Fairphone announces the €599 Fairphone 6, with a 6.31" 120Hz LTPO OLED display, a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, and enhanced modularity with 12 swappable parts
Fairphone has never previously provided full security patches for anywhere close to their promised support. The Fairphone 4 doesn't currently receive proper security support but rather receives the Android Security Bulletin patches consistently 1-2 months late and many of the recommended patches (Pixel Update Bulletin) years late.
Fairphone 4 does not include a secure element and does not provide many of the expected hardware security features. It also has a broken/incomplete implementation of verified boot and attestation.
I'm saying this a lot, but going to repeat myself here:
Fuck these guys... Seriously. I bought a phone off of them hyped at the idea of the ethics. It didn't work on arrival. Over 3 months later and not one single reply to my helpdesk request (other than the Automated acknowledgement of receipt).
Unbelievably bad user experience, I went from hyped at the concept of reducing my production of electronic waste to beyond disappointed at a brutally bad user experience.
Then to make matters worse, it is difficult to source spare parts for the fairphone 4 (according yo a friend of mine who owns one that he bought a while ago)... Like is that not the entire point of the phone, reduced consumption of new phones by supporting repairs. If you're going to stop producing the spares at least release the patents then.. if you really believe in the promoted ideals that you spout... Which they clearly do not.
It turns out that it's just another money hungry company hell bent on burning the planet down to see a line go up, as far as I'm concerned. All gaff to sell shite phones at higher prices.
Do you have any source for spare part no longer being produced for FP 4? I can't find any information about it and they are still available on their webpage to buy.
What was it that didn't work on arrival ? Didn't it power on? Are you within EU? If so, why didn't you contact your countrys consumer advocacy agency, instead of waiting 3 months. We have 2 years consumer law within all of EU they would have taken your claim to the company for you.
I own a fairphone 4 and I wanted to buy a new battery a month ago. They werent in stock but now they are again, so I guess you are wrong about the parts not being produced anymore (at least the batteries).
This all assumed I have more spare time than I do. I am in the EU. This problematic phone should not be a problem that I have to invest time into resolving when it did not work from the very first use. This should be the simplest of support cases; return the phone for replacement or reimbursement.
The problem has not been resolved and the phone sits unused in its packaging in my desk drawer.
I have instead learnt to repair my current phone (which was itself a very rewarding and remarkably simple process, which is my new plan for reducing my electronic waste) and am still awaiting a response from fairphone after multiple follow up emails informing them of my disappointment and not one reply from a human.
In terms of fp4 replacement parts, I am only quoting a friend of mine, I haven't personally looked into that; though I was ready to believe it after my experience.
I would also be curios where you are located. I am in EU and had a software problem (caused by self) and support was very helpful and they even repared my phone free of charge despite me telling them that I was at fault myself.
Now I wonder whether one of us was lucky / unlucky or it depends on the region...
Sending it in and back took a bit longer that it could but still was within a reasonable time frame.
There was once a time when I swore I would not buy any phone larger than 5", that was when I had a 4.7" and couldn't find it comfortable to reach the notifications one handed on anything larger. I'm now using a 6" and swearing I will stop here. At this point I'm really tempted to just keep buying new-old-stock pixel 5's for the rest of time because I've moved the goalposts too many times now.
IPhone 13 mini should still get updates for a few years, but then you're on iOS and it's not like Apple has an upgrade path for small phone fans these days either. It's sad, but apparently people prefer bigger phones.
I had a 6.3" phone and thought I wanted something smaller, got a 6.1" Pixel 6a and found it to be too small for my liking, now I'm using a 6.8" Pixel 8 Pro and honestly, I think I could have managed another 0.2" for a nice round number of 7", but there are no phones like this :D
If I hadn't bought a Pixel 7 Pro last year for GrapheneOS I'd consider it. But let's see how the development of GOS continues with Android 16 since Google fucked shit up again.
I had the same opinion and refused to even consider phones without it, but I've had to resign myself to the fact that it's a losing battle.
My current Motorola One Vision has a 3.5mm jack, but I bought a USB-C to 3.5mm DAC/headphone amplifier a while back to use with my PC, and of course it works great for the phone. It's really just a barely noticeable ~5cm extension to the headphone cable.
My main concern was perhaps wearing out the USB-C port, but so far no issues. And of course it's easy to repair or replace on the Fairphone.
There's also the factor that the 3.5mm jack on phones often doesn't have enough power to drive anything other than earbuds and very efficient headphones, but the Meizu HiFi Pro dongle has enough oomph for full-size cans.
Ideally I would have liked a 3.5mm jack, but the fair supply chain, repairability and 8 years of software support outweigh it.
Understandable. For me though the only thing I use my phone for is messaging, calls, music, and light internet browsing. Hell, give me 1-2 camera sensors, if I wanted to do photography I'd get an actual camera and lenses.
Once my current phone dies I'm probably getting this or something similar to it. It's so frustrating that the one feature I want is nowhere to be found.