Purism updates the Librem laptop line with gen 7 Intel ULV CPUs

Purism is known for the great security features that come with its proprietary smartphone and laptop mdoels. The first Librem 13/15 laptops were released back in early 2016. These were running PureOS based on Linux and a custom Coreboot firmware in order to allow for maximum security measures like hardware kill switches for mic/webcam and wireless/bluetooth, disabled Intel Management Engine and carefully selected hardware that does not “spy” on the user. Just recently, Purism announced that it updated the Librem lineup with new gen 7 Intel ULV CPUs and a few new hardware upgrades.

The crowd-funded company initially planned a CPU upgrade for late 2017, but, apparently, it had some supply and funding problems and was forced to postpone the upgrade. Sure, the gen 7 Intel Core i7-7500U that was chosen as the current upgrade may seem a bit antiquated compared to the newer gen 8 i7-8559U that has double the cores / threads and offers up to 40% increased performance for only US$30 more, however, the other components and features balance things out. In addition to the aforementioned security features, users can choose to include between 4 and 16 GB of DDR4-2133 RAM, and the storage options can integrate combos of up to 2 TB NVMe SSD + 4 TB SATA SSD.

Both the 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch models come with light black anodized aluminum chassis and mostly the same configurations. The only difference between the two models is that the Librem 13 integrates a matte FHD display, while the Librem 15 packs a 4K matte display.

Prices for the Librem 13 start at US$1,399, whereas the Librem 15 is selling for at least US$1,599.

Source(s)