Honestly quite the downgrade in some departments imo. You cant swap the battery without a screwdriver anymore (was great for hiking with a secondary battery) and no USB3 which also means no DP over USBC.
I was reading that actually this change helped make the phone thinner and lighter, and they used a softer battery instead of the old one with a hard shell, so it was definitely a compromise.
cant swap the battery without a screwdriver anymore
The horror. Imagine using any other phone where you can't take the battery out at all (at least until 2027 when all phones will be forced to have removable batteries).
I think Fairphone has bigger contentions to deal with than having to use a screwdriver.
I lost a motorola battery off a cliff I wasn't even standing particularly near once while attempting a battery swap... I suppose I succeeded at swapping the battery at least.
Old phones were like this! It was super easy to replace screens, batteries, etc. on smartphones 10 years ago. Then everything became glued, sealed, and enshittified.