These repairable phones still aren't built to last
These repairable phones still aren't built to last
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These repairable phones still aren't built to last
20 comments
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HMD also doesn't provide any mechanism for unlocking the bootloader
This is the part that's inexcusable.
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Nothing is built to last. Not in the customer class of products in the capitalist world. Basically, if you can buy it retail, it's made to sell. Not to last. Planned obsolescence included at no extra cost.
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This is the main reason they got rid of the headphone jack. Some headphones lasted forever.
Now you have Bluetooth earbuds with tiny batteries that goes in a case with another small battery. Batteries that small will last 5 years tops. On top of that sound quality hasn't improved and latency got worse.
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Nothing is built to last? No. One little Company still holds out against this concept.
Btw, their 5th phone has an industrial Snapdragon so they can deliver software updates for a couple years longer.
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I've been using the FP3 since it came out, and no complaints yet. However, they recently discontinued a lot of the spare parts. Which goes directly against the concept of having a long lasting repairable phone.
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their phones don't have specs that work today, letalone 5 years from now.
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I like the fairphone idea, I really do, and I realize that maintaining the fairphone ecosystem is expensive... But! 550€ on sale for a 128GB storage and 6GB RAM phone? GTFO. Update promises are great, but a small company promising 7 years? I hope that the fairphone company survives that long, and even longer, but I wouldn't be basing my phone purchase on that promise.
For my usage I can get comparable phones for the same cost per day, but with less of an initial investment, and without the risk of time.
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I think this applies to recent products, we have quite a few 10+ yo devices which still function as they did when new. PCs, half-smart 1080p TVs, first and second gen iPads (one iPad 2 has %98 battery life after 500 cycles) etc.
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And Samsung
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There's some good point's here, even the articles author seems to have doubt's as to the validity of such devices where updates are concerned.
Putting all those aside for a moment, to me the silver lining is the ability to easily swap out a failing battery or charging port, especially if your a ham-fisted user who regularly rams the connection in. I've had no end of these fail over the years and more often than not, simply disposed of the device.
The other thing I miss from back in the day was the ability to disconnect the battery when a device gets frozen, it's not resolving the underling issue but a great way to get things up and running again.
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20 comments
Almost pulled the trigger on a Skyline, but then read about the bootloader not being unlockable, and hmd "promising" to make it unlockable at a later time. That's bullshit right there - if you offer only 2 years of software support you better make the bootloader unlockable, otherwise it's e-waste.
Me crying on my Zenfone 10 right now. Shame because it's a brilliant phone.
I suspect bad faith any time a company doesn't do it the Pixel way (dev settings and fastboot unlock).