With 5 years of OS support and 8 years of security update.
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I really wish it had a 3.5mm audio jack. I don’t see what companies stand to earn, other than money, when they remove the headphone jack.
I can see why Apple and Samsung removed it because the they can market their own wireless headphones.
Removing the jack only removes capability, it is not like older phones didn’t have the capability to connect to Bluetooth headphones
Yeah their original excuse to remove it was largely related to space due to the modular design.
If you want to read it is here.
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/9836188988049-Audio-jack-3-5mm
get wit the times
Threads for Fairphone often fill up with “it’s not going to work if they don’t X.” Lots of people don’t seem to understand that their personal viewpoint can be quite different from other’s.
There are people who are aware of the trade-offs of a Fairphone, but still choose to get one.
I’ve always been in favour of a phone with a shitty camera. I don’t give a fuck about posting on social media, and these days a huge chunk of a phone’s price is determined by how powerful of a camera they were able to cram into it.
I recognize that this apparently sounds insane to most people.
It’s nice to have a decent camera, but honestly, 90% of the people (including myself) are so bad at taking pictures, that the difference between mid range and ultra premium is almost zero.
The only thing that’s really really cool is night mode. My Pixel can take really great photos with extremely low light levels.
I don’t post on social media either, but my phone have replaced the compact camera that I used to pack for family vacations.
I suspect that’s what most people use their phone camera phone: to take personal photos that will only be shared with family members.
In terms of BOM the cameras usually aren’t even that much. It’s just one factor that allows them to differentiate “premium” phones they can gouge more for.
Interesting how they went for an IoT SoC (Qualcomm QCM 6490), instead for an SoC that’s actually meant for usage in phones.
They probably did this to be able to get longer Android updates. As a side effect, that means it natively supports desktop Ubuntu and Windows 11 IoT Enterprise.
On the other hand, this is pretty much the only phone using this SoC. (There are three models by a totally unknown brand from India that use the same SoC.)
It’s going to be interesting to see whether that’s an advantage or a disadvantage.
I pre-ordered already.
Ok, so honesty time: The fact that this company is good for the environment, pays people well, etc… is NOT my main “thing” for wanting to own this phone.
It’s the fact that it is open. I can unlock and flash whatever I want, I can fix things by ordering replacement parts, a new screen is TOTALLY do-able both price wise and doing it myself.
Also it does not come with bloat, or vendor-lock in software like on ALL samsung shitty phones.
Out of all the phones, this one makes the most sense.
(And my current FP4 goes to my mother, perfect for her and many more years of support)
What OSes support the fairphone? I’d consider one if I could run something other than android on it
Nice, I still had this in my browsing-history: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/operating-systems-for-fairphones/11425
That’s quite a list. Nice.
What are you currently running? Just curious what non-android and non-ios is working well for you.
I see Google Drive, Gmail, Google Messages on screenshots so it does come with bloatware.
The first company that produces a phone with
- removable battery
- maximum 6in screen
- 3.5mm jack
- open bootloader
will break the market
The Fairphone 3 has that. It also supports Android 13.
Yeah that would be nice, unluckily it’s been discontinued and whenever I find one on the secondary market the price is prohibitive…
People want big phones for some reason, so it’s unlikely it would break the market. Those who want what you described are (unfortunately) very few.
People want big phones for some reason
Bigger battery, better for content consumption and overall usage if you use it frequently. It’s not that weird, yet you treat it as if we were talking about aliens.
Not sure where you got the aliens conclusion.
I mean, almost complete disappearance of smaller phones is kinda puzzling? The difference in screen/battery size between a 6" and a 6.8" phone isn’t that big, yet one will fit pretty much any pocket, while the other one won’t. I still find it counterintuitive that most people would put that much priority on gaining screen real estate over mobility. Another interesting thing is that these smaller sized phones are still present in flagship releases, so they’re kind of a premium feature now.
I mean, almost complete disappearance of smaller phones is kinda puzzling?
Yeah, my bad there, I understood the previous comment as somewhat of a “Well I don’t understand how people can like big phones”.
My guess is, as with many other things, corporations pushed towards a certain thing (big phones in this case) enough to make it the default and then the bigger audience just stopped caring as a result.
It is interesting indeed, but I guess that’s just it, aside from the obvious fact that the bigger the space, the easier is to design stuff (my previous comment + better heat dissipation + more space for cameras), so probably a mixture of all of these things together and a couple more.
What’s weird is that it’s the only option. They discontinued the iPod since the phone did it all, but then also stopped making phones that are convenient sizes and any analog sound option.
I don’t think that we are very few, I mean look at the upvotes…
It’s just the market that is going the other direction and we just take it instead of spending a little bit of time looking for other solutions.
And a transparent back cover
Wish they sold it in the U.S.
- rounded screen
- front camera in screen
designed for you
Sure as hell not.
Also:
- lack of 3.5mm jack
- EVEN BIGGER size
At this point, they’re just following the trend.
It’s not bigger, it’s even a bit thinner than fairphone 4. Screen is slightly bigger though
With bigger they probably didn’t mean the thickness, but it’s size. Width and height. Personally I wouldn’t even mind if it would be thicker.
Yes, and I’m still a little surprised, even after the 4.
Are they really aiming for mainstream consumers? Because, I don’t know, but I don’t think they reach mainstream people at all.
Who they reach is those who are explicitly searching for this kind, techies, and they also have pretty different needs than the mainstream.I mean, I think it’s ok that they are making phones like these.
But what’s weird is that they are not making phones for techies, who are their current audience, as I see.
I understand that it’s costly to have different variants, but at least there would be 2 or 3, which are actually distinct in their features, for the different audiences. No need for different SoC, but like there’s this one for the mainstream when that catches on. But then another for techies with jack, a smaller and normal screen (which means square, without camera hole, front camera is distinct if there at all) and less cameras on the back, maybe other diffs too like IR blaster or double sim and microSD. It could also have a different look, like shiny instead of glossy. I mean, it’s a different audienve, the preferred looks will be most probably be different too… and while I don’t dislike how the non-screen parts of the 5 look like, it’s not my cup of tea.Why wouldn’t they? Their goal is to create a fair phone. Not a niche phone for a few geeks.
Because that few geeks is their actual market right now.
Their website doesn’t seem to specify which GSM bands it has (simply “More Bands and Band-Combinations for better reception”). I want to know how much of a given provider’s spectrum I’d be missing out on trying to sneak one of these to the states.
This is a pretty great phone, I just wouldn’t spend this much on a phone. Even if it lasts let’s say 6 years, I can buy 3-4 mid range androids at this price & as the years go by they could be far better than this one near the end.
Also while Iphones are really hard to repair, they do last very long & there are people out there who can replace my iphone battery for like $40 and it too would last 5-6 years. (a recent enough refurbished SE for example)
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5 years of OS updates is more than you get from any other Android manufacturer. For everyone else in the space, you are lucky to get 3.
- It’s 8 apparently
- 5 years is as long as most phones that I used last so there would be no point to buy it
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Fair wages for the people making the phone is also a selling point of this phone. It’s not just about repairability.
That said I’m also not writing this from a Fairphone, because the price is too high for me.
That may be true but how are they guaranteeing this on a component level? As far as I know, they use off the shelf stuff so they only have assembly wages. And that doesn’t justify the price imo.
The high price actually cancels the point of the repairability. I can get a similar phone for easily €400-500 less. If I budget that extra price for repairs, I can get the battery and screen replaced quite a few times.
I say that as an FP4 owner, who did the same calculation mistake there.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to offer support for longer than the chipset
Actually in the past they updated their software even past the support from qualcomm, rewriting by themselves what was needed to allow and old chipset to run newer android version
Yeah, well, they are just doing what custom ROM makers have been doing for a decade and a half.
My old Droid 4 was also EOL after Android 4.1. Custom ROM makers pushed this up to Android 7.1 by ignoring the parts (e.g. the Kernel) that they couldn’t update.
Sure, but the good is that this is the only company doing it. Also my Galaxy Nexus received a big kernel update from people at xda developers, but was by chance and good will of the people involved. Here they did it because they kept up the commercial promise behind the product they sell, something that basically no other company in this sector does (or they do, but with very short term promises).
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The price is also higher because they use fair trade gold and whatnot. Given the mission to clean up the electronics industry it’s plesently suprising it doesn’t cost more
Fairphone Fold when?
Fairphold
Wish it was degoogled. I’d love one, but… android 🤢 privacy hell
Pixel 6a you can find for 250-300 and flash graphene.
Well yes. But I want a NEW phone
Pixel 7a is like 500
You get a slightly newer chip. G2 vs G1. New new costs
It doesn’t have a 3,5mm jack or a microsd slot
Good luck with that headphone jack on the Fairphone
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The link complains about me not being in France haha. 404 when switching countries.
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That’s what I want to see. Real choice in smartphones.
I wonder if IP55 is enough to mount to motorcycle handlebars in heavy rain.
Looks pretty nice tbh! Probably going to stick to my current phone a few more years until it stops being updated but if I manage to break it this might just be the replacement.
