In my European country a law forces manufacturers to include a Dab+ tuner if it includes an FM tuner. Including an FM tuner is almost free, but a dab+ tuner isn't. Samsung reaction to this law was to push an update that bricked the FM tuners in their phones sold in my country
I have a Motorola One 5G Ace with a headphone jack and FM tuner. I can't stream anywhere near my house because of the crappy cell service, so I use the tuner all the time. There are lots of decent radio stations here.
The fact that they don't include a headphone jack that's been an audio standard for decades makes their claims of sustainability seem like marketing bs. And the argument that it's to make the phones thinner is bs too, since most phones now are bricks compared to previous generations. It was all a ruse to sell crappy bluetooth headphones with recharcghable batteries that are going to wind up in a landfill.
I never quite understood the headphone jack thing. It's a nifty thing to have but an adapter is a one time purchase. It seems like nowadays lack of headphone jack is just a minor inconvenience.
Its not convenient unless you need to use it extremely frequently and can keep track of it because of that.
I barely use my adapter so when I do need it, its another 15 minutes to find it or realize it got thrown out or something. Its just not convenient. Convenience would be leaving both ports, or for headphone companies to split the end of the cable into usbc, lightning, and audio jack
Yes, because it doesn't just "lack" it. They deliberately chose not to include such a simple thing so they can sell more shitty wireless headphones. I already have good wired ones, so no thank you. And I find this extremely anti-consumer and anti-sustainability.
Yes how convenient. They opt out of a port worth cents but luckily they sell hundred dollars headphones with batteries in them. I already have wired pairs and don't need any more.
Idk, I never use headphones jack in phone’s box as I already have mine. And smaller boxes might be a purely economical decision, but it still has an impact on transportation.
I still love my fairphone 3+. Had it for several years and have yet to need to do any repair or replacement. Pleasantly surprised and impressed! I also love that I can easily put a different OS on the phone (currently using e/os).
I'm loving my Fairphone 3! Upgraded the camera modules to the 3+ camera, and changed the charging port once after water damage. Also used /e/ for a while, but back to stock now.
The improved camera of the Fairphone 5 looks tempting (also OLED), but can't justify upgrading when my Fairphone 3 ia still perfectly fine. I guess it'll have to wait until 5G becomes an absolute necessity and I'm left with no choice. :)
As a repairability and sustainability advocate ... This is good news.
As a Fairphone 4 owner ... This is bad news for my resolve 😅 when I got my Fairphone I decided that I want to use it for at least the 5 years they guarantee updates and replacement parts ... So I guess I'm stuck now ... Which isn't a bad place to be I love my Fairphone 4 it's great ... I just still have the "new shiny thing" mentality stuck somewhere
If you can sell or give the old phone to someone else, they are also displacing a non-fair phone. So filling the market with fairphones (That are still supported) is a GOOD thing. And you are still supporting the company, and all the people they pay as well.
In general though the best thing is to just stick with your current phone if you can. Every new phone still consumes resources to produce and probably replaces some other phone which then has to be recycled or might even end up in a landfill.
Dammit, what's it gonna take for the Fairphone to be brought to the US? The only options are buying it from the Murena shop with their /e/ OS installed or to get the European model from somewhere like eBay or Newegg.
Does the european version work in the US with their slightly different frequencies? Personally, I'm a little leery of the entire Murena thing. I get the privacy angle, but I'm more interested in the hardware.
From what I've seen as long as you're not using a CDMA network like Verizon it reasonably works. There might be some minor issues when it comes to network performance on 5G/LTE but lots of folks claim that it's been working just fine for them.
Very cool. Great reviews as well from what I've seen. Definitely on my top contender list.
Currently, after flashing a custom ROM, I'm happy with my OnePlus 6T - and upgrading without a clear need certainly goes against Fairphone's values.
Im using a stock 6T and the wifi disconnect issues and screen locking when reception is bad is really getting on my nerves. Any tips for which ROM i should try that could fix these issues?
I have a OP6T as well and Lineage OS didn't support face unlock but worked well enough. I switched to Pixel Experience and it was just as good as Lineage but also had Face Unlock working.
At this point the only thing stopping me from getting a Fairphone through Murena is the fact that they only support the T-Mobile network. All the MVNO options on T-Mobile seem bad. They all have ridiculously low data caps, even on the "unlimited" plans.
Idk if it's helpful but Google Fi uses the T-Mobile network. I'm also using T-Mobile's home 5G internet with an external 3rd party antenna out in the boondocks. I get 150mbps down, 15 up.
Metro has unlimited for $25 no hard throttle, but lower priority after 35gb and restricted tethering. the TMobile prepaid unlimited plans get priority data and if you top up with target there's no tax and sometimes sales.
That CPU is weird, I wonder if "industrial grade snapdragon" is much more expensive than "consumer grade snapdragon" if the difference is just driver support
They've previously been on their own when releasing newer versions of Android onto older Snapdragon CPUs that aren't technically supported by it, which hasn't helped things when the updates take a while to arrive as is.
At least now with the industrial CPU they'll have support available from Qualcomm 💪 and the various performance enhancements and security fixes associated with that
This is the first one that's actually attractive to me, mostly because the screen didn't impress me on earlier models.
I hope it comes down in price by 200€ or so.
If you calculate what you'd spend on regular phones with a 2-3 year lifetime instead of a single one for 8 years (even including a few repairs), it might be actually cheap.
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Like its previous devices, the Fairphone 5 is made with ethically sourced materials by workers who are given a living wage bonus and is designed to be easy to repair with a lengthy software support period.
But this year’s model is specced-out much more like a modern midrange smartphone, with an OLED display, fast 30W charging, and dual 50-megapixel cameras at the rear.
If that sounds normal or even a little pedestrian, then that’s kind of the point — Fairphone has never been a company on the bleeding edge of smartphone specs.
That should keep the phone usable from a software perspective until 2031, though Fairphone’s press release says it’s aiming for 2033 as a stretch goal.
Like the Fairphone 4, there’s once again no headphone jack here, and the handset is available in three colors; black, blue, and (the correct option) transparent.
A living wage bonus is paid to the 2,000 people who assemble the phone and components like its battery, PCB, and vibration motor.
Interesting for the alternative OS options - a device like this one would be great if there were some really good serviceable Linux distro for phones ... And yes, I know they exist, but they're not up to the level needed by most people for a daily driver. As for Android, it's a nice idea to have a phone that lasts that long, but would it actually be reliable and fast enough to use for 8 years?
Sadly, no option to get this in Australia besides grey import, which is going to be pricey. I'm going to keep an eye on the way this line of phones goes in future, but for me at the moment there are too many unknowns and the price tag is too high.