Latest posts by David Hamner (see all)
The core CPU in the Librem 5 and Liberty phone sounds slow at 1.5 GHz. Especially compared to the new phones just coming out with a speed of twice that. But the number of operations per second the CPU can handle is just the story’s start; it’s not a direct correlation to user experience. In this video, we will review how the Librem 5’s specs are excellent and feels blazing fast. In short, our software continues to be optimized and integrated into core projects for longevity. We don’t forcibly slow down our hardware. And finally, apps don’t have background processes for collecting data.
Librem 5 Lifespan
The Librem 5 is polished and getting more polished with time, this is because Purism invested millions and continues to invest into development while releasing all our source code for community involvement. The Librem 5 has integrated and has functioning indication lights, camera, haptic feedback, accelerometer, GPS, and suspend out of the box. 
This makes the Librem 5 a fully working alternative to big techs Android and iOS. The Librem 5 has had hundreds of PureOS upgrades, giving users constant updates to the UI, power management, and general hardware support. In contrast, Android phones typically only see a handful of operating system upgrades in their lifespan, many of which hurt overall performance and features.
Harmful and Exploitive Business Practices Employed by Tech Giants
In 2017, Apple admitted to intentionally slowing down older iPhones. The claim was this would increase your phone’s lifespan. But really, it made your once snappy phone feel much more sluggish, leading some to upgrade their phones to a newer model with marginally better specs. Instead of forcibly lowering CPU speed on old phones to “help protect aging batteries”. We keep our phones running at full speed, allowing users to replace their batteries easily.
Heavier OS and Apps
Android and iOS get bigger, heavier, and less performant over time because the apps and OS become tuned for faster and faster hardware while adding more bloat and tracking services.
When developers start making apps on faster hardware, everything less powerful gets forgotten, resulting in only the latest hardware supporting all apps properly. This is not because older hardware can’t run updated apps but because no time was given to support them.
Trustworthy Apps vs. Untrustworthy Apps
PureOS from Purism runs apps, that are designed to support security and privacy. Compare that to Android, Apple, or Microsoft apps that are intentionally supported by a targeted advertising business model rooted in Surveillance Capitalism.
This makes these intrusive operating systems leaky, meaning, they enable the developer to monitor, track, and data mine the end user for profits.
A single intrusive Android, Apple, or Microsoft app enables the developer to conduct audio, video, and physical surveillance on the end user while data mining highly confidential personal, business, medical, legal, employment, and location information from the end user to exploit for profits.
The more apps on an Android or iOS phone, the more background processes and concerns of data collection. This is not the case with PureOS apps. While some apps are designed to run in the background, most only use CPU power when open. Installing them costs only disk space, not your browser history, GPS location, camera roll, and contact lists.
PureOS Evolution, and Convergence
PureOS is flexible and resource efficient on a variety of hardware. Were Android and IOS are limited mostly to mobile phones. PureOS is purposely designed to support true convergence making the Librem 5 a full functioning cellular phone that is supported by a full functioning desktop PC that fits in the Palm of your hand. PureOS on the Librem 5 is identical to PureOS that supports our Librem 14 laptop PC, Librem 11 tablet PC, or a server manufactured by Purism such as our Librem Mini.
Executive Summary
We are proud to say that the Librem 5, like all of our other devices and PCs, is purposely designed for security and privacy. We reject surveillance and data mining business practices rooted in Surveillance Capitalism. If the Librem 5 were running a bloated data mining Android or iOS, it would surely be slower. But it’s not; it’s running efficient code meant to provide long life, good performance, and security. In reality, 1.5Ghz has always been fast; the issue is phones have been selling small spec bumps, not efficiency and long life. The Librem 5 and Libery phone feels blazing fast for all normal phone operations such as Phone Calls, Texting, and Web browsing. Thanks to the software architecture, the phone will remain fast for years to come.
Purism Products and Availability Chart
The current product and shipping chart of Purism products, updated on October 18th, 2024
