14 DAY TRIAL // Purism, the maker of premium-quality, privacy and security oriented laptops that protect your freedom and are powered by a Linux-based operating system is making progress on their first Linux smartphone, Librem 5.
Promising to offer users unprecedented control and security features that aren't available on any mainstream smartphone out there, the Librem 5 device was supposed to hit the streets in early January 2019, but the company informs Softpedia that they decided to delay the initial shipping of the smartphone due to some issues affecting the device's battery life.
"During testing, two silicon bugs were discovered in the Librem 5’s CPU, manufactured by NXP, that affects power management and power consumption," said Purism. "Purism has been working with the silicon vendor directly to evaluate the upcoming CPU for this silicon power management issue that would have a significant negative impact on the Librem 5’s battery life."
Librem 5 to ship worldwide in April 2019
Because of the two bugs, Purism has no choice but to delay the worldwide launch of the Librem 5 Linux-powered smartphone until April 2019, when the first shipments are scheduled to arrive for those who pre-ordered the privacy-focused, free, and open-source smartphone, which is currently pre-selling at $599 USD until production.
"We want to make a secure mobile communication device which can offer on-par experience similar to today’s smartphones, but that are ethical," said Todd Weaver, founder and CEO at Purism. "I’m proud of the progress our team is making and grateful to our community for supporting our efforts as we work diligently to get the Librem 5—and all its societal benefits—into people’s hands."
Librem 5 will be using Purism's in-house built PureOS Linux-based operating system, which uses packages from Debian GNU/Linux repositories, as well as mobile version of the popular GNOME desktop environment. It will also be capable of running the KDE Plasma Mobile UI, as well as the Ubuntu Touch OS maintained by UBports.
Highlights of the Librem 5 Linux phone include proper isolation of cellular modem from the host CPU to protect your private data, hardware kill switches for the camera, microphone, cellular baseband modem, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, convergence capabilities, integrated hardware encryption, and a nice set of in-house built mobile applications.
