Submitted 1 day ago by 20dogs@feddit.uk to technology@lemmy.world
The situation won’t improve until some big company goes full “IBM PC” thing with open AT, ISA, VESA, etc tier standards for phones.
This phone is better just because you can open the case. Spare parts are still provided by a single company. Not a big step ahead.
Better than nothing though…
Better than Nothing though.
Nothing phone has a pretty average repairability score, so I’d assume so.
With all respect, I still think an iPhone is a better chance at having spare parts many years ahead. I am confident I can find some spare parts of iPhone 4S. Would that hold for FairPhone or a similar phone? If not, the benefit is an illusion. Unless, I think, you can produce that part yourself.
First party spare parts or third party sketchy spare parts?
Spare part availability comes partly from the popularity of a phone, and iPhones were pretty popular.
Fairphone is just starting to get some steam, so third party spare part may start appearing in the future. same for used parts.
Fairphones got a lot better lately. I got both the 4, 5, and now gen 6, and the latest one feels like a good phone, unless the FP4 which is a brick in comparison. Still lacks several Flagship feature (wireless charging, amongs other), but as a mid-range phone it is quite good.
And the repeatability is great. I repaired my FP4 once (usb-c port), and it was easy as heck.
But an iPhone 4S nowadays is completely unusable, it’s impossibile to run a browser that doesn’t use a ten years old engine. For reference, a galaxy Nexus from the same age could run android 6 (custom ROM, otherwise android 4.3) and can still run most modern apps.
If you can find parts for the iphone 4s it’s because some warehouse is still full of them, not because Apple is still manufacturing them if needed
Doesn’t matter how many spare parts you can get if the device simply refuses to function after replacing them.
the wheels of justice turn slowly 🐌
I want GrapheneOS more than repairability, personally. I hope the Fairphone + GrapheneOS combination is possible some day…
What maskes you want Graphene over e/OS? I’m not so familiar with how they feel.
Graphene modifies AOSP for much more security.
E.g.
I dont think e/OS is as security oriented, more privacy oriented
Fairphone is the sort of phone for people who think LineageOS with an unlocked bootloader is secure made by a company who has sincerely promised to make things better but hasn’t substantially improved security (especially in how often they push security patches). Grapheneos is not a brand name you can just apply to give a phone more reputation, its an OS that represents the highest standard of security.
Has anyone tried loading KDE Plasma Mobile onto one of these?
The Fairphone team has tried to help with mainline Linux support: wiki.postmarketos.org/…/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp…
Is plasma mobile any good?
Not compatible with Verizon
Welp, that sucks. I’m not switching to T-Mobile. I’ve seen their infrastructure up close and personal after working on mixed carrier cell towers for years and that shit is absolutely third world by comparison.
If it supported GrapheneOS I would be using one too.
The choice of only supporting Pixels comes from GrapheneOS’s side, not Fairphone. Fairphone got some great ROMs support, and even have an official partnership with one of them (e/OS).
I love Fairphones, but GrapheneOS developers are very clear on why they son’t support phones other than Pixels. If other phones complied with those requirements, they would support them. I really hoped the OEM they’re working with to support from another brand would be Fairphone, but the most educated guess I’ve seen is Motorola
GrapheneOS developers are quite dickish about what they are willing to implement. They work under the assumption that GrapheneOS is for people afraid of being hacked (like actively targeted by state level actors) and refuse to add anything that in their view compromises security. So for example they refuse to add pattern unlock because they think it’s less secure than PIN which is silly because I can just use ‘0000’ PIN which is as insecure as any pattern. It’s the same with supporting other phones. Personally I’m not worried about police trying to hack my phone, I just want deGoogled system with tracker protection. GrapheneOS devs don’t care. It’s all or nothing with them. I would recommend iode over Graphene to anyone not as paranoid as the devs.
Yes but also no, the fairphone doesn’t meet the extensive list of requirements required to maintain the goal of GrapheneOS - List of requirements for devices
No, the Fairphone hardware platform doesn’t meet minimal security features of the GOS project. You could say they chose not to compromise on security rather.
I know that. So I stand corrected that I should have written “If it were supported by GrapheneOS…”
Doesn’t change, that its a show stopper for me, though.
I’m running e/os on my FP6 and it’s a great de googled alternative!
I’m using GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7a which I bought just to flash it. Google Android just ran on it for the obligatory update before the flashing. It’s just very secure and that’s what I like about it. I’m not so sure about /e/ even though it’s being supported by semi prominent people here in DACH.
every post about fairphone, there’s always one comment like this
Yeah unfortunate that it doesn’t, I imagine the market overlap for those two things is high
I like the look of these but I would much rather to not use Android again. It appears that they’re trying to port Ubuntu Touch over and the Postmarket wiki shows some functionality is not all there. Interesting to see this coming along though.
Wow. Two FP posts in a night. Paste of my comment.
Faiphone is being frog marched out of Australia. Each telco is shutting it down and blocking IMEIs. Sucks for the people that imported them.
Cant even use it as data only. So unless you use it as puerly on WiFi it’s going to landfill. 😔.
Any links to this story please? Couldn’t find any
Search Telstra 3G shutdown. They were the first to block all in 2024 (and can confirm still blocked) Optus is now blocking on the 10th March. There’s one telco left in AU. Everyone else sells one of these three.
Much discussion in this FP5 thread. …fairphone.com/…/3g-network-closure-australia
Despite what people say the phone works and has all requirements for the network, VoLTE calling and emergency calling. The telcos tho don’t want to take a risk with “unknown” modems. So they disable network.
cam them, and ask them to add the imei to allow list ?
International sale might work
Any chance the Aus govt might step in?
You mean an international sim? I don’t think so. The FP website tells users to check the phone is supported in the clintry they travel to.
And no. Aus gov did nothing BEOFRE this happend. We FP5 users found somewhere that supported us and hit it out. But seems were found.
TBH wifi only is what I’d like to have. I just want a device I can hold in my pocket without worrying about cell service, but still call a rideshare because I don’t drive and those stupid services don’t do a request-by-phone. I’d ditch it entirely if I could.
I really value the camera on my phone, since it is essentially my main camera and I enjoy taking pictures. I might rather lean into graphene-ing this pixel than a fair phone, unfortunately. But probably not purchase a future pixel, since they abandoned the physical SIM slot
My 9 has one. (Canada)
Same, my 9 (us) does too. But I heard going forward they want to be eSIM only
*in the US
I’ve been running a Fairphone 6 for about 6 months now and it’s by far the buggiest phone I’ve ever used. I’d love to keep using it until the security updates stop but it’s already such a miserable experience already I can’t imagine how bad it’ll be in a few years time.
Can you elaborate on how it has been buggy? What kind of issues have you come across?
The most annoying bug for me currently is the camera will sometimes just not save photos. It’ll appear as though it has worked and then later when I go to look at the photo there’s just no sign of me ever taking anything.
The second biggest annoyance would be the touchscreen simply not working sometimes until I lock and unlock the device again.
Finally we have the seemingly random lack of charging where I’ll wake up some mornings to find it hasn’t been charging at all despite being plugged in all night.
It’s been fine for me
I bought a Fairphone 5 when they were somewhat new and immediately flashed an alternative ROM onto it (CalyxOS at the time, though now it’s iodeOS as Calyx appears to have gone on hiatus).
Nothing terrible bug-wise, but I have already had to return the phone to be repaired for a fault I couldn’t repair by swapping parts out myself… Which considering it’s apparently got a number of years ahead of it before it officially gets dropped is a bit worrying.
I recently moved from an iPhone 11 Pro to a Fairphone (Fairphone Gen 6), and it’s been a genuinely great change.
It’s made me realise how little I actually use most of the features you end up paying extra for in flagship phones. Because of that, I’m really looking forward to keeping this device for five years or more.
The only thing I occasionally miss is camera quality especially at concerts or when travelling but it’s a small trade-off rather than a deal-breaker. I’d love to see future Fairphone models improve on this.
Hopefully, Fairphone helps set a trend as more people start looking for products that are ethically sourced, repairable and built to last.
Still running a FP4, only replaced the battery and the charging port. No further issues, works like a charm.
Love that, can’t wait to rock the FP6 for as long as possible!
Ya I just want to browse , bank, text and msg and call.
Do they work on US networks?
Yup! I daily drive a Fairphone 6 with Mint Mobile in the US.
I will have to consider Fairphone when I am looking for my next phone. Looking at their site, my only hesitation is about water resistance. I understand that repairability comes at the cost of making everything glued and sealed shut, but I drop my phone in water once every couple of years. If that risks killing it, it is not going to be a phone that will last long in my hands.
Have you considered not dropping your phone in water?
I have, but decided against it. I am clumsy and my hands are big enough to barely use my phone one handed (but not hold it securely when I do).
Hard to avoid when you have a toddler and dog bowls around…
With an IP55 rating, I would assume it can resist a drop in water. As long as you don’t stare at it for multiple minutes and do get it out asap.
I would hope, but I would want to check reviews to be sure.
I assume they just haven’tspent the money for higher IPS ratings?
It all boils down to drivers, if those are not open source (and they usually are not), then phone upgradability depends on them
That said, I like FP very much, but it’ll eventually hit the software block.
That’s exactly the issue, and the bigger one. Theoretically, Google Pixel 1 could be upgraded software-wise with the newest Android, while the hardware can work longer. So, I’m not really interested in repairability (except the battery replacement, obviously) as much as in software longevity.
My iPhone 4s is still going strong, even despite numerous falls. The software though, it made it useless. I use one as a digital voice recorder sometimes, but that’s the only idea I had. It can shoot nice pictures too (in a bright daylight), and be a nice smartphone for a kid. (Because it’s very limited, and also small, and also cheap.) But the software made it useless.
If anyone is looking for a Canadian or international order, I just found this U.K. site which multiple threads of Reddit have been talking about. They offer tracking.
I am leaning toward Fairphone to replace my Apple.
I replaced the power button and battery on my android phone. Managed to fix it by watching YouTube tutorials.
I’m interested in this brand and their Gen 6. I kind of wish I was in the market for a phone. Unfortunately I bought a used Pixel 6 three years ago and everything is just fine with it 😄
Well they finally delivered a decent camera. That’s what made me buy one. It’s a step down from a Pixel 8 Pro but not a huge one.
Really glad to hear that. I’ve been using a Fairphone 5 for about 2 years now and while it’s certainly not on the level of a flagship I can’t say I miss anything. Sure, a better camera or faster processor would be nice to have, but both get the job done and are certainly not necessary for the average user. Samsung and Apple would have us believe that we all need a DLSR camera strapped to a supercomputer in our pocket in order to swipe on Instagram and take the occasional selfie. I’d gladly trade that in to make the world a tiny bit better by not supporting slavery and not wasting resources.
I’ve been using a Fairphone 4 for a couple weeks, and I like it so far. This is the way phones should be made. I eventually found replacements for most of my Google stuff. It’s just sad that my government burned our bridges with trade, so any replacement parts I import will be expensive.
I bought an HMD Pulse Pro which is also made to be repairable. They have a partnership with ifixit.
I 100% agree with the fact that there needs to be more phones you can easily fix but every time I see a headline like “I need a phone I can fix” I can’t help but think that y’all are incredibly clumsy and keep breaking your phones far too often 😅
So long as it’s affordable. I’m not paying more than £250 for a mobile phone, even that’s on the high end of what I can justify for a phone.
I’m stuck using Chinese brands if I want a good, affordable phone, but they have so many intentional software issues.
Nothing’s perfect, but if I could get a better phone that doesn’t lock down stuff (it’s my phone after all, I’m in charge of my own life), and if it were at an affordable price point - unlike these crazies that think £1000 is a reasonable price for a phone (!!!), I’d jump on it <3
I want a Fairphone quite badly as my old s21 ultra is starting to reach the end of it’s useful life. But it not working on Verizon is an automatic dealbreaker because they are the only carrier that works in the rural areas I am always working in. Tmobile is next to useless, so looks like I am still stuck.
WormFood@lemmy.world 1 day ago
my mum bought a fairphone 3 about 5 years ago and is extremely happy with it, so far she’s gone through one usb-c port and one battery. it looks and feels exactly like a normal phone but it pops open with just 4 screws. helping her fix it has taught me that phone manufacturers could make repairable phones easily and they all just choose not to
Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I used to run a small electronics repair business and you are 1 billion percent correct. Slowly watching things over the years become unrepairable was just such an obvious business decision for profit over customer satisfaction. There is absolutely no reason to make those changes unless you have a profit driven motive. So so so many electronics used to be like the fairphone your mom has. Pop it open, take out what’s broke, replace it with some OEM or 3rd party part you bought for like 2 dollars and you’re all set. It’s so frustrating nowadays with how purposefully difficult manufacturers make any repairability. Can’t even change a damn battery in your phone now! lol
te_abstract_art@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I remember the glory days where my alarm would go off for school and I’d just take the battery out of my phone to get it to shut up
not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Man I remember when my Mom was actually able to fix a VCR at home with simple tools as well. That VCR lasted as long as sears repaired shops and then they were out of business and the VCR was out for good.