The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Our Communities
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
The main thing about Fairphone is not the phone but the supply chain.
https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/
Nothing is perfect and a phone cannot make happy every one (is there a jack or not ...). But I'm happy that they try to make a good phone with all the hidden things in mind (from where come from the rough material, who is making the pieces and in which conditions ...). That's more important for me then the final product.
Yeah when I need to get a new phone I'm 100% getting a FairPhone. My last phone lived for multiple years past the security updates. All my phones over the years have died to some trivial problem that wasn't worth fixing (e.g. bad charging port). But a fixable phone with eight years of security updates? Sign me the fuck up. The only reason my current phone isn't a FairPhone is because they didn't sell in the US when I needed a new one.
I might get flack for this but I despise them for their greenwashing. removing the headphone jack to sell their own Bluetooth headphones was mmmmmmh move at best.
I despise people repeating comments. How is making the device cheaper, more sustainable, and more reliable greenwashing? I would love anybody who just loves complaining about the headphones jack to explain that. No one else has. I doubt anybody complaining really cares about the environment either. What phone do you currently have?
How is removing the jack making the device more sustainable or reliable?
The usual argument is "FP5 bad because no headphone jack, I choose Nokia or Samsung"... I guess if you're not even trying to have a fair and sustainable supply chain, that's totally fine.
Fair and sustainable supply chains shouldn't mean I have to throw out perfectly good electronics at home, such as wired headphones, because this company wants to save a trivial amount of money. Keeping the headphone jack means a greater level of sustainability because I don't have to replace other fully functional electronics to use with this phone.
I agree removing the headphone jack is annoying, but I'm sure the Bluetooth works with any device that supports the format, not just theirs. Apple tries to push Apple stuff and they know their stupid user base will buy the Apple version if they have it, but I doubt the same is true here. If they had a wired and wireless headphone, would you suspect them to be trying to force you to buy their headphones still with the 5mm jack?
I'm contemplating getting the fairphone 5. The usb c port on my last few phones were getting very loose at the end of the use. Making it a hassle using it in my car. One steep curve, and the phone slides making the connection get loose.
If I get the fairphone 5 I will immediately get a USB c replacement for future proofing.
It's annoying charging my phone at night and waking up to an almost empty phone because the cable got loose when I set it on my bedside table.
I had to replace the USB C port on my Fairphone 3, took about β¬30 and 10 minutes.
In any other phone it would've meant getting a complete new device
Probably not your problem, but my completely different phone (oneplus 7 pro)has been pretty solid. But, lint and dust gathered into the port, making some of the plugs extremely loose to the point it would fall out from the weight of the cable... I took a needle and scraped out the compacted lint at the bottom. (avoiding touching the middle thing in the port. Good as new afterwards, even the one cable I've been using with the phone since 2019 which is pretty loose after use now, still sits without problems when moving the phone around.
But I'd definitely suggest cleaning it out if you haven't. Even the small specs you get out makes a big difference. My powerbank came wouldn't stay in, after cleaning it's more well behaved. But there's a clear difference in USB-c plugs and how they fit phones.
use a toothpick so you can't short anything
These comments remind me about how when you try to do something great, the vast majority of the feedback will be from people who were never going to buy into your idea in the first place. The fact that they're on version 5 tells me there's demand for an ethically sourced, user-repairable phone with a long support life. Go start your own phone company if you don't like it.
Where's the headphone jack?
I really wanted to get this phone, but at 850Eur that's a hard pass from me. I could let the lack of jack and FM radio slide, as well as some design choices that they made, as sacrifices need to be made to make it modular. But I can find that hardware in phones that cost a quarter of a Fairphone. And then there is the repair cost, where the parts cost almost twice as much as getting a non-fair phone repaired at a shop (even moreso if I were to use aliexpress parts and home repair). Again, I fully expect a repairable and fair-source phone to perform worse than a regular one, but this is like paying iPhone money for a Xiaomi midranger. ~~Also, the 8 year warrranty feels like a scam because the chip they use will be out of production in 4-5 years.~~
Of course it's more expensive than other phones with similar specifications.
The main point here isn't to be fair to consumers by allowing them to repair their phones and giving them upgrades. The main point is to create a phone that is paying living wages to those producing it, and uses as many recycled minerals as possible and seeks to not be an absolute disaster for the planet.
If people stopped a while to wonder why their smaprtphoens are so goddamn cheap, I think people would be lining up to pay more for them. It's not even remotely sustainable.
Are we using different websites? It's 700 euro for me, not 850. Also it's 5 year warranty and 8 years of updates.
This post has devolved into shit and filled with a bunch of whiners complaining about the same dumb shit that isn't a goal of this phone. Might as well whine the new iPhone doesn't cost under $400 for as reasonable of a complaint anything on this post is.
Occasionally sluggish performance
Wonder how it will be in 5 years. Personally think you'd be better of buying high end now and keeping it longer. Also I never had any component fail on my Samsung devices (except screen but that was self inflicted and the repair prices of samsung are more than fair). Same with iPhones, they are way more durable than fairphones.
I don't know of any high end Android phone manufacturer that promises security updates for >5 years. If you want to keep your phone that long or even longer, there are few choices unless you want to be vulnerable.
Also, I have no idea what exactly "more durable" is supposed to mean, but I'm very much certain that Apple's and Samsung's batteries degrade the same and their screens also crack when dropped. A replacement part and the repair will be significantly cheaper with FairPhone, especially for people who don't want or dare to do it themselves because of anti-repair measures by the manufacturers.
For reference, a replacement screen for FP5 costs 100β¬ and comes with straightforward instructions from the manufacturer. An Apple screen replacement will cost you 340β¬ and there are no official ways to get replacement parts or do the repair yourself. You have to pay half a FP5's worth just for an iPhone screen repair.
Edit: Spelling correction
The only reason i don't buy it is because it's too big. Particularly for a phone i would commit to for a longer lifespan, the physical design needs to be without compromise, and i know that the moment someone releases a half-way decent mini Android phone, i will drop whatever phone i have and buy that instead.
I fear you'll be waiting a long time.
I fear that too. But so long as my current phone holds out, there's no point buying into another compromise upfront.
Do custom ROMs such as Lineage and Postmarket OS support the fairphone 5 though?
Postmarketos boots on fp5 but lots if things are not yet working. I think, the main contributor is a Fairphone employee https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_5_(fairphone-fp5) I can't find LineageOS development progress, but Murena look like they will be selling the fp5 with e/os which is customised LineageOS, so its probably making progress.
Murena is selling the Fairphone 5 with the Lineage-based /e/OS already: https://e.foundation/leaving-apple-google-murena-fairphone-5-is-here-welcome-e-os-1-14-join-the-photo-contest-e-os-2023/
My last fairphone died of a busted motherboard, which wasn't replacable. Since then I am kinda sceptical about the "repairable" part.
The only thing that makes me cautious about this phone is the CPU. Will it still be performant in 5+ years?
I mean I'm running a FP3 from 4 years ago and literally nothing changed. Phones don't magically get slower if they're not filled up with bloat.
I'm still rocking a 2017 phone, courtesy of lineage.
People are shocked how fast it is, not because it's old (they don't know), but because it's faster than anything they have.
Bloat, apps running for no reason, really slow a phone down.
If you use your phone like 99% of people do, it will be completely fine. If you don't do gaming or 4K video editing on your phone, there's no problem. The CPU will even be fine for Instagram face filters for the foreseeable future
I ordered the FP5 after using my OnePlus 3T for nearly 7 years, so I imagine it'll be OK on that front, given I'm switching only due to issues with the USB port and power button.
YMMV but for regular users it should be fine.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
There are those who are happy to be in the market for a new device, who delight in discovering how phones have improved since they last upgraded and who canβt wait to reap the benefits of better low-light camera performance, a prettier display, and more premium build quality.
Theyβre the people who respond with despair when theyβre told that their phone has reached the end of its software support period or that itβs no longer cost-effective to repair a seemingly minor hardware fault.
But now the phone comes equipped with technological advancements such as a modern OLED display with a high refresh rate, more robust waterproofing, and a higher-capacity battery.
To that end, there are actually more individually accessible modules this time around, which is nice if you, say, only need to replace one rear camera thatβs broken or swap out a faulty SIM card tray.
Thatβs better than the IP54 rating of the Fairphone 4 (which was still resilient enough for me to use throughout an exceptionally rainy hike), but it still falls short of allowing you to fully immerse the device in water like you can do with an IP68-rated phone.
In low light, the phone produces superficially nice shots, but peer a little closer, and it looks like this is the work of aggressive processing, with a lot of fine detail smoothed out and colors artificially boosted.
The original article contains 1,968 words, the summary contains 230 words. Saved 88%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
C'mon US launch, never have I so badly wanted a phone in the States