Unfortunately, Samsung just informed us that the 1080p and 4K panel order that was supposed to arrive in February have been delayed again. The new delivery date for the panel to fulfill current orders is mid to late April. We are working with Samsung in other regions to see if we can expedite the panels, but so far we have not been able to find another supplier. The Librem 15 rev2 laptops are all assembled and literally sitting on the factory floor waiting for the screens from Samsung, so when the screens do come in, we should be able to turn these orders rather quickly.

A lot of the components for the laptops are manufactured in China. This is an issue because at least half of this delay is caused by Chinese New Year, which started this week and basically shuts down the entire country for the remainder of this month.

We did explore the possibility of getting 1080p screens (which are available) and installing them in the Librem 15 rev2 chassis. However, the 1080p panel and the 4K panel are not the same. They have different power requirements, mounting points, sizes, and so forth. So you cannot just swap out a 4K display with a 1080p one. Doing so requires extensive and expensive modifications to the laptop, and by the time the factory makes the modifications, the 4K panels will be in anyway. Thus, we are upgrading all remaining orders to a 4K panel.

We realize this is not ideal. But we appreciate the continued support, since you are helping us on a long-term goal of providing high-quality hardware that ships with free software by default.

We all appreciate the support and patience, as we work to promote our beliefs in users’ digital rights.