Submitted 11 months ago by dwazou@jlai.lu to technology@lemmy.world
https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5
Great idea, but will never take down here in south America
People know that all these import parts and replacements are not exactly easy to pay for, even less to find. They need a cheap reliable phone that will at least handle day to day for years
I mean come on, the average cellphone user here is still using the equivalent of a Moto G2 or Samsung J2 and thats stretching it.
An S8 is still seen like luxury in here. And I’m not even going into iphones.
the average cellphone user here is still using the equivalent of a Moto G2 or Samsung J2
I guess it depends on where you live in LATAM. Most of my friends and acquaintances own newer iPhones and fancy Androids. I’m the only one stuck with a G8. 😅
Yeah most people in LATAM is poor as fuck
You are right, but people lost their minds for smartphone war race, where most of changes were camera related (still shitty) and sort of fomo.
2nd hand pixels beats any midrange phone at the same price. Sent some to a friend in Nicaragua. Quite instantly he broke the screen , bought new screen on ebay that shipped directly to bumfuck nowhere on milestone address.
Fairphone 6 approaching? They are great, the project is amazing and I wish every brand would be like them in terms of caring about users and environment
I do own a Fairphone 5 as my new company phone, I used an iPhone 13 mini before. Sadly I have to say that I don’t agree with the “they are great”, while a Fairphone 5 is a totally capable and usable phone it lacks a lot of the lifestyle appeal that a modern smartphone brings. The Fairphone is quite laggy, the camera is not very good and since Google focusses a lot on the pixel line the stock android experience on the Fairphone lacks a lot of comfort features. I would still recommend it for everyone willing to look beyond these downsides and just uses their phone for communication. Sadly that’s not the majority of people
Still like the idea behind it and wish there was support for GrapheneOS (going even further than /e/o) as well as better camera quality but this is the price we have to pay for flexibility and sustainability I think. Like the concept here but never tried to go with one so far.
Better option is calyx like the others supported, so will be supported or ported later I assume . GOS for me but 2nd is calyx in my book
You can, they partner with a mother company
Fairphone don’t sell replacement mainboards, presumably to stop people building phones from parts but they look very serviceable in other respects.
They say it’s supported until 2031.
What will a 5G phone with at most 8GB RAM have to offer in 2031?
In what kind of bizarro world do we live that 8GB of RAM in a phone is not enough? Also 6G is currently expected to be available around 2030, so 5G will most likely still work in 2031.
You’re familiar with bloat?
assuming it supports 5g calling and 5g lasts as long as 3g did it will still function for calls, MMS, SMS, and email at a minimum (assuming encryption doesn’t change too much)
I don’t want to pay now then £200 for a phone and i want a small one.
Then an ethically and sustainably built smart phone isn’t for you, because that won’t be possible at that price point. But that isn’t an issue as there is a sustainable option at that price point: buying second hand.
The hardware is good and I like the idea in principle but Fairphone’s support and software QA is dreadful and you need to hope you never need the former because of problems with the latter. My FP5 was bricked by an update they pushed out and after six weeks of trying to get a solution from their support (four weeks of which they didn’t respond at all) I ended up claiming on insurance and buying a Pixel. According to the forums this problem is far from unique to me.
I’ve been running FP4 for about 2 years now. the software bug fix cycle leaves something to be desired.
for example, the first 16 months of my ownership had every single phone call screaming at me. I mean, the volume was loud enough it was quieter than the speaker phone.
the did eventually fix that bug, but not two months later there’s a bug that breaks my running processes button(square at the bottom). as of right now there’s no fix other than using the OEM shitty launcher. so, 5-10 times a day I have to go to settings > apps > default apps > launcher > bliss launcher > running apps > settings > launchers > my launcher > close what I just had to use > go back to what I was just doing.
I enjoy the phone, don’t get me wrong. I just wish they performed better software testing on their own hardware.
I got the phone for the ethics, reparability, and privacy. I’ll never go back.
I’ve been meaning to look into PinePhone myself.
As an owner of an old pine phone, I can confidently say avoid for now. Not remotely ready or reliable enough.
I just want something to have decent Linux support. I want to run postmarketOS, mobian, or something of that ilk on my phone, and I want all the basic phone features to work properly:
And so on. I don’t need any special app support, I just need the phone to be able to reliably do phone things.
Here are issues I’ve heard about from the PinePhone (Pro):
That doesn’t get into actual usability issues. I’m honestly pretty tolerant of a laggy interface, but I need those basic phone functions to work properly.
I’ve owned the 4, for a couple of years. Was really excited to get one.
Parts have been unavailable for a long time when I needed them. The battery is pretty dead after 2 years meanwhile my pixel which is about 5 years old still going strong. The os is the buggiest experience I’ve ever had, sluggish, going from portrait the landscape kills UI formatting if it switches to power save it’ll skip a video. Boot loops constantly.
Never again I’m afraid it’s neat I could fix things with it so quickly but they fail hard past that.
Just switch ROM?
Def something I need to do
Navigation buttons covering the Voyager UI is an Android/Voyager bug. It has happened on my last two phones.
It works fine on all my test devices.
Wow. I got the 4 at launch and honestly never had any problems except calls get fucked up more frequently recently. Didn’t know they stopped selling parts, what’s the point?
They didn’t stop selling parts they were just unavailable which when you need them as you say defeats the point.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe the F6 is likely expected by autumn and was considering this as my next. I often wondered about parts as time goes by, as I suspected the company wouldn’t want a huge inventory of spares and the costs involved. If I do get one, I’ll likely buy a spare screen at the least.
The UI stuff is disappointing, however maybe not a deal breaker as I’m trying to reduce my usage. Perhaps a buggy smartphone could be a decent dumbphone alternative.
The headphone jack user to lemmy user ratio is apparently nearly 1:1
Yeah, Lemmy is full of people stuck in their way and insisting older tech is better because they refuse to update
Sometimes older tech is better. I have both Bluetooth and wired headphones, and I prefer the wired ones. In fact, I’m wearing wired headphones right now, because my laptop has a jack. I can’t do that on my phone, because my phone doesn’t have a jack (and I refuse to use a dongle), so I use inferior Bluetooth headphones.
I would much rather have a slightly larger phone with worse water proofing if it means I can have a headphone jack. I have never had an issue with water ingress, or with a slightly thick phone, but I have had an issue w/ my Bluetooth headphones dying and not being able to plug in my wired headphones. In fact, my Bluetooth headphones have the option for a wire, so I just need to plug in a cable to keep listening if my headphones die.
Please get through the FCC and open sales in the USA before Fairphone 6 is made.
I really don’t want to buy another unrepairable phone.
Do you know why it’s not in the US?
Anything that emits radio signal must receive an FCC certification. Fairphone has not submitted the Fairphone 5 for certification. Certification database search It’s annoying but a super important regulatory process.
Idk, but if I had to guess, the answer is almost always money.
I really want this to come to the US as well…
Is this phone also more secure?
The problem we are running into right now is Apple and Google are colluding with the US government over fascism and they are supporting their Nazi regime
They have all the power and they can change all of these services overnight, they can track you and everything and you will have no idea and no way to get rid of it
We really need an open replacement. Phones are now used for everything
Is this phone also more secure?
Probably not.
Apple & Google have spent considerable amounts of time building out hardware security infrastructure for their products that I find it extremely unlikely Fairphone would have been able to match.
For example, the popular alternative Android OS GrapheneOS only supports Google Pixels, because: (Emphasis added by me)
“There are currently no other devices meeting even the most basic security requirements while running an alternate OS. GrapheneOS is very interested in supporting a non-Pixel brand, but the vast majority of Android OEMs do not take security seriously. Samsung takes security almost as seriously as Google, but they deliberately cripple their devices when unlock them to install another OS and don’t allow an alternate OS to use important security features. If Samsung permitted GrapheneOS to support their devices properly, many of their phones would be the closest to meeting our requirements. They’re currently missing the very important hardware memory tagging feature, but only because it’s such a new feature”
If even Samsung, the only other phone brand on the market they consider close to meeting their standards, doesn’t support every modern hardware security feature, and deliberately cripples their security for alternate OS’s, as a multi billion dollar company, I doubt Fairphone has custom-built hardware security mechanisms for their phones to the degree that Google has.
Well yeah, because why would phone companies care? Consumers buy devices based on camera and display quality, not for security, privacy, etc. I just had a chat w/ a coworker about a Chinese device with an incredible camera and big battery, and I highly doubt it does anything but the bare minimum for security. It’s a cool piece of hardware, but a no-go for anyone that cares even a little about security updates.
I have a Pixel device because it has a long SW support cycle (Google promises at least 7 years), and I use GrapheneOS because it removes Google’s spyware crap. I’m not married to GrapheneOS or Pixel devices, I just need something where the software support will last at least longer than my desire to keep the device (about 4-5 years for me). I’ve ditched each of my last phones largely because they ran out of security update support, and that sucks.
I’d prefer a Linux phone w/ decent security features, but they don’t meet my minimum standards for things working (just need phone features to work properly, don’t need apps). The moment a Linux phone comes out than actually works properly and has reasonable security, I’ll switch. The FairPhone could be that, but it’s not, so I don’t have one.
I used a Fairphone 4 with /e/ and it was good. Not great, but useable. I expect the hardware bugs I ran into (using the camera only worked like 20 times before the phone needed a restart, Bluetooth randomly not working) to be ironed out by now. Currently on an old Samsung and it is more solid, but I also liked the environmentalism with the fairphone. Anyone with a Fairphone 5 and something like a glucose sensor thats in constant use?
Aaaand it’s impossible to buy in the US. Even if USians want to do the right thing, we’re not permitted.
Import
Of course, not being a billionaire is illegal here.
Really wish Fairphone would come to the US. I’d spend the money on it, but they only half-ass sold the last gen phone here on the US.
I don’t even understand why. Most Qualcomm, Quectel, and other radios support worldwide 4G and 5G bands now. Even if they didn’t officially sell it here but had a variant that supported US bands you could import, I’d be happy.
Yup. I was interested in one as well, but they don’t really support US customers, so I ended up w/ a Pixel w/ GrapheneOS flashed.
AT&T has a whitelist system, they check IMEIs often and if your device is not approved, cell service stops working.
For Verizon, you have to call customer service to do a manual override.
Only T-Mobile allows any phone to work without explicit approval.
I heard that Australia now has a Nationwide whitelist system that even block unapproved phones from calling the emergency number.
Technology is really getting enshittified. 😓
Unfortunately Telecomms in Australia seem to have a pissing contest on who can screw consumers more, America or Aussie companies.
I can send you one probably, but you know… tariffs (and processing fees).
I appreciate it, but I just got a new phone because I needed a new one recently. I wish it could have been something like a Fairphone, but thems the breaks.
Only 400€ to go until I can afford it.
I’m using this phone right now and I love it. it feels solid. Im using a degoogled ROM and it just works, there seems to be a lot of people pressing for graphene os specifically and discrediting the phone for what it is. its so easy to take apart and cheaply repair its great. it’s perfect for folk who want a decent smartphone that you dont have to worry about being thrown around. sure it’s not perfect but it is still a very great photo
What’s the cost to replace a cracked screen?
You buy the OLED display as a spare part for 100 EUR on the official website. shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?ca…
I have been shopping for a rom for my FP. Which are you running?
calyx os is what I use
I use CalyxOS on mine. It has microG all working by default so if you need that sort of thing it’s probably the easiest way to get it up and running
I’ve had this phone for over a year with Murena e/OS/! 90hz refresh rate is so nice
Out of curiosity… how is doing that in 2025?
A firmware update from Fairphone bricked mine last year. Not impressed. Apparently it’s happened to a lot of people who went to an alternative OS (Lineage) then back to stock. I just woke up one day to a paperweight on my bedside table and the support was horrendous: it took over six weeks to get any response and after another month of back-and-forth with responses taking a couple of days at a time I ended up just claiming on insurance.
I am happy with it.
Probably don’t want to play graphics heavy games on it. For everything else it’s pretty much like any other phone. Although of course it’s not quite as premium as flagship phones. Hardware wise, a Pixel 8 leaves it in the dust. But you can’t swap your battery or really anything on that one.
i got a 4 a few years back and it’s still works great, still gets security updates. it still has the default android on it, so i’ve been looking into alternatives but it seems complicated. then again, i managed to switch to linux on pc so maybe it’s not so bad
Its fine, I haven’t noticed any slowdown yet, the main issue right now is that there was a screen problem that caused the OLED pixels to stay on when a black screen was present. They removed the AoD while they fix it, they’ve fixed it a few months back, but we still don’t have AoD.
I haven’t noticed any slowdown yet
?? Confused with Windows?
ass stock operating system, no macro lens, shit battery, still overpriced. you are better off with a refurbished pixel with a custom os.
im still not sure the whole business thing is a just a greenwashing scam or not.
on the other hand the battery can just be popped out, has a cool semitranspaerant early 00s design.
Unfortunately it’s not available in the US though.
I like it a lot bit I need two physical SiM slots so it doesn’t work for me, unfortunately. But great idea and love the price drop
I wish they could implement the parts of the Pixel phones that allow GrapheneOS to be used.
Anyone tried this Linuxphone?
Bring back the headphone jack
This would’ve been my new phone if it had a headphone jack.
I hope Graphene eventually shifts to support the fairphones. Doubtful, but it’d be perfect
I would totally be interested if they had solid Linux support, such as postmarketOS or mobian. Those systems continue to get updates long after most Android devices stop supplying updates, so it would fit really well with a repairable phone. It shouldn’t be the default, but it would be awesome if they helped the Linux phone community make it the best supported hardware for the various Linux phone projects.
According to the postmarketOS wiki, audio is completely broken, so you have to use Bluetooth. That kind of sucks.
Nerrad@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Went to buy one but they don’t sell to USA any more. THAT will tell off tRump.