Purism Announces Librem 5 "USA" Model For $1999 USD
They announced the Librem 5 USA model today at the $1199 USD price point (or $1999 USD if their latest edit is accurate) but won't begin shipping until Q3'2020. The device will eventually be made at the same USA facility that makes their Librem Key and the former Librem 5 developer kits.
The components for the Librem 5 USA are sourced from the United States while the model chip comes from Germany and the WiFi card from India while the chassis will still be manufactured in China. By manufacturing in the US they hope to ease those concerned about potentially compromised supply chains.
It's a substantial premium for the USA manufactured version while still featuring the same basic hardware of the 5.7-inch 720x1440 TFT display, i.MX8M quad-core SoC, 3GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, 802.11a/bg/n + Bluetooth 4, 8MP front camera + 13MP rear camera, and other features that are already a tough sale at the $699 USD price point compared to other mass-produced smartphones. The hardware is already quite dated and will be more so in Q3'2020 when this $1199~1999 USD phone is said to start shipping.
News of this USA model comes day after they announced they turned to raising $2.5M USD from convertible notes. From these indications as well as what I'm hearing privately still sounds like they are very tight on cash. While they often tout being a Social Purpose Corporation, they still haven't been publishing reports or offering much transparency into their operations.
Update 12:37AM EST: The Purism Shop now is showing a $1999 USD price tag, not $1199... Ouch.
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