Need a new phone? Get a Fairphone!
Need a new phone? Get a Fairphone!
They try to produce them as sustainable as possible. You can replace the battery and other parts. And you support an European company!
Sure if threir cheapest wouldn't cost half a car
Not until they bring back 3.5mm jack.
I don't think this will ever happen in our lifetime anymore, unfortunately.
There are still manufacturers out there making 3.5mm jack phones, and still have Bluetooth as an option so users can choose which to use. Sony and Samsung have models still, and there are a few others.
I just can't believe having both was the norm 15 years ago, with ample waterproofing, and now we have let it slip away for the dubious benefit of a marginally slimmer phone.
As much as I like the Fairphone people, the phones suck for me personally:
- too big (FP1 was perfect size)
- life cycle is fucking short: support gets dropped before my phone breaks (my FP1 is still in perfect shape but alas no security updates for years, had to trash my FP2 because when the charging port started to become unreliable, no spare parts were being sold anymore) - which flies in the face of their "mission to sustainability
- not enough focus on LineageOS support
- way too many cameras - but seemingly most people are vain enough to like that
way too many cameras
two. the Fairphone 4 and 5 have two back-facing cameras. and I've been very grateful for the existence of the wide-angle camera countless times.
too big (FP1 was perfect size)
It would be so awesome if they'd release a smaller, maybe like a 5.5 inch phone. I have big hands and still often struggle.
life cycle is fucking short
To be fair that's a problem with all manufacturers. But yes they should provide much longer support. At least 5 years. I'd also happily pay for an extended support after that if it's still working.
not enough focus on LineageOS support
I'd love them to support the project more! Degoogling is still hard. GrapheneOS support would be awesome too.
way too many cameras
I didn't get this trend in the first place. It looks ugly on all phones. Still they keep adding them like their life depends on it.
It would be so awesome if they’d release a smaller, maybe like a 5.5 inch phone. I have big hands and still often struggle.
Their position on this is that they are too small to run two product lines in parallel, so they focus on what the majority of customers want. And that's unfortunately not smaller phones :(
I’d love them to support the project more! Degoogling is still hard. GrapheneOS support would be awesome too.
I was especially miffed when they decided to prioritize fair trade materials over a free and de-googled OS. That was around 2017ish, and now we have the proof how quickly even the big corporate players can turn fascist, as the de-googled phone users haven't been telling everyone for at least a decade why it's a really really bad idea to have your phone talk with some corporate server outside of your phone provider (bad enough but necessary to use a phone) on everything you do.
How does the OS work? It's a forked Android system or something, right?
By default it's normal Android. But you can easily install LineageOS or /e/ OS for example. Both open source degoogled Android distros.
It's whatever you want it to be. You can put a linux distro or android (& derivatives) or anything
Okay now you have me interested
Fairphones are a good start, however their proprietary /e/OS has numerous glaring security gaps that the company does not address. For example:
- An unlocked bootloader, which enables any attacker with physical access to your phone to extract data and even load malware onto it.
- Its 'native IP' scrambler is an old, unmaintained fork of TOR.
- MicroG, its answer to Google Play Services, still relies on Google servers to collect and connect data from apps to your phone.
DivestOS maintained a list of security lapses that the E Foundation had not closed, but now that DivestOS is abandoned, I can't find the document. While Fairphone is a good answer to the centralization of the tech industry to the US and China, it's still rough and needs improvement before its security can be trusted. Please be aware that not every alternative is a good alternative. Be discerning, with this mass-migration, people are bound to get caught by dishonest representation and marketing.
/e/ isn't "their" OS (it's developed and maintained by the /e/ Foundation), and it's open source.
/e/OS is open source not proprietary. But you are correct they are slow with addressing security issues. I'd recommend to go with LineageOS for now.
No. They are slowly abandoning their namesake.
Can you explain?