The device is now available for pre-order for $599 USD

Jun 6, 2018 13:00 GMT  ·  By

Purism, the computer technology company known for their high-quality, privacy and security-focused Linux laptops, announced on Wednesday that its Librem 5 Linux phone is on schedule for a January 2019 launch.

With the promise to be world’s first community-owned smartphone ecosystem, the security and privacy-focused Librem 5 managed to raise nearly $2.5 million during its crowdfunding campaign, and it's now on track to be released worldwide in January 2019 as Purism announces today major strides in manufacturing and development of the mobile device.

It would appear that Purism already managed to finalize the specifications for Librem 5's hardware platform, placing an order to its manufacturer for developer kits that have the same base specifications as the final design of the mobile phone. Also, they managed to finalize the case design and UI shell of Librem 5, as well as the Contacts and Calls apps.

"The progress we’ve made over the last seven months is exciting, and it is a thrill to see the Librem 5 that much closer to getting into users’ hands," said Todd Weaver, founder and CEO at Purism. "We have an extremely qualified team of engineers and designers building the Librem 5 according to schedule, as well as our proven manufacturing capabilities to meet our delivery goals."

Librem 5 gives users complete control over their mobile devices

Promising to give users the freedom they need and complete control over their mobile phones, Librem 5 will bear features not seen in mainstream smartphones, including encrypted calling, native VoIP (Voice over IP) capabilities, end-to-end encrypted storage, SMS, and email, preconfigured VPN services, support for a wide-range of Linux-based operating systems, and a slot for an encryption smartcard.

The device will also support GSM, UMTS, 3G, 4G, and LTE mobile networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connections, and have hardware kill switches for the camera and microphone to prevent privacy breaches. The Librem 5's source code will be publicly available after launch to allow users to modify it as they see fit or to develop additional apps and services for the mobile phone.

Due to its privacy-focused design, the Librem 5 also promises to address the increasing privacy concerns of numerous mobile phone users by incorporating only free/libre and open source software components. The device will be powered by Purism's PureOS GNU/Linux operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and use a graphical user interface based on the GNOME desktop shell.

In addition to the default GNOME UI shell, Librem 5 will support the KDE Plasma Mobile UI and the Ubuntu Touch port by UBports. Purism has partnerships with various hardware manufacturers to increase the security of the device, such as with the upcoming Librem Key developed by Nitrokey. Librem 5 is now available for pre-order with a price tag starting at $599 USD.

Librem 5 Contacts app
Librem 5 Contacts app
Librem 5
Librem 5
Librem 5 dev kit blueprint
Librem 5 dev kit blueprint

Librem 5 (5 Images)

Librem 5 case design
Librem 5 Contacts appLibrem 5
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