Samuel Gibbs The most ethical, sustainable and repairable handset gets a big upgrade with even longer support Verdict OS Chip Battery Feel Reparability Ethics The Fairphone 5 isn't headed to the...
Exemplary
Samuel Gibbs
The most ethical, sustainable and repairable handset gets a big upgrade with even longer support
Pros: Eight to 10 years of software support, truly repairable at home, ethical manufacturing, recycled and sustainable materials, good screen, 5G, microSD card slot, removable battery, bloat-free, five-year warranty.
Cons: mid-range performance, a bit chunky, expensive for the specs, average camera, cannot be submerged in water, software lacks bells and whistles, no headphone socket, fingerprint scanner hard to reach left-handed.
Verdict
The Fairphone 5 is another big step forward in addressing the waste of the smartphone industry, with the Dutch outfit showing other manufacturers that long-term support is possible.
Up to 10 years of software updates is simply unheard of, gaining it an extra star. And the Fairphone is simple enough to repair that the hardware should be able to last just as long with an occasional quick and cheap battery swap.
My main worry is how the chip at the heart of the Fairphone will fare: something that is fine now may be achingly slow in a decade. Only time will tell.
The camera is also a weak point. It will be fine for the odd snap but simply cannot match even significantly cheaper mainstream competitors, which have a massive software advantage.
The premium associated with buying the most ethical, repairable and long-lasting phone on the market is roughly £200 compared with direct rivals, which cost in the region of £450. Though if you factor in longevity and the low cost of repairs, the Fairphone is better value.
OS
Fairphone also allows users to install another operating system should they want – such as Linux or other versions of Android – which may appeal to tinkerers or those looking to free themselves from Google services.
The phone ships with standard Android 13 without unnecessary added elements, beyond a pre-loaded My Fairphone app for service and support. That means it is pretty fast in operation, but lacks the bells, whistles and extensive customisation options you might get on a Google or Samsung phone.
Chip
The latest Fairphone has an unusual chip at its heart. The Qualcomm QCM6490 is designed primarily for a wide range of commercial systems, not phones, but works just as well in the Fairphone, with roughly the same performance as a mid-range Snapdragon 782 phone chip from last year.
Battery
The battery takes 66 minutes to fully recharge using a 30W or greater power adaptor (not included), hitting 50% in 21 minutes. However, you can also swap the battery out in seconds, so it is possible to carry a spare if you need the phone to last longer.
Fairphone says the battery will maintain at least 80% of its original capacity for more than 1,000 full-charge cycles and a replacement or spare costs £36.
Feel
The device feels solid and durable but looks a little dated compared with the most modern designs. It has IP55 water resistance, which means it can handle rain, spray or splashes just fine but not drops into a swimming pool.
Reparability
Users can repair the phone themselves with 10 modular spare parts available, requiring only a standard screwdriver to install. A replacement display costs £90, the back £22, while other components range between £18 and £62.
Ethics
Fairphone recycles the equivalent weight (212g) of electronics for each phone sold, making it e-waste neutral. It uses fair trade gold and silver, ethically sourced lithium and tungsten, and recycled aluminium, copper, indium, magnesium, nickel, plastic, rare earth elements, tin and zinc. The firm also tops up the pay of its contract manufacturing workers to a living wage.
Those words stung a little bit when a Fairphone representative said them to me, even though I expected to hear them. More than any other phone maker, Fairphone is the one company I want to support.
I don't always find a way to do even simple repairs though. Many of the products we buy were designed so they would be difficult to fix on your own, and phones are the biggest offenders here.
It's because these companies treat a phone as something disposable
If you spend $1,000 to buy the best Android phone, only to have it break in six months, you're expected to "just buy a new one," and that's bullsh*t. It's another thing which shows these companies really don't care about you and me.
I understand why it's not coming to North America. A conversation with someone working for a different company once laid it all out for me — unless you can sell millions of phones, you can't make any money selling them in the U.S. and Canada.
Phones here are built slightly differently so that they work with our cellular networks, and that means it costs money to make a different product that won't work in the rest of the world.
Since carrier stores only care about Samsung and Apple, not enough people will buy a Fairphone 5 to cover the costs. Even a company like Fairphone can't afford to lose money with every sale, so they just skip selling products here.
OP quoted it actually. Seems like a bit of a cop out TBH. They can't just make a global phone and be willing to ship it over to NA? I thought most consumer phones were now the same version for...
OP quoted it actually.
Phones here are built slightly differently so that they work with our cellular networks, and that means it costs money to make a different product that won't work in the rest of the world.
Since carrier stores only care about Samsung and Apple, not enough people will buy a Fairphone 5 to cover the costs. Even a company like Fairphone can't afford to lose money with every sale, so they just skip selling products here.
Seems like a bit of a cop out TBH. They can't just make a global phone and be willing to ship it over to NA? I thought most consumer phones were now the same version for most of the globe. I'm pretty sure there isn't a different EU vs NA iPhone.
I'm a little frustrated at it. I think the real reason is that they just don't want to. That's fine, I just don't like all the BS.
Besides that, its not like I'm a potential customer. Currently the Cons outweigh the Pros. The lack of headphone jack pushes it over the edge for me.
CDMA was the 2g/3g tech used by sprint/Verizon but that is pretty much dead at this point. AT&T/T-MOBILE used GSM. Vice calls I believe are all LTE tech now. Pretty sure the big difference at this...
CDMA was the 2g/3g tech used by sprint/Verizon but that is pretty much dead at this point. AT&T/T-MOBILE used GSM. Vice calls I believe are all LTE tech now. Pretty sure the big difference at this point is which frequencies are used
The USA uses GSM as well. I thought american carriers abandoned CDMA like we seem to have in Canada, but I guess not. Like you say, it is possible to make cell modems that are somewhat universal,...
The USA uses GSM as well. I thought american carriers abandoned CDMA like we seem to have in Canada, but I guess not.
Like you say, it is possible to make cell modems that are somewhat universal, Idk. Regardless THEY DO work in the USA and we know this because a reseller sells them in the US repackaged with some other OS. It was reported on by the verge when they started doing it earlier this year.
It's not just the hardware though. It's costs for selling, distribution, customer support, sales & sales support, warranties, returns, complaints, marketing and probably more. You need a number of...
It's not just the hardware though. It's costs for selling, distribution, customer support, sales & sales support, warranties, returns, complaints, marketing and probably more. You need a number of US based employees for these operations. Salaries, benefits, office space, hardware. Then there are regulations to comply with.
My (terrible) experiences with the Fairphone 4 suggest that's the case. The FP4 largely works in the US, for data and calls, when running non-Fairphone distributions, like Lineage. That it doesn't...
I'm a little frustrated at it. I think the real reason is that they just don't want to. That's fine, I just don't like all the BS.
My (terrible) experiences with the Fairphone 4 suggest that's the case. The FP4 largely works in the US, for data and calls, when running non-Fairphone distributions, like Lineage. That it doesn't work with Fairphone's distribution is a software choice, not a hardware limitation.
Yes, there are frequency limitations, but many phones work well in other regions despite not having all frequencies. The FP4 was the first phone I had in many years where it was not safe to assume it would work in other countries. It's not just that Fairphone won't sell in the US: calls largely don't work in the US unless you use a different, non-Fairphone distribution.
Ah thank you. Yeah I'm not familiar with the differences. I know there are some bands that are only used in the US and vice versa, but I thought the same about all phones generally being the same...
Ah thank you. Yeah I'm not familiar with the differences. I know there are some bands that are only used in the US and vice versa, but I thought the same about all phones generally being the same globally.
My interpretation of that is that it seemingly would require some kind of engineering work or something to fit a different chip in, like it's not a drop-in replacement to just get another chip and...
My interpretation of that is that it seemingly would require some kind of engineering work or something to fit a different chip in, like it's not a drop-in replacement to just get another chip and put it in the same spot. That could be entirely wrong, I'm simply just trying to interpret the answer they provided. The "built differently" part is mostly what makes me think that, but also combined with the fact that if it were as easy as replacing the chip, why wouldn't they do it? The only other reason would seemingly be something to do with licensing or US regulations or something else, as there could be additional costs associated with that too.
There are actual differences in the wireless frequencies used between regions and presumably chipsets/antennas. In the past, Samsung seemed to use Exynos in it's phones outside the US, and Qualcomm inside the US, I've always assumed it had something to do with patents/regulations in the US or possibly just wireless frequencies, but that tells me there's some kind of difference there.
Regardless of what others are saying below about standards, and what should work, I've used both the Fairphone 2 and 3 in the US and Colombia which have the same caveat. And while calling and sms...
Regardless of what others are saying below about standards, and what should work, I've used both the Fairphone 2 and 3 in the US and Colombia which have the same caveat. And while calling and sms works well, data is very unreliable in my experience.
I would love a Fairphone, but switching from a pixel to something with middling camera performance would feel like shooting myself in the foot. As a lot of photography is computational now, I...
I would love a Fairphone, but switching from a pixel to something with middling camera performance would feel like shooting myself in the foot. As a lot of photography is computational now, I wonder if there are alternative camera apps that improve the quality of photos on these middling hardware sensors.
You summed up my thoughts on this really well. The other thing (also raised in the original article) is that 10 years is a very long time. In 2013, I just got the new Samsung flagship, the Galaxy...
You summed up my thoughts on this really well. The other thing (also raised in the original article) is that 10 years is a very long time. In 2013, I just got the new Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S4; it would be hopelessly outdated now. I know that mobile technology has slowed down since then, but I seriously doubt that what's considered a mid-performance phone in 2023 will realistically be usable in 2033.
I don't understand. The 10 years are not mandatory. You can buy a Fairphone 5 and throw it away any time, just like any other phone. The difference is that a Fairphone is more likely to still be...
I don't understand. The 10 years are not mandatory. You can buy a Fairphone 5 and throw it away any time, just like any other phone. The difference is that a Fairphone is more likely to still be usable in 5 or 7 years.
Back in the day when I only had $100 dollars to spend on a phone I was required to mod it if I wanted to get more performance out of the phone. There are a lot of talented people and teams on xda...
Back in the day when I only had $100 dollars to spend on a phone I was required to mod it if I wanted to get more performance out of the phone. There are a lot of talented people and teams on xda that create custom roms for Android devices that are able to optimize older phones really well.
I think I'm gonna buy the phone after a few months. I think that's a good time to wait to buy a product from a smaller company because there could be some issues that only show up after a few months of usage.
Some other argument I've seen here is the performance. I don't use a lot of apps anymore, I don't play games so it basically comes down to chatting apps, YouTube, browsing and Tildes. That is not something that needs an expensive soc. If I take a look at the usage of the average user almost none of them actually need a flagship soc. I've set half of my cores of my flagship to sleep and they only wake up when there's an intensive task. But that's almost never. So unless you're playing graphic intensive games it isn't really necessary for a lot of people to buy the latest flagships.
I absolutely agree regarding flagships, but my point was not that anyone needs a flaghsip, but that in 10 years' time, even a flagship might not be able to handle whatever the current apps might...
I absolutely agree regarding flagships, but my point was not that anyone needs a flaghsip, but that in 10 years' time, even a flagship might not be able to handle whatever the current apps might be. I'm curious to see how Fairphone will solve this problem (official roms?), but right now, I can easily imagine how after 8 years, you might either be running out of space on your device or not be able to use certain apps because they're not supported for phones that old.
Every device gets slow after a while because of piled up cache upon cache. I'd recommend everyone to do a complete factory reset and wipe everything when a device gets notably slower. Maybe that's...
Every device gets slow after a while because of piled up cache upon cache. I'd recommend everyone to do a complete factory reset and wipe everything when a device gets notably slower. Maybe that's after 2 years (depending on the usage). Instead of that, people usually buy a new phone. The apps that most people use are social media apps which are not really that intensive for the soc. It could get slower if the devs of those apps are sluggish in optimizing them for lower end devices. The thing that mostly is the final nail in the coffin is that after a few years the battery is not able to keep up with the demands of the soc and will degrade your battery even faster. But if you can replace the battery very easily I think that most people will hold on to their phones longer.
But yes, we have to see if Fairphone keeps up with their promise and delivers an optimized version of android to keep up with the demands of the most popular apps. There's also an option to use custom roms because some of them are really well maintained when a device gets older.
Yeah, that's pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw the "10 year" claim. This feels like something that would be relegated to commercial environments where it can hit the sweet spot...
Yeah, that's pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw the "10 year" claim. This feels like something that would be relegated to commercial environments where it can hit the sweet spot of "good enough" and cost effective over the long run.
I like Fairphone's principles, but for me, it's too big. Like, way too big. My current XZ2 Compact is about the upper limit of what I find acceptable (any bigger and I can't operate it with one...
I like Fairphone's principles, but for me, it's too big. Like, way too big. My current XZ2 Compact is about the upper limit of what I find acceptable (any bigger and I can't operate it with one hand), and the Fairphone 5 is literally a centimeter wider and 3cm taller.
If the Fairphone 5 is anything like the Fairphone 4 in this regard, the camera performance in many circumstances isn't just middling, but horrible, and significantly worse than what one would...
If the Fairphone 5 is anything like the Fairphone 4 in this regard, the camera performance in many circumstances isn't just middling, but horrible, and significantly worse than what one would expect from the hardware. Alternative camera apps didn't help much, in part because the camera had very poor support for standard Android interfaces like Camera2, and in part because many of the problems were related to extremely slow and poor focusing (I suspect the primary purpose of the supposed ToF sensor was to make it look like there were three cameras on the back).
If you wanna get into that topic a bit deeper there's a curated list of reviews as well as some great discussion and more information regarding the Fairphone 5 on the Fairphone Community Forum.
If you wanna get into that topic a bit deeper there's a curated list of reviews as well as some great discussion and more information regarding the Fairphone 5 on the Fairphone Community Forum.
My current handset is 7 years old, and counting... Of course, it's only been in active use for 4.5 of those years (I bought it 2.5 years after its release date). But it's still going strong. I...
My current handset is 7 years old, and counting... Of course, it's only been in active use for 4.5 of those years (I bought it 2.5 years after its release date). But it's still going strong. I thought it was having a problem with the battery, but that turned out just to be a dodgy charging cable. (Oh, and if it had been the battery... it's replaceable.) It has a tiny smidge of screen-burn in one corner, but if you don't know what you're looking for, you can't see it. And that's it. It works just as well today as it did on the day I first switched it on, 4.5 years ago.
Up to 10 years of software updates is simply unheard of, gaining it an extra star.
You don't need software updates for a phone to keep working. My phone has Android 7 (the manufacturer hasn't released any updates since then), and it's still chugging along, as well as it ever did.
The only reason my phone might stop working or become unusable is if outside influences act to make it obsolete.
Like, for example, how my phone company keeps harassing me about how my 3G phone won't work any more when they shut off the 3G network in December; I bought a 3G phone from them ages ago, and didn't bother to let them know I'm no longer using it, since I bought my current 4G-compatible phone back in March 2019. So, if someone switches off the 4G network, my phone might become unusable, but that's not because of anything inherently wrong with the phone itself.
A phone with old software doesn't become unusable just because the software is old. It becomes unusable because other people decide the software is unusable. Like my bank, which doesn't provide a version of its app that's compatible with Android 7 (which makes me regret not installing the bank's app sooner, when it was still compatible - it would still be working now, like all the other apps I installed back then). But, again, that's not because of anything inherently wrong with the phone itself.
My main worry is how the chip at the heart of the Fairphone will fare: something that is fine now may be achingly slow in a decade.
I assume the reviewer means "slow in comparison to other chips in other phones", rather than "the chip itself will get slower and slower over time". But, if I'm still using my phone to do the same things I've always done, why do I care if other chips in other phones are faster?
We've all been conditioned by phone companies that the latest is the greatest, and last year's phone is sooo "last year" - which is why the idea of a phone that might just... keep working as intended... is so foreign to so many people.
I'm now half-tempted to keep using my current phone for another 5.5 years, just to prove a point to this reviewer. (Not that that would be awful - I quite like my current phone.)
There's also the problem of security updates. That means any vulnerability goes unfixed. As the owner of a phone I've had now for five years, I'm starting to experience the apps dropping support....
There's also the problem of security updates. That means any vulnerability goes unfixed.
As the owner of a phone I've had now for five years, I'm starting to experience the apps dropping support. Very recently Slack announced my phone would no longer be supported, but thankfully they're not actively blocking me using it yet.
But "dropping support" isn't the same as "not working". I bet those apps of yours are still working, yes? And they'll continue to keep working for another few years yet, right?
I'm starting to experience the apps dropping support
But "dropping support" isn't the same as "not working". I bet those apps of yours are still working, yes? And they'll continue to keep working for another few years yet, right?
They're still working. The implication is they will make no effort to keep them working on my version of Android going forwards. Basically they are now able to use features that are not available...
They're still working. The implication is they will make no effort to keep them working on my version of Android going forwards. Basically they are now able to use features that are not available on my phone. Perhaps I'll be able to find and download an older version should I need to reinstall, maybe not. Perhaps the API won't change enough that my version stops working, maybe it'll break. Basically my phone version is no longer considered when they make upgrades, so it'll most likely break soon enough.
So, just do what I do: stop installing updates for those apps. The apps will keep working as they are. You don't need to update an app if your operating system isn't being updated. I've got apps...
So, just do what I do: stop installing updates for those apps. The apps will keep working as they are. You don't need to update an app if your operating system isn't being updated.
I've got apps on my phone that were removed from the Play Store years ago. They still work.
Not a guarantee depending on the app. A non-exhaustive set of examples: Often old API versions are eventually retired; any old apps built around that retired API version will break. Some...
Not a guarantee depending on the app. A non-exhaustive set of examples:
Often old API versions are eventually retired; any old apps built around that retired API version will break.
Some apps/games check the local versions and assets against the latest ones before fully launching; sometimes they can download new assets without an app update, other times they will require an update to the latest version to continue.
How does an app that's installed on my phone, where the app isn't updated and the operating system isn't updated, know that its API is retired? Again: how does this happen if I've got updates...
Often old API versions are eventually retired; any old apps built around that retired API version will break.
How does an app that's installed on my phone, where the app isn't updated and the operating system isn't updated, know that its API is retired?
Some apps/games check the local versions and assets against the latest ones before fully launching
Again: how does this happen if I've got updates disabled on my phone?
I should have specified remote API. Many apps these days interact with external services. If and when those services update their API with backwards-incompatible changes or retire old versions of...
I should have specified remote API. Many apps these days interact with external services. If and when those services update their API with backwards-incompatible changes or retire old versions of their API, apps versions relying on those can break, either partially or fully.
Relatedly, many apps will query an external service when launched to see if there’s a later version of the app or any assets. Sometimes the check leads to the app downloading new assets without an OS-level app update. Sometimes the app will prompt you to do a full app update, refusing to continue launching until you do.
If all of your apps are 100% locally operating and self-contained, the yes, they should continue working barring any major bugs or exploits. The majority of popular apps these days, however, integrate with a remote service to some degree, and for those there is no guarantee they will continue working without ever updating.
There was a huge security issue with Fairphone 4, they used testing keys for verified boot https://forum.fairphone.com/t/bootloader-avb-keys-used-in-roms-for-fairphone-3-4/83448/4 Does anyone know...
There was a huge security issue with Fairphone 4, they used testing keys for verified boot
Does anyone know if this is still the case in Fairphone 5?
Also, when I try to open the link above without a VPN, I get a message saying "This community is not accessible in your location". I'm used to that - I live in Russia and a lot of website block us right now due to the war. However, a company with emphasis on being "pro-people" completely blocking access to a community forum for an entire country seems weird.
Being in the US, I hadn’t heard of Fairphone before, and so I had my usual skepticism of companies promising 10 years of support when they’ve only existed for 6 months. But it looks like Fairphone...
Being in the US, I hadn’t heard of Fairphone before, and so I had my usual skepticism of companies promising 10 years of support when they’ve only existed for 6 months.
But it looks like Fairphone has been around since 2013, so I’m hopeful that they’ll be around to provide this support.
Well now, just as I was looking for a new smartphone. A very interesting choice considering how polluting and unsustainable much of the tech industry is. Fortunately I don't care much for a...
Well now, just as I was looking for a new smartphone. A very interesting choice considering how polluting and unsustainable much of the tech industry is.
Fortunately I don't care much for a superduper camera, but the battery life might be an issue. The fact that it's easy to replace is a big plus though.
Samuel Gibbs
The most ethical, sustainable and repairable handset gets a big upgrade with even longer support
Verdict
OS
Chip
Battery
Feel
Reparability
Ethics
The Fairphone 5 isn't headed to the US, and I really wish it was - Jerry Hildenbrand
It's because these companies treat a phone as something disposable
Any explanation why it's not coming to the US?
OP quoted it actually.
Seems like a bit of a cop out TBH. They can't just make a global phone and be willing to ship it over to NA? I thought most consumer phones were now the same version for most of the globe. I'm pretty sure there isn't a different EU vs NA iPhone.
I'm a little frustrated at it. I think the real reason is that they just don't want to. That's fine, I just don't like all the BS.
Besides that, its not like I'm a potential customer. Currently the Cons outweigh the Pros. The lack of headphone jack pushes it over the edge for me.
CDMA was the 2g/3g tech used by sprint/Verizon but that is pretty much dead at this point. AT&T/T-MOBILE used GSM. Vice calls I believe are all LTE tech now. Pretty sure the big difference at this point is which frequencies are used
The USA uses GSM as well. I thought american carriers abandoned CDMA like we seem to have in Canada, but I guess not.
Like you say, it is possible to make cell modems that are somewhat universal, Idk. Regardless THEY DO work in the USA and we know this because a reseller sells them in the US repackaged with some other OS. It was reported on by the verge when they started doing it earlier this year.
It's not just the hardware though. It's costs for selling, distribution, customer support, sales & sales support, warranties, returns, complaints, marketing and probably more. You need a number of US based employees for these operations. Salaries, benefits, office space, hardware. Then there are regulations to comply with.
My (terrible) experiences with the Fairphone 4 suggest that's the case. The FP4 largely works in the US, for data and calls, when running non-Fairphone distributions, like Lineage. That it doesn't work with Fairphone's distribution is a software choice, not a hardware limitation.
Yes, there are frequency limitations, but many phones work well in other regions despite not having all frequencies. The FP4 was the first phone I had in many years where it was not safe to assume it would work in other countries. It's not just that Fairphone won't sell in the US: calls largely don't work in the US unless you use a different, non-Fairphone distribution.
Ah thank you. Yeah I'm not familiar with the differences. I know there are some bands that are only used in the US and vice versa, but I thought the same about all phones generally being the same globally.
My interpretation of that is that it seemingly would require some kind of engineering work or something to fit a different chip in, like it's not a drop-in replacement to just get another chip and put it in the same spot. That could be entirely wrong, I'm simply just trying to interpret the answer they provided. The "built differently" part is mostly what makes me think that, but also combined with the fact that if it were as easy as replacing the chip, why wouldn't they do it? The only other reason would seemingly be something to do with licensing or US regulations or something else, as there could be additional costs associated with that too.
There are actual differences in the wireless frequencies used between regions and presumably chipsets/antennas. In the past, Samsung seemed to use Exynos in it's phones outside the US, and Qualcomm inside the US, I've always assumed it had something to do with patents/regulations in the US or possibly just wireless frequencies, but that tells me there's some kind of difference there.
https://murena.com/america/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-fairphone-4/
Clearly it's not that hard if they already did it.
That could be their learning lesson that it wasn't profitable for all we know.
Regardless of what others are saying below about standards, and what should work, I've used both the Fairphone 2 and 3 in the US and Colombia which have the same caveat. And while calling and sms works well, data is very unreliable in my experience.
Why wouldn't they want to?
I would love a Fairphone, but switching from a pixel to something with middling camera performance would feel like shooting myself in the foot. As a lot of photography is computational now, I wonder if there are alternative camera apps that improve the quality of photos on these middling hardware sensors.
You summed up my thoughts on this really well. The other thing (also raised in the original article) is that 10 years is a very long time. In 2013, I just got the new Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S4; it would be hopelessly outdated now. I know that mobile technology has slowed down since then, but I seriously doubt that what's considered a mid-performance phone in 2023 will realistically be usable in 2033.
I don't understand. The 10 years are not mandatory. You can buy a Fairphone 5 and throw it away any time, just like any other phone. The difference is that a Fairphone is more likely to still be usable in 5 or 7 years.
Back in the day when I only had $100 dollars to spend on a phone I was required to mod it if I wanted to get more performance out of the phone. There are a lot of talented people and teams on xda that create custom roms for Android devices that are able to optimize older phones really well.
I think I'm gonna buy the phone after a few months. I think that's a good time to wait to buy a product from a smaller company because there could be some issues that only show up after a few months of usage.
Some other argument I've seen here is the performance. I don't use a lot of apps anymore, I don't play games so it basically comes down to chatting apps, YouTube, browsing and Tildes. That is not something that needs an expensive soc. If I take a look at the usage of the average user almost none of them actually need a flagship soc. I've set half of my cores of my flagship to sleep and they only wake up when there's an intensive task. But that's almost never. So unless you're playing graphic intensive games it isn't really necessary for a lot of people to buy the latest flagships.
I absolutely agree regarding flagships, but my point was not that anyone needs a flaghsip, but that in 10 years' time, even a flagship might not be able to handle whatever the current apps might be. I'm curious to see how Fairphone will solve this problem (official roms?), but right now, I can easily imagine how after 8 years, you might either be running out of space on your device or not be able to use certain apps because they're not supported for phones that old.
Every device gets slow after a while because of piled up cache upon cache. I'd recommend everyone to do a complete factory reset and wipe everything when a device gets notably slower. Maybe that's after 2 years (depending on the usage). Instead of that, people usually buy a new phone. The apps that most people use are social media apps which are not really that intensive for the soc. It could get slower if the devs of those apps are sluggish in optimizing them for lower end devices. The thing that mostly is the final nail in the coffin is that after a few years the battery is not able to keep up with the demands of the soc and will degrade your battery even faster. But if you can replace the battery very easily I think that most people will hold on to their phones longer.
But yes, we have to see if Fairphone keeps up with their promise and delivers an optimized version of android to keep up with the demands of the most popular apps. There's also an option to use custom roms because some of them are really well maintained when a device gets older.
Yeah, that's pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw the "10 year" claim. This feels like something that would be relegated to commercial environments where it can hit the sweet spot of "good enough" and cost effective over the long run.
I like Fairphone's principles, but for me, it's too big. Like, way too big. My current XZ2 Compact is about the upper limit of what I find acceptable (any bigger and I can't operate it with one hand), and the Fairphone 5 is literally a centimeter wider and 3cm taller.
If the Fairphone 5 is anything like the Fairphone 4 in this regard, the camera performance in many circumstances isn't just middling, but horrible, and significantly worse than what one would expect from the hardware. Alternative camera apps didn't help much, in part because the camera had very poor support for standard Android interfaces like Camera2, and in part because many of the problems were related to extremely slow and poor focusing (I suspect the primary purpose of the supposed ToF sensor was to make it look like there were three cameras on the back).
If you wanna get into that topic a bit deeper there's a curated list of reviews as well as some great discussion and more information regarding the Fairphone 5 on the Fairphone Community Forum.
My current handset is 7 years old, and counting... Of course, it's only been in active use for 4.5 of those years (I bought it 2.5 years after its release date). But it's still going strong. I thought it was having a problem with the battery, but that turned out just to be a dodgy charging cable. (Oh, and if it had been the battery... it's replaceable.) It has a tiny smidge of screen-burn in one corner, but if you don't know what you're looking for, you can't see it. And that's it. It works just as well today as it did on the day I first switched it on, 4.5 years ago.
You don't need software updates for a phone to keep working. My phone has Android 7 (the manufacturer hasn't released any updates since then), and it's still chugging along, as well as it ever did.
The only reason my phone might stop working or become unusable is if outside influences act to make it obsolete.
Like, for example, how my phone company keeps harassing me about how my 3G phone won't work any more when they shut off the 3G network in December; I bought a 3G phone from them ages ago, and didn't bother to let them know I'm no longer using it, since I bought my current 4G-compatible phone back in March 2019. So, if someone switches off the 4G network, my phone might become unusable, but that's not because of anything inherently wrong with the phone itself.
A phone with old software doesn't become unusable just because the software is old. It becomes unusable because other people decide the software is unusable. Like my bank, which doesn't provide a version of its app that's compatible with Android 7 (which makes me regret not installing the bank's app sooner, when it was still compatible - it would still be working now, like all the other apps I installed back then). But, again, that's not because of anything inherently wrong with the phone itself.
I assume the reviewer means "slow in comparison to other chips in other phones", rather than "the chip itself will get slower and slower over time". But, if I'm still using my phone to do the same things I've always done, why do I care if other chips in other phones are faster?
We've all been conditioned by phone companies that the latest is the greatest, and last year's phone is sooo "last year" - which is why the idea of a phone that might just... keep working as intended... is so foreign to so many people.
I'm now half-tempted to keep using my current phone for another 5.5 years, just to prove a point to this reviewer. (Not that that would be awful - I quite like my current phone.)
There's also the problem of security updates. That means any vulnerability goes unfixed.
As the owner of a phone I've had now for five years, I'm starting to experience the apps dropping support. Very recently Slack announced my phone would no longer be supported, but thankfully they're not actively blocking me using it yet.
But "dropping support" isn't the same as "not working". I bet those apps of yours are still working, yes? And they'll continue to keep working for another few years yet, right?
They're still working. The implication is they will make no effort to keep them working on my version of Android going forwards. Basically they are now able to use features that are not available on my phone. Perhaps I'll be able to find and download an older version should I need to reinstall, maybe not. Perhaps the API won't change enough that my version stops working, maybe it'll break. Basically my phone version is no longer considered when they make upgrades, so it'll most likely break soon enough.
So, just do what I do: stop installing updates for those apps. The apps will keep working as they are. You don't need to update an app if your operating system isn't being updated.
I've got apps on my phone that were removed from the Play Store years ago. They still work.
Not a guarantee depending on the app. A non-exhaustive set of examples:
Often old API versions are eventually retired; any old apps built around that retired API version will break.
Some apps/games check the local versions and assets against the latest ones before fully launching; sometimes they can download new assets without an app update, other times they will require an update to the latest version to continue.
How does an app that's installed on my phone, where the app isn't updated and the operating system isn't updated, know that its API is retired?
Again: how does this happen if I've got updates disabled on my phone?
I should have specified remote API. Many apps these days interact with external services. If and when those services update their API with backwards-incompatible changes or retire old versions of their API, apps versions relying on those can break, either partially or fully.
Relatedly, many apps will query an external service when launched to see if there’s a later version of the app or any assets. Sometimes the check leads to the app downloading new assets without an OS-level app update. Sometimes the app will prompt you to do a full app update, refusing to continue launching until you do.
If all of your apps are 100% locally operating and self-contained, the yes, they should continue working barring any major bugs or exploits. The majority of popular apps these days, however, integrate with a remote service to some degree, and for those there is no guarantee they will continue working without ever updating.
That's good enough for me!
There was a huge security issue with Fairphone 4, they used testing keys for verified boot
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/bootloader-avb-keys-used-in-roms-for-fairphone-3-4/83448/4
Does anyone know if this is still the case in Fairphone 5?
Also, when I try to open the link above without a VPN, I get a message saying "This community is not accessible in your location". I'm used to that - I live in Russia and a lot of website block us right now due to the war. However, a company with emphasis on being "pro-people" completely blocking access to a community forum for an entire country seems weird.
Being in the US, I hadn’t heard of Fairphone before, and so I had my usual skepticism of companies promising 10 years of support when they’ve only existed for 6 months.
But it looks like Fairphone has been around since 2013, so I’m hopeful that they’ll be around to provide this support.
Well now, just as I was looking for a new smartphone. A very interesting choice considering how polluting and unsustainable much of the tech industry is.
Fortunately I don't care much for a superduper camera, but the battery life might be an issue. The fact that it's easy to replace is a big plus though.