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Fairphone 5 Released
(shop.fairphone.com)
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this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Technology
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5 years of OS updates is more than you get from any other Android manufacturer. For everyone else in the space, you are lucky to get 3.
Fair wages for the people making the phone is also a selling point of this phone. It's not just about repairability.
That said I'm also not writing this from a Fairphone, because the price is too high for me.
That may be true but how are they guaranteeing this on a component level? As far as I know, they use off the shelf stuff so they only have assembly wages. And that doesn’t justify the price imo.
You can take a look at their impact reports they release every year: https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Fairphone-Impact-Report-2022.pdf
They keep close track of materials used and wage paid for all their suppliers. They also pay wage bonuses to the workers at some of their suppliers (page 41).
How fast do you need your phone to be for sending messages, streaming video, or browsing the web? Every phone made in the last decade can do these things.
The high price actually cancels the point of the repairability. I can get a similar phone for easily €400-500 less. If I budget that extra price for repairs, I can get the battery and screen replaced quite a few times.
I say that as an FP4 owner, who did the same calculation mistake there.
According to Fairphone "We plan at least 5 Android OS version updates after Android 13".
Let's see. There is still no Android 13 on the FP4.
At least CalyxOS, DivestOS offer Android 13 builds for FP4 (and obviously LineageOS, but it doesn't have OTA updates, afaik)
Samsung offers 4 years of os updates for many phones and watches. And news reported that pixel 8 will have better.
If I recall correctly, Xiaomi recently declared the same for some of their phones.
There's a clear trajectory where this is heading. From 2027 the EU will enforce replaceable batteries and it looks like some other markets might follow. Software support duration is increasing a lot as well.
I wouldn't be surprised if you'd get most of the Fairphone's benefits on a regular Samsung in a few years.
Yes, very realistic scenario. TBF, I cannot remember if I ever upgraded a phone due to the battery issuses.
So, for me personally, replaceable battery is not a significant benefit.
Happens if you run a phone for long enough ^^
Well...aside from the fair supply chain, liveable wages, humane working conditions, environment footprint...
4 years including security updates though right? If that's the flcase then fairphone's doing 8 years.
No really. Samsung offers 4 years of os updates and 5 years of security updates. Samsung releases os updates really fast, so 5 years basically means 5 os versions.
Fairhone declares 5 os versions and 8 years of software support. Fairphone users here mentioned that fairphone is very slow with updates, so it could happen that 5 os versions really will take 8 years. If Fairphone will keep same cadence as Samsung, its 5 os versions can be coverted into 5 years.
But we have a bit of apples vs oranges here.
I personally find samsung's policy good enough for majority of users. I expect that I will upgrade my phone every 3 - 5 years for different unpredictable today reasons anyway.
They are offering a minimum of 8 years of software support. 5 years is the warranty. I'm not sure why OP wrote that, it's not what was announced.
It's not, according to Fairphone "We plan at least 5 Android OS version updates after Android 13". So, 5 years of os and other 3 years of security.
With the pace of OS updates that Fairphone had so far, it will be 8 years of OS updates. But only because the OS updates will be 3 years late.
The FP4 just got Android 12 earlier this year, with no Android 13 in sight.
A good point.
Sorry, I misunderstood what OP was trying to say. I didn't realise they were talking about feature updates when they mentioned the 5 years. A security patch is still an update to the operating system and evidence of support, so my initial reaction was that they were wrong when they said "5 years of OS support".
ah.. I will flash it with a custom rom anyway from day 1 :D
🙂
Unfortunately it's impossible to offer support for longer than the chipset
Actually in the past they updated their software even past the support from qualcomm, rewriting by themselves what was needed to allow and old chipset to run newer android version
Source
Yeah, well, they are just doing what custom ROM makers have been doing for a decade and a half.
My old Droid 4 was also EOL after Android 4.1. Custom ROM makers pushed this up to Android 7.1 by ignoring the parts (e.g. the Kernel) that they couldn't update.
Sure, but the good is that this is the only company doing it. Also my Galaxy Nexus received a big kernel update from people at xda developers, but was by chance and good will of the people involved. Here they did it because they kept up the commercial promise behind the product they sell, something that basically no other company in this sector does (or they do, but with very short term promises).
The price is also higher because they use fair trade gold and whatnot. Given the mission to clean up the electronics industry it's plesently suprising it doesn't cost more