I can't believe it mentions the Librem 5 and absolutely nothing about its sordid history of scamming customers. Friends don't let friends purchase a Librem 5.
this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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Some more context would be helpful (to let people make up their own minds). I've looked into PinePhone and Jolla, but I've only heard about the other brands listed.
Sorry, I should've given something. I linked to a small taste of it below after you wrote this, but it runs deeper than that. Delay after delay for years (even pre-COVID), people e.g. having to contact their AG to get a refund on a phone they've been waiting literal years for (this one didn't contact their AG; they just waited two years for a product they never received and an additional four for a refund), hardware that's functionally equivalent to a phone from c. 2013 (plus abysmal battery life), etc. The refund stories are absolutely rampant; this is not a one-off. Honest businesses do not do anything even close to this.
Overall not a business you want to let hold nearly $1000 hostage.
They had an ambitious project of designing a phone from scratch and ran into complications when covid hit just like other manufacturers, causing further delays. They eventually shipped the phone, and it does as advertised.
You can order today and it will arrive in a few weeks. It's the best GNU/Linux phone available today, can easily flash multiple distributions on it.
They intentionally, systemically withheld refunds from customers who'd been waiting years over schedule for a phone, and I'm sorry, I didn't realize COVID-19 was responsible for them scamming their backers in 2019. Mind that the ship date announced August 2017 was January 2019.
Fuck the fuck off with this disgraceful apologia. Either you know better and are preying on people who are less familiar, or you should know better for how trivial it is to find this information.
I suspect they spent the money customers gave them on trying to deliver the phones and refunds were difficult to provide.
People who go into a crowdfunding campaign expecting either a product or a refund with no risk for just one or neither, aren't the right audience for and shouldn't be participating in crowdfunding.
The delays and refund denials were not ideal, and perhaps they could have handled that better, but picking between complete insolvency delivering no product to anyone vs delivering the product to people who crowdfunded and pre-ordered, is the lesser of the two "evils" if people want to call it that, especially given the reality of the situation headed into COVID-19.
Android isn't Google.
Pretty surprised they didn't mention SHIFTphone with IodeOS
First batch new Jolla phone coming in the summer. I have high hopes.
I am planning to get the Jolla phone this summer, Google de facto banning F-Droid is a deal breaker. Just need to save up the €800 needed for the 12GB RAM / 256 GB storage variant in September.
There seems to be a trend for larger phones that I’m just not on board with. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stuck with apple - the iPhone 13 mini is really as big as I’d ever want a phone. If I could find something private, and not requiring me learning a whole new set of skills to use, then I’d jump ship in a heartbeat, but there really doesn’t seem to be that much on offer
Fun fact is that apple mocked Google (Android) for their phones being too big. Only later to go full on big phones.
I’m willing to learn totally new things and let go of some niceties even if I’m ever again able to buy iPhone 13 mini sized phone for under 600 euros.
Curious how the Linux phone movement is going. Ubuntu touch seemed pretty cool