The Librem 13 is quite a mixed bag. Starting with the high notes, the case is compact, well-crafted, and attractive. Upgrading is fairly easy. The keyboard offers a good typing experience and is fairly quiet. The screen gets reasonably bright and can be dimmed very low for dark rooms. Additionally, the physical hardware kill switches provide an extra layer of security that other laptops cannot match, especially those that rely on software to disable physical components.

However, there are several hangups. Perhaps the most glaring is the choice of hardware. The Intel Skylake Core i7-6500U celebrated its third birthday earlier this year, and as time marches on, the dual-core chip will only feel slower and slower. Keep in mind that most Ultrabooks released this year benefit from Intel's quad-core ULV CPUs and will feel significantly faster than the Librem 13, especially in CPU-driven work. Considering this is the 3rd revision, it is curious as to why Purism is still using the 6500U.

The touchpad is horrendous and needs a major overhaul, likely at the driver level. Tracking is neither smooth nor accurate and will be a major source of frustration for end users. The screen's low contrast proves problematic in media playback, particularly in dark scenes. The fan is either stopped or runs at full velocity with an aggressive RPM curve. PureOS feels like it is yet unfinished and needs some more refinement. The limited app selection may also be a hurdle for users, especially those coming from a Windows machine.

Lastly, there's the price. The strikes we listed could largely be overlooked if the pricing was competitive. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The Librem 13 starts at US $1400, and upgrades from Purism are expensive. For that price, users could buy the new XPS 13 9370 from Dell with a quad-core ULV CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of PCIe storage and still have $200 left over.

PureOS and coreboot, two of the main draws of the Librem 13, are both free to use and fairly straightforward to download and install. (A quick note: please keep in mind that installing custom firmware, including a BIOS like coreboot, present high risk to your computer and should only be done by skilled users with the correct precaution.) Installing PureOS is as simple as loading it onto a flash drive, inserting it into your own laptop, and booting from the external media.