Big screen is a must for a desktop replacement. I don’t care how heavy it is and how short the battery life is (as long as it allows to move it around). I don’t want to buy a desktop with a monitor and all its wires. 17.0" with UHD would be best.
More ports, much more different ports.
Better cooling due to its size I guess, so should survive high load for a long time a be quieter (the latter wasn’t really true for Librem 15 AFAIK).
Wasn’t present in Librem 15, but I would really love the following:
More separate hardware keys (volume, brightness, custom keys).
Better camera and microphone would be really helpful.
What about three or four M.2 ports for SSDs? This would tremendously help quick automatic backups, multibooting, RAID.
Independent 3.5 mm port for a microphone. Update: Not necessary, see below.
Wasn’t present in Librem 15, but SD card slot, where the card is fully inside the device for more safety.
Should both be true even more for the L14 (much better CPU).
I have a refurbished L15 btw. You wouldn’t see it, even if you know it.
(I’m also pretty sure the SSD will be a new one, especially if you choose a bigger one)
The referbs looked like a screaming deal, they had some 14" referbs when I bought mine, no L15s that I can remember. I got mine at $300 off, it seemed as though they wanted to clear them out. Maybe a little blurb about the fact they were discontinuing the L15 model would have been nice, just sayin…The L14 would be a deal breaker at this point. For me, running CAD, screen size matters, a L17 would probably result in an upgrade. One can only hope…
Kyle, thanks for asking!
After owning the L15 v4 I would never ever again want to miss the UltraHD screen. I love it.
This is definitely, what makes me hesitate.
I’d rather have a used L15 v4 wiht UltraHD and “only” 32 GB RAM, than a L14 with 64 GB RAM just because of the screen and that is though I’m using Qubes!
I would order immediately.
Keyboard is completely fine with me.
Having an overall larger notebook is what I generally prefere, yes, for I like the style.
You can easily get a cheap USB audio interface in a thumb drive form factor for this if you need it. Or you can get a headset with an integrated microphone. Or you could get a quality microphone and an audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo.
This is less secure in case of Qubes, since all USB devices on the same USB hub are not isolated, while the standard microphone is fully independent from them.
Upd: By the way, @Kyle_Rankin another requested feature for Librem 16/17:
What if I’m worried that malicious USB devices on the same hub will record my voice while I’m speaking with someone? Sometimes you need to use those devices simultaneously, too.
You can imagine an extreme edge case threat model for anything. That doesn’t mean it has any practical relevance. The vast majority of people using an unbalanced microphone with a laptop are using a headset or earbuds with an integrated microphone, thus most devices today have a single TRRS jack. It would be a waste of resources to add a separate jack for the microphone.
A nice high resolution screen, on the other hand, has much more practical relevance than an extreme edge case threat model.
Introduction of the 15 would give me the confidence that Purism is still in the laptop business, so that I could confidently buy the 14 or 15.
(The Librem key is awesome. I am ready to buy the 14 or 15 to replace my old 13 once I have the confidence that Purism will still support me three years down the road.)
While I agree with you that currently it’s a rare edge case in threat modeling, this is exactly how security through isolation works, which is the basis of Qubes OS. They are even creating Audio VM to isolate everything concerning the Audio stack. Video domain is of course also there. Users don’t even have to think about it.
AFAIK Librem 15v2 had a separate 3.5mm jack for microphone. I would certainly survive without it in case it’s indeed costly, but since Purism advertise themselves as a security-focused company, I do expect such things from them, along with a possibility to update your Coreboot without connecting to the Internet.
Well obviously everyone has their own needs for larger screens but I would’ve been OK with a 13 inch screen and a smaller case/footprint. Easier mobility to me.
Of course we are still in the laptop business, we just launched a brand new laptop platform, the Librem 14, which is a complete redesign based on our wishlist (which is a significant investment), and will be the platform we stick with for that form factor, likely for many years to come. We wouldn’t have bothered to make that kind of investment if we were exiting the laptop business.
The question I’m asking (and people are helpfully answering) in this thread is what’s missing from the Librem 14 that the Librem 15 had, that would cause you to hold off on getting a Librem 14, and it sounds like at least so far, the common consensus is that some people really do prefer a physically larger screen, and once the screen is larger, a higher resolution screen.
All of this is useful to know, because it sounds like even if the Librem 14 were to increase its screen resolution down the road as part of a future upgrade, that there are still a number of people who wouldn’t get a Librem 14 but still want that physically larger screen for various reasons.
I’d be happy with a 14" 4k screen. But if the choice was between a slightly less portable 15" 4k screen and a 1080p 14" screen, I’d definitely go with the 15" 4k screen.
