There’s a global chip shortage affecting a wide range of industries including personal computers automobiles, and niche devices like the Precursor, and Pocket P.C. handheld computing devices and the Analogue Pocket handheld game system.
The latest fallout? Purism is pausing shipments of its Librem 5 Linux smartphone until this fall, and customers who place new orders this summer will have to pay more for the phone.
Purism says the delay and price hike are all due to the global component shortages, which are affecting the company’s ability to source the parts it needs at the prices it had been paying previously. Since the global chip industry is expected to be in flux until sometime next year, Purism says things may remain unpredictable for the foreseeable future.
With that in mind, if you order a Librem 5 today you’ll pay $799. Starting June 30th, 2021 that price will rise to $899. And Purism says it’s possible there could be another price hike sometime later this year.
And if you order a phone today, that doesn’t mean you’ll get it in October when the company is ready to resume shipments of the phone. Instead, it might not ship until later in 2021 or possibly even early 2022.
That’s because the Librem 5 hadn’t yet hit shipping parity, or the point at which Purism would be able to ship phones within two weeks of the purchase date. Now it seems like that’s unlikely to happen until sometime next year.
It’s not just Purism phones affected by the chip shortage. The company says to also expect delays and/or price hikes for other products including servers, laptops and the company’s Librem Mini desktop computer and Librem Key security key. You can find a detailed breakdown in a chart at the Purism website.
Librem 5 specs
Librem 5 | |
Display | 5.7 inch 1440 x 720 pixel IPS LCD |
Processor | NXP i.MX8M Quad 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores @ 1.5 GHz Vivante GC7000Lite GPU |
RAM | 3GB |
Storage | 32GB eMMC microSD |
Wireless | WiFi 4 (dual-band) Bluetooth 4.0 GPS (Teseo LIV3F GNSS) 4G LTE (Broadmobi BM818 or Gemalto PLS8) |
Ports | USB-C 3.0 3.5mm audio Smartcard |
Cameras | 13MP rear 8MP front |
Battery | 4,500 mAh (removable) |
Sensors | Accelerometer Gyroscope Proximity Compass/Magnetometer Ambient Light |
Buttons | Power Volume |
Hardware kill switches | WiFi/Bluetooth Cellular Baseband Cameras/Mic (Turn off all three to also disable IMU+compass, GNSS, ambient light, and proximity sensors) |
Dimensions | 153 x 75 x 15.5mm |
Weight | 263 grams |
Price | $799 |
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