Purism Shares Latest Librem 5 Phone Hardware Plans, Software Progress

[Vistaus]

I want to see the software running before judging. I'll be ok with the low resolution if it means less heat and longer battery life.

My new BlackBerry KEY2 hardly ever heats up and has crazy long battery life, despite the high resolution. Other reviewers also reported that the battery life is crazy long. So high resolution doesn't have to mean short battery life if optimized well.

[Vistaus]

Exactly right. Most people don't have 20/20 vision, heck they even need glasses to see properly. I'm personally sick of the resolution obsession from a "loud minority" (probably hipster youngsters) who overdramatize its importance. Get a grip. Lower resolution also means longer battery time since less stuff to compute.

My new BlackBerry KEY2 has crazy long battery life, despite the high resolution. Other reviewers also reported that the battery life is crazy long. So high resolution doesn't have to mean short battery life if optimized well.

I agree though that a high resolution isn't all that worth it. I'm not sure about the 720x1440 of the Librem 5 at the 5.7" screen size ('cause that's a lower resolution on a big screen and while I remember that resolution, I never had such a big phone, so can't say anything about it!), but anything higher than 1920x1080 doesn't really make a difference anyway, so it might just be fine. But please stop with the battery life argument, 'cause that's already been beaten to dead with the BB KEY2 and its high resolution.

[Weasel]

My new BlackBerry KEY2 has crazy long battery life, despite the high resolution. Other reviewers also reported that the battery life is crazy long. So high resolution doesn't have to mean short battery life if optimized well.

Lower the resolution and you will get more battery life. You can't just compare two different phones, they have different hardware. But on the same hardware, which is the point here, lower resolution needs less computation.

If you can add better and more efficient igpu and whatnot for a higher resolution to match the consumption of a lower one, then you can also do that on the lower resolution itself.

[tg--]

My new BlackBerry KEY2 has crazy long battery life, despite the high resolution. Other reviewers also reported that the battery life is crazy long. So high resolution doesn't have to mean short battery life if optimized well.

The resolution of the KEY2 isn't actually all that high, compared to other high-end devices.
It's only 440 ppi, compared to 550-600 ppi in similarly priced phones, and since the device has such a small screen due to the keyboard below it, the absolute pixels to drive are only about 40%-50% of the competitors.

So very simplified, the GPU has to do only half the work to drive it.
Despite the small screen, the device is quite huge, which allows them to fit a very large battery, 3500 mAh compared to for example the latest Samsung with just 3000 mAh.

So there are a lot of factors that cause it to have a long battery runtime: the large battery, combined with a by today's standards medium resolution, combined with a comparatively tiny 4,5" IPS screen that needs a much smaller backlight than competitors.

[starshipeleven]

My new BlackBerry KEY2 hardly ever heats up and has crazy long battery life, despite the high resolution. Other reviewers also reported that the battery life is crazy long. So high resolution doesn't have to mean short battery life if optimized well.

It depends from the form factor Purism are targeting. With all their external modules and shenanigans (which is necessary if you plan to be able to shut down modems and stuff) you are going to waste a lot more space and use more energy.

BlackBerry just like everyone else does not have these limitations.

While if I was the designer I would literally boast about making a THICC phone (like 1-1.5 cm maybe) with a ridiculously large (and thus long-lasting) battery, they might not, so they cut on what they can cut.

[L_A_G]

Seems like I finally get to be right about where this project is going in a pessimistic way after wrongly predicting that their funding will fail, but I obviously don't feel good about it.

It's pretty clear that they won't have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by the start of the next year and will obviously have to work off a non-mainline kernel and a whole bunch of blobs well into next year. Being as pragmatic as I am, my way of going about this would be to try to go about is to have the "Everything that can be open source - Is open source" to be the end goal that is worked towards one patch at a time, not a fundamental part of the MVP.

[Kazriko]

720×1440 and 5.7″
That's very upsetting. I was considering buying it, but such huge screen with such low resolution sounds like a bad idea.

I greatly prefer a lower resolution phone. My favorite phone in the last 6 years was a 1280x720 OLED screen in the Droid Maxx Ultra. Compared to the phone I had immediately before it running at 1920x1080 the Sony Z3v, and the phone I had immediately after and currently use, the LG V20 at 2560x1440, the DMU ran incredibly cool, it lasted for two whole days on a charge with moderate usage, up to 3 days with light usage and the performance was very good on the screen draws. I could play Pokemon Go on the DMU without even taking a spare battery pack with me and still have plenty of battery left after a few hours, while if I try that with the V20, it runs down to warning level in under 3 hours.

If it wasn't for my job changing cell carriers, I'd still be using that 4 year old phone, because I just can't find one made anymore that prioritized usability over pointless specs. I'll definitely be picking one of these up if it has solid battery life. (Especially now that I no longer play android proprietary games.)

[mzs.112000]

Okay, so a 5.7" 720p display, I wonder how much it costs, if it costs any more than $300 I will be disappointed.
LTE bands it has are bands 2,4,5,17, so it only lacks bands 12, 13, 25, 26, 30, 41, 66, and 71, or literally the majority of all of the deployed spectrum in the United States.

I can get an unlocked LG Stylo 4, for $300 right now. It has a 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, 8-core 1.8GHz Snapdragon 450 CPU, 32GB of internal storage, and it actually has a selection of LTE bands that is fitting for 2018(or any year beyond 2015 for that matter).

[Girolamo_Cavazzoni]

Your arguments are nonsense. A small batch of phones is always much more expensive than mass production. If you just want a cheap phone with a good price-performance ratio then this phone is not for you. Please move on and stop spreading your brainfarts.

[R41N3R]

Okay, so a 5.7" 720p display, I wonder how much it costs, if it costs any more than $300 I will be disappointed.
LTE bands it has are bands 2,4,5,17, so it only lacks bands 12, 13, 25, 26, 30, 41, 66, and 71, or literally the majority of all of the deployed spectrum in the United States.

I can get an unlocked LG Stylo 4, for $300 right now. It has a 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, 8-core 1.8GHz Snapdragon 450 CPU, 32GB of internal storage, and it actually has a selection of LTE bands that is fitting for 2018(or any year beyond 2015 for that matter).

But it doesn't offer the same features. Even if there are plenty of cheaper high-end phones available, they cannot offer the same privacy and open source promises. If this phone succeeds, we will have a real Linux phone. It's like with all the Intel systems around, they are insecure by default. If you don't care, you can ignore the security flaws. But Purism is the only vendor that makes these devices secure again. I can certainly value that. And that's why I hope they will succeed with the Librem5 as well. Some parts may not be the best on the market, but I got bored by the new phones anyway.