The Purism Librem 5 is a smartphone designed to run free and open source, Linux-based software and offer privacy and security features including hardware kill switches for disabling the wireless components, camera, and microphone. It’s been under development for several years, and it’s finally set to begin shipping soon.

Purism has been promising to deliver the Librem 5 in Q3, 2019, and it looks like the organization will just barely slide in under the deadline… kind of.

An early batch of Librem 5 smartphones will begin shipping to customers between September 24th and October 22nd. But Purism notes that while all basic features should be working, the phone will ship with an early version of the PureOS operating system, and its mechanical design will include an “individually milled case, loose fit, varying alignment, unfinished switch caps) and a hand-made design.

Future batches will feature hardware and software improvements.

Purism has outlined plans for six hardware batches so far, with the first set to ship in September, and the last coming more than a year for now.

If you want early access to the Purism Librem 5, you might be willing to put up with loose-fitting case components. If you want something more stable, you might want to wait for the Batch Evergreen, set to ship in Q2, 2020 since that expected to be a “long term release” version with a more polished mechanical design.

The price is the same no matter which version you get — the Purism Librem 5 is up for pre-order for $699 for a model with a 5.7 inch, 1440 x 720 pixel display, a 1.5 GHz NXP i.MX8M quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage.

But Purism will contact customers who pre-ordered to confirm which batch they’re in line for and ask if they’d like to wait for a later batch. If customers decide to wait for later batches and slots for earlier shipments open up, the organization will also open up opportunities for folks who are later in the queue to move up the line and get an earlier (less polished) version of the phone.

Here’s the batch shipment schedule:

Batch Aspen

Hardware: Initial board, all hardware components included.

Mechanical Design: Individually milled case, loose fit, varying alignment, unfinished switch caps. (Hand crafted)

Software: Initial release of core Apps, manage contacts, basic web browsing, early power management, software updates from the PureOS Store via the terminal.

Certifications: FCC and CE for Radios

Shipping window: September 24th – October 22nd

Batch Birch

Hardware: Next run of board, all hardware included.

Mechanical Design: Aspen + tighter fit, improved alignment.

Software: Aspen + improved setup, improved web browsing, improved power management.

Certifications: FCC and CE for Radios

Shipping window: October 29th – November 26th

Batch Chestnut

Hardware: All hardware included.

Mechanical Design: Birch + capped switches.

Software: Birch + final setup, improved web browsing, improved power management.

Certifications: FCC and CE for Radios

Shipping window: December 3rd – December 31st

Batch Dogwood

Hardware: All hardware included.

Mechanical Design: Chestnut + refinements.

Software: Chestnut + core apps improved, additional applications, refined graphical PureOS Store.

Certifications: FCC and CE for Radios

Shipping window: January 7th – March 31st

Batch Evergreen

Hardware: All hardware included.

Mechanical Design: Molded case.

Software: Long term support release

Certifications: FCC and CE

Shipping window: Q2 2020

Batch Fir

Hardware: 14nm Next Generation CPU

Mechanical Design: Version 2

Software: Long term support release

Certifications: FCC and CE

Shipping window: Q4 2020

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