Purism Shows Off Latest GNOME Mobile Shell Mockups For The Librem 5

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Librem-5-Design-May-Mockups

Written by Michael Larabel in GNOME on 10 May 2018 at 09:09 PM EDT. 20 Comments

GNOME --

The Purism crew working on the privacy-minded Librem 5 GNU/Linux smartphone have shared off their latest design plans.

There are a few hardware details as well as more on their default user-interface they are pursuing as the default for the Librem 5 while still hoping to ship in early 2019. Some of the latest plans they are sharing publicly include:

- They are planning for a 5.5 to 5.7-inch screen with 18:9 ratio in order to incorporate a larger battery.

- There will be chamfered edges as well to provide a better shape for gripping and also for more room inside for components. They are clearly trying to make as much room as possible for the battery and their desired i.MX8 components with this being their first smartphone design rodeo.

- Robustness and efficiency will be their focus for the first version of their default mobile UI shell, with acknowledging they are still planning for a January 2019 target.

- They hope to push their "Phosh" user-interface work upstream to become the GNOME Mobile Shell.

- The shell for their initial version by early 2019 will be a lock screen, PIN-based unlock screen, a home screen with a paginated list of installed applications, a top-bar to display useful information, a bottom bar to simulate a home button, a virtual keyboard, and incoming call notifications.

- Not expected for the initial roll-out, but for phase two is when they hope to have multi-tasking, search, and notification features.

- They remain hard at work in coming up with the new "Contacts" application for the phone.

With that said, here are their latest mockups of how they think the Librem 5 smartphone may end up looking like:

And then for their targeted shell/UI that will be the default for the Purism 5:

Of course, they are still planning for the options that users can run UBPorts' Ubuntu Touch with Unity or KDE Plasma Mobile too on the device.

Purism's latest design report can be viewed here.

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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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