Librem 5 phone hands-on—Open source phone shows the cost of being different
From a distance, this Chestnut model isn't terrible. It's a solid-feeling, plastic-backed smartphone with an old-school smartphone design thanks probably to the peel-off plastic back and the absolute brick of a body. Look closer and you'll see that the Librem 5 does not have the usual fit and finish from a seasoned Chinese smartphone builder, though, and there's no shortage of nits to pick. There are uneven glue blobs that have squished out from around the display. The earpiece speaker has some of the display glue on it. The front camera is off-center, and there is uneven, visible glue around that, too. One section of the removable back doesn't connect to the case correctly, so the seam is uneven.
The most frustrating part of the Librem 5 right now is easily the power management, which isn't nearly complete. The phone is dead nearly all the time, because so many basic charging features we normally take for granted don't work. First, the phone doesn't seem like it has any kind of idle power mode. It is hot from the minute you power on until the battery dies, even with the screen off. You can't leave the phone on the charger overnight to charge it—you'll wake up to a dead phone. I think what is happening is that there's no trickle charge, so the phone charges to full, then stops charging, then the battery dies.
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Librem 5 Chestnut Hardware Changes
Librem 5 Chestnut Hardware Changes