Hi, this is Zach from Foundation Devices.

First, thank you (truly) for taking the time to write such a thorough review, and researching everything, and reading our support material and Github documentation. Not everyone does that.

I think, overall, I largely agree with your review and takeaways. We are really proud of Passport Founder's Edition, especially as a new hardware startup with, at that time, a limited budget and 4-person founding team. But personally I think there were many things we could have improved with Founder's Edition. I think you accurately identified them.

As you may know, when you are making hardware, you have to lock in decisions months in advance to deal with lead times. The physical plastic and metal parts can take 3+ months to produce. You have to release the designs for tooling, then get back first articles (and sometimes numerous revisions), and then approve for production.

The same goes for the PCB design – we go through numerous prototypes and testing, and we have to lock the PCB component placement 3+ months in advance to align with the plastic/metal production schedule.

In this case, we made some fairly hardcore security considerations that I think lessoned the overall quality and user experience. It's a balance, and I think we leaned too much on the security side for the Founder's Edition batch.

Batteries

For the batteries, we chose AAA's very early on for a few reasons. We liked the security profile (they are 100% "dumb" with no chip inside), they are readily available across the world, and they allow for the device to operate in an airgapped manner.

What we didn't realize, though, is how bad normal AAA's are at holding their voltage. If the voltage dips too much, then Passport simply can't operate. So normal AAA's used with Passport aren't fully drained – they can be used in devices like remote controls – but they are too drained for Passport to handle.

We didn't realize this until later on, and by then it was too far along to pause everything and redo the electromechanical design. So we responded by canceling our order of normal AAAs, finding some sources for more expensive Lithium AAA's, and publishing a support guide that recommended an option of rechargeable lithium (constant voltage) AAA's to our users.

In hindsight, I think our AAA decision was a mistake, and we are rectifying this for Batch 2.

Screen

We likewise made the screen decision primary for security reasons. The screen is a Sharp Memory LCD, the same type that is used by bunnie in his betrusted/Precursor project. The screen does not have an embedded chip, and instead has circuitry etched into the glass itself. This would, theoretically, make tampering more difficult. We consider this to be a "tamper evident" display.

But the downside is that we needed to purchase the display with some kind of external light source. We chose to purchase a stock version, with frontlight, that was available from Digikey. We were able to place a bulk order.

Unfortunately, the frontlight quality was underwhelming, but it was the only viable thing we could ship with our lead times (we didn't have time or budget for a custom backlight). The lighting was not bright enough and uneven.

I think we leaned too much on the security considerations of the screen, and did not fully consider the quality/UX tradeoffs. A brighter LCD display would have made for a better QR code experience with computer webcams, and would have exuded quality.

In hindsight, I think our screen decision was a mistake, and we are rectifying this for Batch 2.

Plastic Quality

For customers who preordered a Passport Founder's Edition, we communicated this previously – we struggled a lot with our selected plastic supplier. This was the primary cause of our moderate shipping delays (about 2 months late). We had to do numerous revisions to the sample parts, and it was frustrating when after a few revisions we had to approve the plastic even though it wasn't perfect. It was either that or start all over again with a new supplier and at least 3 months of further delays.

The plastic issues consisted of marks on the front black housing and fine scratches on the clear plastic screen cover. Some were really bad, and at production we had to spend a lot of time sorting plastic front housings.

We later had the supplier send us another 1000 parts (free of charge) with a plastic film protecting the front cover. This helped a bit, so later Founder's Edition orders actually received slightly better plastic quality.

We are deeply upset that this happened, and can assure you that next batches will have higher quality plastic.

Additionally, for Batch 2, we have moved to glass. As you mentioned in your review, that means it could shatter. But we are using glass with 6H hardness, which is on par with some versions of
Gorilla Glass. I've taken a razorblade to it and it hasn't scratched. So hopefully it will be a big improvement and a good tradeoff.

Summary

Overall, I think Passport Batch 2 should address all of your concerns. We’ll be unveiling it in February.

It will offer a different set of tradeoffs between security and UX/quality. Hopefully most people will be comfortable with these tradeoffs. I know some will be upset about the new Lithium Ion battery, or the new screen, or the cover glass instead of plastic. (And we refund preorders in full if anyone is unhappy when we do the unveiling).

Again, truly appreciate this review, as someone who has been lurking on-and-off on this site for a very long time it's humbling to see a post about our product.