Thoughts on fairphone 6?
Been looking at the Fairphone 6 and damn, support until 2033? That's actually insane.
The whole replaceable parts thing is pretty sick too. Battery goes bad? Just swap it instead of dropping $800 on a new phone or getting the battery replaced for $100
Probably gonna throw /e/OS on it too because why not.
What's everyone else using? Anyone actually have experience with Fairphone or am I just getting hyped over nothing?
I have a few major gripes about the Fairphone 6 which otherwise looks like an awesome phone. It costs an extra $200 in the US. So it’s a midrange phone made out of plastic for $900. Really difficult to justify that unless you have a ton of disposable income. Then you can only use it on T-Mobile. While it’s awesome that parts are easily replaced, I wish there was a way to upgrade over time. I’d imagine those parts will cost more in the US as well.
T Mobile and their partnership with Starlink make this a hard no for me.
Trump's tariffs likely contribute significantly to that added cost.
Yep. Might make it really expensive then....if it doesn't change in a day.
Thats sadly a US problem, I live in the EU and can buy it for maybe 680USD. If the price is the biggest problem for you then that's great news about the phone
Yeah, if I lived in Europe it’d be almost a no brainer. Although the lack up upgrade path without buying a completely new phone is still kind of a bummer. I’ve had my iPhone for 3 years and never needed anything with it repaired. By the time something in this phone does break, I’ll likely be due for an upgrade anyway. Wish I could buy a Fairphone and slowly upgrade the parts so I would no longer be tied to an upgrade cycle. To me that’s way more attractive than a highly repairable phone.
Ive been disappointed with fairphone 5, OS updates were late and not in full. Other security risks like the original OS signed with android test keys. I see that you want to flash another OS on there so this isn't relevant for you, but I am a bit disappointed.
I'm 90% happy with my fairphone 5 with calyx. Only downturn is that it's too big for AFAB hands, but it's hard to find a phone that isn't these days. So, to me, there's no downsides to it compared to other phones. Id get it again simply for ethical reasons and recommend.
They can ship it with e/os already installed, which is awesome.
I know someone with a fp4. It seemed like you could get 'more' phone for the same amount of money, at the time. But then again, i have a feeling that not all brands/models are supported in the same way that fairphone strives to.
It seems easy enough to install /e/os afterward. Thinking about buying the phone in store
Gotcha. I managed to install e/os on an old galaxyS8, which was easy enough. It took some time to find the right guides since its an older phone, but i imagine there are more resources for a newer phone like the fp6, 5, or even the 4.
I wish we had that option...
Well be advised it may not be as easy anymore. Cause I'm the computer person in my friend group I recently switched an fp5 to /e/. It has some kind of firmware security built in where you can install only a system with the same or higher patch level. The system installed was at a higher patch.level than the /e/-system available, which gave me headaches.
Results may vary.
@twikz FP4 here with /e/ - no complaints, has served me well for many years now. Graphene fanbois will cry that it's very insecure, but in a world where big tech (google et al) are the biggest threat factor, /e/ makes the most sense to me.
Agreed, grapheneOS seem to care more about security than privacy perhaps
GrapheneOS user out of convenience here, but strongly considering FP6 for my next phone. GOS team are indeed very zealous about security. Which isn't a bad thing, but from a purely statistical standpoint, the chance of being hacked on any recent flavor of Android is very low as long as we download apps from reputable sources only. Android by itself is already far ahead of typical desktop OSes in terms of security.
USB 2, therefore no external monitor.
If they make 6+ (like there was 3+) with USB 3, then I will consider getting it.
?? my fp4 can use the external monitor, no way the 6 can't
it's usb-c 2.0, not usb 2 maybe that caused the confusion?
edit: nope, the 4 and 5 does have usb-c 3.0, the 6 has usb-c 2.0 that is weird, going back like that
Think they said it's because of keeping the cost down, I never do anything except charging with USB C cables on my phone anyway
support until 2033? That’s actually insane.
That’s actually EU regulation.
7 years support after the end of product sales and at least 5 years of updates after end of sale of spare parts (Which means, mathematically the company intends selling the phone for one year and spare parts for 3 years from now on.)
So they basically “brag” with conforming to the rules of their home market.
Don’t get me wrong: Having long support cycles is awesome. But that is not something the WANT to do but they HAVE to do.
Battery goes bad? Just swap it
In my 26 years of using mobile phones I never ever felt the urge to swap the battery. Repairability of smartphones is such a non-issue in reality, it amazes me that people are so crazy about it.
or getting the battery replaced for $100
Speaking of which. The official shop doesn’t have a battery for the Fairfone 6. The battery for the Fairfone 5 would cost me 100 Euros (~116 USD)
What’s everyone else using?
I use a Pixel 7 Pro which has something audibly loose inside. Since everything works I don’t see any issues with whatever part has become loose. I think I will stick with it for now.
I stripped down Android to the bare minimum, use an app that blocks all data traffic except for the apps I want, and use an alternate launcher. That’s the most de-googling possible except replacing the installed Android version with something else.
It’s funny how the official Google phones are best for de-googling and causing the least amount of vendor lock-in.
Repairability of smartphones is such a non-issue in reality, it amazes me that people are so crazy about it.
I'm sorry, but I take issue with that statement. Here's how many steps you need to take to remove a battery from popular phones:
And I have to stress, this is the number of steps to just GET to the battery. I didn't count the steps for battery replacement and reassembly. And all of these require some sort of specialty tools like having a gel pack to melt the glue inside the phone, or specialty screwdrivers for proprietary screws, etc. Not to mention the time and patience you need to expend.
Contrast this to the Fairphone 4:
No tools needed. 2 minutes. So no, I absolutely refuse to believe that phone repairability is a non-issue.
And that's just battery swaps. Getting to the screen to replaced on most phones is an even bigger nightmare.
I think they probably dont repair their phones. Tbh my phones usually stopped working with software before anything breaks behind, with the exception of the screen.
Indeed. Batteries are consumables, not something that should be babied from 20% to 80% because it's too difficult to replace.
Yes, that’s awesome. Easily replaceable parts should be the default – but within reason. If I lose compactness, functionality, or performance just because I have the option to change a part, then it’s a no-go for me.
Especially with batteries. Maybe it’s just my bubble and the outside world regularly changes their phone’s batteries, but in my world I never needed to change the battery. Nor any other part.
If one wants to support the Fairphone philosophy or regularly changes parts of their mobile: go for it! But in my world the Fairphone just is a lower mid-tier device with a high-end price tag.
I use a Pixel 7 Pro which has something audibly loose inside.
Pixel 8 user here. My phone also makes noises as if something is loose when I shake it. But I searched for what could cause that and the answer seems to be that the camera shutter is moving inside, which is not a problem. Maybe it is a similar situation with your phone.
@Dirk @twikz @ueeu fair enough. So far, battery replacement was the only repair I had ever done. May I ask you for the alternative launcher you are using?
May I ask you for the alternative launcher you are using?
Contrary to normally using free open source software only, I’m using Smart Launcher – which is pretty much non-free closed source software. But I can tolerate it because how good it is.
@Dirk What app are you using for 'app that blocks all data traffic except for the apps I want'?
I’m using NetGuard in whitelist mode: all traffic is blocked, including all traffic from system applications, only apps I allow can access the Internet (I can even control if the apps are allowed to use WiFi only, Mobile only, or both).
NetGuard install itself as VPN to provide the functionality. The VPN is local-only, so apps that want to connect to the Internet, use the VPN, and then NetGuard does it’s actions, and then the regular internet connection is used for outgoing trafic via the local VPN. With this, no root access is needed.
You can also check out RethinkDNS
My only turn off is the lack of a tele-camera: I love the 4x (104mm eq.) on my Pixel 6 Pro and I don't think I can live without it.
I had a fairphone 2 years back. Had the battery replaced once, otherwise it worked fine. It was a bit clunky, a bit slow, the camera wasn't that great, it felt a bit out of date overall, but I'm not crazy about this sort of thing, I just need a basic smartphone. For me the environmental and fair trade aspect was the selling point, not the technical stats, so I can't really speak on that. It was .. a phone, lol. It worked fine. Friend of mine is using a newer one (not sure which one) and says they've done a good job to bring it up-to-date and especially make the battery last longer. I don't think they aim for super high perfomance cutting edge phones, so don't expect that. Oh, because you can take them apart, they are obviously not waterproof. Just something to know.
I use iodé OS and I'm having a blast.
I like the idea but it's missing wireless charging and has worse almost everything compared to my 5 year old phone...
Guess I'll wait for Fairphone 7
Wireless charging wastes so much energy, I would be surprised if a Fairphone would ever have that feature
Yeah true. I could live without that if it had better ip rating, larger screen + battery and faster charging
i'm using a fairphone 4, i'm pretty happy with it.
i like their goals of sustainability and repair friendly builds. i just got a security android update yesterday, although the one before was quite a few months ago, so it's not as frequently updated as it was in the first few years
Yeah I'm getting a 4 here in a bit and it's still supported. And should be able to get parts for at least 3 more years.
oh wow, why not a 6?