairity with new incoming orders.
1 Like
I agree, I’m not ordering a L5 until I see reports that orders are being shipped consistently within a week or two of order date. I just can’t afford to pay and wait who knows how long. And my everyday driver requirements are basic, make and receive calls and texts without problems. Browsing, other apps are just icing on the cake 
Exactly, I am still waiting for both my Librem 14 and Librem 5. I just ended up buying a Mac Book to replace my old computer that I was hoping the Librem 14 to replace. It sucks that I have now paid for 2 laptops only one of which I received. Say what you want about Apple, but I have a job that requires a working laptop - apple delivered and prism did nothing for the past 6 months.
I like what purism is doing but all the delays and limited communication is just flat-out ridiculous.
Yep, I ordered the laptop August 15, nearly 10 months ago. João Azevedo emailed me last Wednesday saying it should ship this week, so I guess I’m hoping to get a shipped notification email today, but I just have to wait and see. Otherwise maybe next week.
Are you comparing Apple to Purism at the same level ?
You understand that Apple has millions of users, providing billions of fundings and big product stocks, which Purism doesn’t have ?
It will be a much more better situation for Purism when they will be able to empty their backlog of backers, they will then be able to make stocks and sell you like Apple do
And the past 6 months I received the L5 and the Librem Mini, seems to me they are doing something
You understand that there is actually a global electronics shortage ?
If you don’t receive the monthly email from Purism, you can checkout their comunications here
If it’s so ridiculous, what more communications do you think they should do ?
1 Like
They should refund our money.
2 Likes
I mean Purism compares themselves to apple. They pick and choose what they compare to make themselves look good, but by doing so it’s not unreasonable to compare the things that don’t make them look good.
Purism only recently started the monthly status emails for the Librem 5 customers after years of complaints about communication. Purism has made progress on their communications and that should be applauded, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for improvement. I think they’ve gotten pretty close to a decent balance on frequency of communication, but there is definitely significant room for improvement on completion of information provided.
Even in the most recent post on the L5USA they did omit information on the modem as to whether or not they actually have the Gemalto modems promised which leads to speculation they don’t (based on past experiences with their omissions) and whether or not that means the phones will ship with the broadmobi modems or if they’ll be delayed pending availability of the gemalto modems or something else.
So yes, room for improvement on completeness of information provided.
And I’m not even talking about the things they’ve said they just aren’t going to provide like order vs shipping counts. It would be nice to see a progress meter or something but they have said they will not provide anything that could be used to extrapolate sales data. I understand but do not completely agree with their reasoning.
Touting transparency while obfuscating and/or omitting information is a tough pill to swallow.
Edit: to clarify I’m not saying they’re right or wrong for what they don’t share via omission and/or obfuscation just that I understand the optics and why that is a challenge for some people to accept at face value.
3 Likes
I never saw that 
, do you have an exemple/source ?
1 Like
I can pull some later, but primarily their comparisons on how they don’t track. Like their video showing the iphone idle data usage the android idle data usage and librem 5 data usage. I mean that’s a video they created and hosted and shared and advertised. There are other examples I’m sure but it’s the first that comes to mind that 100% is purism comparing their product to apples product.
Edit: video referenced above https://youtu.be/yHcHi0TBFv4
And a post comparing themselves to apple: https://puri.sm/posts/apple-users-got-owned/
Not just some forum post that happens to be by an employee that may not represent the company either but a full blog post.
It’s true they compare themselves to Apple and Google/Android, but from a data collection angle, not manufacturing and production.
All companies praise themselves, so I don’t hold that against them. True, they could present the negatives more prominently, but again: company-speak.
By the way, have they actually said they don’t have the Gemaltos? I must have missed that.
2 Likes
Speculation, often, is the actual problem.
Omit, did not provide. They didn’t say anything, as I said they didn’t say anything. They could have said something, even if it was just an acknowledgement that nothing has changed since the last time they said they were working on it.
I’m not saying this means anything one way or another, just that it has already led to speculation from at least one user because they didn’t say anything.
Edit: and yes it is corporate touting of their strengths, the context here was that it is fair for others to compare the weaknesses as well not that Purism needs to tout their own weaknesses.
In this case speculation is a symptom of incomplete/omitted information. It may be a problem, but is not always (or even often) the root problem.
I guess I just don’t see why they would need to specifically mention the Gemalto. If they’re getting ready to ship the L5-USA, then it’s a given that it can’t have the Chinese-produced modem, right?
That is ONE interpretation. It is not a guarantee.
While I hope that is the case, the last information I saw was that there was no eta on the gemalto modems and no status on getting them to even talk to the OS.
Generally when there is good news Purism touts it, and generally when there is bad news Purism doesn’t say anything until the last possible moment. That has gotten better over time, but it is still the general trend.
With that context it is not unreasonable for someone to be concerned that there was no mention of the modem.
I would like for the statement “no news is good news” to be true here, unfortunately there is history working against Purism which will take time to overcome before that trust is earned in the eyes of many again. Being more forthcoming with information will rebuild that trust faster.