A made-in-America smartphone fails to deliver

January 26, 2024

It is said that we cannot make smartphones in America.

It is said that American smartphones are extremely expensive.

It is said that America does not have enough manufacturing talent to manufacture smartphones.

Unfortunately, they may be right.

Smartphones are a great invention, but a nightmare for privacy and security. They almost all come from China. They run their own very locked down software. It is nearly impossible for even technically savvy users to provide services. Even simple things we take for granted, like changing a battery, are frowned upon.

For years, freedom seekers in the tech industry have dreamed of American-made smartphones. A smartphone with a replaceable battery. Ideally, you will be able to run open source software without the control of the tech giants.

here it is, Purism Liberty Phone — its All-American (almost) variant librem 5 phone. The Liberty Phone is everything you've ever wanted in a phone. As the company proudly states, “All Liberty Phone electronics are manufactured in our U.S. facilities, and the entire phone is assembled in the United States.”

That's what makes this review so difficult. This is everything I ever wanted in a phone, but unfortunately it falls short. It costs $1,999.00, twice the price of Librem 5.

Purism Liberty technical specifications

CPU: NXP® i.MX 8M quad-core Cortex A53, 64-bit ARM @max 1.5GHz (auxiliary Cortex M4)
GPU: Vivante GC7000Lite
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 128 GB eMMC internal storage, supports expansion up to 2 TB via microSD
Screen: 5.7 inch IPS TFT 720×1440
Wireless LAN: SparkLAN WNFB-266AXI(BT): 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz/5GHz
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3
GPS: TESEO LIV3 multi-constellation GNSS receiver
b Wolfson Media WM8962
3.5mm jack: Yes (stereo output and mono microphone input)
Battery: 4,500mAh, user replaceable
USB: USB C: USB 3.0 Data, PowerDeliver (Dual Role Port), Video Out (DisplayPort)
Camera: 13 MP rear sensor, 8 MP front sensor

What's so good about Purism Liberty?

Obviously anything I can say about this phone is terrible, so let me start by saying what's great about this phone.

For one thing, it has a headphone jack, which is rare on smartphones these days. Battery replacement can be easily done by simply removing the back cover. Underneath the cover, you'll be glad to see standard Phillips screws, as opposed to the hodgepodge of tamper-proof screws and adhesives found on modern smartphones.

The Liberty has its own privacy features, with three small kill switches on the left side for cell phone, Wi-Fi, and camera and microphone. However, the placement is a bit too conspicuous, making it easy to attack accidentally.

And did we mention that this phone was made in America with minimal foreign components? That in itself is an impressive feat.

Purism Liberty build quality

Now, let's move on to the rest. When I took the Liberty Phone out of the box, I was shocked. First of all, this is the thickest smartphone I've ever owned. And the back of the phone is plastic, a pretty cheap-looking plastic. In many ways, handling this phone is like going back to 2010.

Another flashback to 2010 is the complete lack of fingerprint or facial recognition. The only option to unlock your phone is to manually enter your passcode.

If you look at the back of the phone, there is only one camera sensor and there is one small sensor there. Whether you take photos with the 13 MP rear sensor or the 8 MP front sensor, the images are grainy, streaky, and washed out. I haven't seen such poor photo quality since the days of the Motorola RAZR.

Large camera sensors in Solana Saga (left) and Purism Liberty (right).

If the pixels are hard to see, the screen is a plus. To be fair, you can barely tell.

Purism Liberty Software

I'd like to show you a screenshot of Liberty's software, but I can't. If Purism Liberty is running a variant of Google's Android mobile OS, you can press a combination of buttons to take a screenshot. However, Liberty runs Purism's own Linux rather than Android, and obviously lacks the screenshot shortcut.

I asked Purism how to take screenshots. I was advised to search for “screenshot” in the PureOS store. Hooray. Nothing was displayed. Someone on the forum suggested installing the “librem5-goodies” package. I looked for it but couldn't find it. I have no choice. Go ahead.

The Purism Liberty doesn't run Android, so don't expect the usual set of apps like Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, and X. However, this may not be such a bad thing. Instead, the PureOS Store offers a set of apps that will be familiar to many desktop Linux users, including email app Geary and music player Lollypop (which is great on the desktop). Most of the remaining apps I mentioned include the Firefox web browser.

Even if you get used to using a non-standard set of phone apps, you'll still have to adapt to an operating system that isn't fully adapted to your phone.

For example, consider sharing. On Android and iOS, almost every app has an icon that you can tap to share a link or image with other people or apps. PureOS does not have this. Just figuring out how to access the photos I took took some effort.[設定]>[共有]has an option to enable file sharing via the ancient WebDAV protocol, but I couldn't figure out how to access the phone from another computer. There are also media sharing options that are not explained.

Even if I couldn't take a screenshot, I wanted to find a way to at least send one of the photos I took on my device to my other device. I tried setting up his Fastmail email account using Geary, the built-in email client. Unfortunately, even after checking my settings and password three times, I just kept getting errors. He tried connecting his Liberty phone directly to his MacBook Pro, but it didn't show up as a storage device for him to extract files from.

When I tried a different method, the battery died on its own. There comes a certain point when it's no longer worth squeezing the juice.

I've used Linux off and on since 1996, starting with Slackware, and I just don't understand this phone. It's no wonder Liberty phones are so slow. Loading web pages and browsing his PureOS store is excruciating. Even with high-speed Wi-Fi, it feels like you're using dial-up, or a cellular connection that's negligible at best. On top of that, the phone gets uncomfortably hot.

Unfortunately, even the built-in apps may not work properly. When I first opened the map app, it showed me exactly where the west coast of Africa was. It eventually tracked me to the correct country, state, and even county, but it still shows me a location miles away from my actual location. Similarly, the weather app thinks I'm 30 miles away from my current location. I couldn't sail like this.

Not recommended at any price

I was going to love this phone.i wanted to Love that. I hoped it would be enough to throw my iPhone into the stream and say goodbye to Apple's domineering ways forever. That said, I continue to use my iPhone 15 Pro.

I was able to deal with some non-standard apps, clunky interfaces, or other annoyances. However, the Liberty Phone has more than a few flaws. It is completely unusable.

It also pains me to say this because I know the team at Purism did a hell of a job building this. They designed not only the phone, but also the entire operating system and supply chain. The fact that they worked so hard to create something completely unusable is tragic. It may be admirable, but it is tragic.

What you can learn from Liberty Phone

I would like to leave this review on a somewhat positive note. What the Purism team has attempted here is simply herculean, swimming upstream from 40 years of globalist American foreign policy and corporate offshoring. This product is a failure, but not for lack of trying.

The simple truth is that no single company, perhaps not even a giant like Apple, can reverse this trend. If we want to rebuild America's manufacturing base, it will have to be a coordinated, government-led effort.

and it is, Must end. Currently, the majority of semiconductors are produced on the small island of Taiwan. 60% of all semiconductors, more than 90% of advanced semiconductors. These chips power almost every new device you buy, including computers, cars, and toaster ovens. Those chips are deadly infrastructure.

Unfortunately for the world and the people of Taiwan, that small island is highly coveted by China.China is slowly stealing the island. Someday the Chinese will find a way to take it away.