I purchased the LibreM phone when it was being crowdfunded. I waited years for the thing to be released, and what they came out with at the end was beyond disappointing. It's nearly three times heavier and 2.5x thicker than a normal phone- by today's standards, the thing is a brick.
If I had been told that I was going to get a developer device, that would have been one thing, but I (and many others) were sold the LibreM as a consumer device, and it's just not.
Along with that, there are reports of how working within the company was, such as this one:
Not sure why you are disappointed exactly. Because of the size? It's the only phone with usable kill switches, running fully free software, recommended by the FSF, with good working convergence mode and so on.
It's huge and because of that, it's not in the same category as a normal phone. If it had been sold as that, that would be one thing, but it wasn't.
I bought an MNT Reform laptop knowing it won't look like a normal laptop- that's fine. But if they had shown something that looked like a Dell XPS 13 and then shipped something that looks like the MNT Reform does, I'd be just as upset.
> usable kill switches
Physical kill switches, not usable. I believe the Pinephone also has software kill switches which function much the same way.
> running fully free software
Yes, no binary blobs is good, but that doesn't change the issue of the form factor making it unusable.
> I believe the Pinephone also has software kill switches which function much the same way.
Pinephone has hardware kill switches which are not usable/convenient. You have to open the back cover to access them and they are very tiny. You won't be able to switch the microphone on when you receive a call, unlike with Librem 5.
If I had been told that I was going to get a developer device, that would have been one thing, but I (and many others) were sold the LibreM as a consumer device, and it's just not.
Along with that, there are reports of how working within the company was, such as this one:
https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-puri...
... which paints an extremely negative picture of the internal working of the company.
Between feeling ripped off for my purchase and hearing how terrible working with them was, I'd have a hard time buying any new products from Purism.