I love the hardware aside from the camera, but that was a sacrifice I knew I was making going in to it.
My big complaint is the software. It has never really been fully stable. During the best patches things work most of the time, but there have also been some pretty bad bugs. Again, I knew the updates would be slower and bugs might take longer to fix due to a smaller Dev team but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. It does feel like they just gave up on the 4 to work on the 5 and 6. At this point I’m 2 major android versions behind.
I love that when I broke the screen I was able to replace it in 5 minutes, and I want to be a big supporter of fairphone. I even went to the trouble of importing the phone and replacement parts to Canada.
I don’t know if this is also an issue with custom ROMS but if this doesn’t change I don’t know that I’ll get another when the time comes.
How much of a camera downgrade is it in your opinion? The rest seems fine to me considering I still have a samsung galaxy s8. As long as I can download apks or an equivalent I would be fine I think.
Compared to the flagships of the time it was pretty noticeable. When it was new it seemed like the camera was maybe 3 or 4 generations behind. You could probably find some comparisons for the new generation of fairphone and see what its like. It works for my use case because I bring out an actual camera for photography.
My current main gripe is android auto and bluetooth (separately) disconnect randomly when I’m in a vehicle. Usually comes back on its own but I have to refresh the screen. To give FP the benefit of the doubt it could be a problem with my aftermarket stereo, but its a decent brand.
So I’ve heard the FP6 camera is less of a compromise. I have a Fp5 and it’s definitely noticably worse than my work phones (a new iphone and some Samsung Galaxy) have been. But as the OP said, it’s very impressive otherwise.
I love swapping a battery on the fly, love the repairability in general, and love that people got living wages and benefits instead of being nearly enslaved to make it.
I’ve taken a different mindset with many things like phones, tech, etc. It’s less about “how few compromises can I live with to do the ethical thing?” Now and more about “what’s the best product I can get while remaining ethically aligned with myself?”, which has led to just not participating in a bunch of stuff. So I couldn’t find anything to cross shop the Fairphone with, because it’s the only phone that I can ethically align with.
No idea :/ I’m not in the market for a new phone so I haven’t been paying attention to what’s out there.
I’m hoping fairphone can/does get better at updating older devices before I need to get another phone so I can stick with them.
I have gotten security updates and occasional bugfixes but it does feel like they’ve done the bare minimum to fulfill their promise of supporting phones for a long time.
Currently writing this on a fairphone 4.
I love the hardware aside from the camera, but that was a sacrifice I knew I was making going in to it.
My big complaint is the software. It has never really been fully stable. During the best patches things work most of the time, but there have also been some pretty bad bugs. Again, I knew the updates would be slower and bugs might take longer to fix due to a smaller Dev team but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. It does feel like they just gave up on the 4 to work on the 5 and 6. At this point I’m 2 major android versions behind.
I love that when I broke the screen I was able to replace it in 5 minutes, and I want to be a big supporter of fairphone. I even went to the trouble of importing the phone and replacement parts to Canada.
I don’t know if this is also an issue with custom ROMS but if this doesn’t change I don’t know that I’ll get another when the time comes.
How much of a camera downgrade is it in your opinion? The rest seems fine to me considering I still have a samsung galaxy s8. As long as I can download apks or an equivalent I would be fine I think.
Compared to the flagships of the time it was pretty noticeable. When it was new it seemed like the camera was maybe 3 or 4 generations behind. You could probably find some comparisons for the new generation of fairphone and see what its like. It works for my use case because I bring out an actual camera for photography.
My current main gripe is android auto and bluetooth (separately) disconnect randomly when I’m in a vehicle. Usually comes back on its own but I have to refresh the screen. To give FP the benefit of the doubt it could be a problem with my aftermarket stereo, but its a decent brand.
Gotcha, I’ll do some digging. I appreciate the information.
So I’ve heard the FP6 camera is less of a compromise. I have a Fp5 and it’s definitely noticably worse than my work phones (a new iphone and some Samsung Galaxy) have been. But as the OP said, it’s very impressive otherwise.
I love swapping a battery on the fly, love the repairability in general, and love that people got living wages and benefits instead of being nearly enslaved to make it.
I’ve taken a different mindset with many things like phones, tech, etc. It’s less about “how few compromises can I live with to do the ethical thing?” Now and more about “what’s the best product I can get while remaining ethically aligned with myself?”, which has led to just not participating in a bunch of stuff. So I couldn’t find anything to cross shop the Fairphone with, because it’s the only phone that I can ethically align with.
What would you get instead?
No idea :/ I’m not in the market for a new phone so I haven’t been paying attention to what’s out there.
I’m hoping fairphone can/does get better at updating older devices before I need to get another phone so I can stick with them.
I have gotten security updates and occasional bugfixes but it does feel like they’ve done the bare minimum to fulfill their promise of supporting phones for a long time.