In a recent CNN report, skepticism surrounds the Trump Organization’s claim that its new “T1” smartphone is “Made in the USA.”
Experts, including Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, challenged the claim, citing striking similarities between the T1 and a low-cost Chinese phone, the Revvl 7 Pro 5G, made by Wingtech, a Chinese manufacturer.
Weaver emphasized the logistical and technical difficulty of building a phone in the U.S.
See the interview at Purim: https://puri.sm/posts/cnn-report-purism-is-the-only-known-u-s-phone-manufacturer/
@waltercool@pl.slash.cl
@waltercool @dcc @purism Yes, but Samsung and LG don't make phones in US. Manufacturing in US is the main feature justifying the high price tag. The Librem 5, which is similar but not made in USA costs $800. That's still a lot, but it's not a regular Android smartphone. For me, it's too expensive for what it is, but some people are buying them.
@waltercool @dcc @purism $2k is pretty cheap for freedom. Try giving Samsung $4k and see if they let you easily uninstall their proprietary bloatware or support installing Linux on their hardware.
@dcc @waltercool @purism I like Pinephone and appreciate that they made it affordable.
However, that $200 price point meant that they could not pay devs and had to rely on the community to develop the OSes. Purism's higher prices gave us faster hardware and (some) US-made electronics while funding software development.
Both approaches have pros and cons, but the main thing is we should not expect to get towards a fully functional decent-spec Linux phone one day if we are not ready to pay the price.
If we are talking about "Freedom", you wouldn't install Google Play stuff, as a nice start. I had the Galaxy S10 for years and never used any software from Samsung
Just LineageOS.Also, the Fairphone (European) has very good support too, and very pro-upgrades.
If you are not techie and you don't want to, there are many 3rd parties who sell devices with LineageOS or GrapheneOS pre-installed, like Rob Braxman who charges 400USD for a privacy phone.
