https://www.fairphone.com/en/2024/09/04/how-much-ram-does-your-smartphone-need/
Couldn’t find another decent link in that wasn’t written in Dutch, but you’ll find it at the bottom of the story.
Besides the storage and RAM, nothing else has changed.
Fairphone is garbage.
Source: I’m typing this on one
edit: Sorry, didn’t realize this was a FP community. I stand by my words though
Well, that might go a little far, but they need to step up their game when it comes to software: that’s where they currently lacking. Too many bugs, bad optimization and unpolished designs. That’s why mine is now my secondary device, which i probably want to use to try out custom ROMs. Hope they find a way to improve their software team (better and more developers, perhaps more colabs with Nixos, Graphene etc.)
Could you ellaborate?
I have an FP3 and I’m pretty happy with my device - previously owned a Galaxy S5 (the only lost features are the HRM and amoled display😓)
What I do find garbage though is what Google continues to do with Android…
It’s a bad phone with tons of feel-good marketing. It’ll end up on a landfill like any other phone.
The design and build quality of the device are bad. Sharp edges that feel so unfinished. The components, like the fingerprint sensor, are beyond unreliable. The camera is absolutely shit. Yeah, great, I can replace parts - against exactly the same garbage they put in at the factory.
Android Auto reliably is a frustrating experience in any car I tried. You have to manually adjust the USB mode, or wait minutes for the phone to connect, every single time you plug in. Sometimes I take a quick stop and the car/phone will absolutely refuse to cooperate with each other. Just connection errors. You reboot the phone, still the same shit. You stop the car, get out, lock it, unlock it, get back in, connect phone, change USB mode, connection error… You give up, the next day it just works again. I keep an old OnePlus in the car now. It has zero of these issues. You plug it in, 100% of the time AA comes up instantly. Fairphone is a waste of time in this regard.
They have no ARKit certification, which I haven’t even experienced ever before. You don’t need it until you need it.
I also heard the 3 was designed better, but I would never buy another Fairphone after owning the 4. It is the worst smartphone I have ever owned, and I actively hate it every single day. I bought it, because I wanted something that’ll last me a long time, and break buying new devices all time. No smartphone I have ever owned created such a massive motivation to get a replacement.
I have an FP4 and I love it. I only ever have problems with the fingerprint sensor when my hands are dirty or overly sweaty. The camera works rather well to be honest, but I did replace the app with the Googled one.
I can’t speak to Android Auto, 'cause I’ve never used it, and don’t know what ARKit is. I do heavily use Google (and Organic) Maps though, and I find the accuracy of both the GPS and compass to be quite good.
Honestly, I generally find the hardware to be pretty solid and have been using it since the FP4 was released without issue. I connect it to my computer to transfer Very Large Files all the time, and regularly push a lot of data through the wifi.
I’ve been abusing the shit out of the battery though, so I just ordered a replacement one. Something most phones still can’t do. It’s Fairphone’s killer feature in my book.
I’m not posting this to invalidate your experience, just to demonstrate that there are others who feel differently.
These are pretty fair points I’d say
I haven’t used the FP4 personally so can’t really comment on that, but a lot of the community who owned the 3 weren’t too keen on the 4 the last time I was on their forums. Most of that was due to the software issues you mentioned, as well as the removal of the 3.5mm jack.
The improved GM1 isocell rear camera on the 3+ is pretty good for what it is, but on the software side there’s practically no optimization there at all. In full manual with OpenCamera I can take better pictures than my iPhone 13 - lack of HDR (camera hardware supports it, no software implementation) and OIS aside. Others have used the Google Camera app on auto and they’re very happy with what they get, I’m personally not too keen on the overprocessed look that some environments can exhibit though.
Ever since the leadership changes and designer departure following the 3+ release, a few mistakes have been made - unrepairable fairbuds being the worst one IMO!! Plastic sustainability of those buds aside, the three tiny unreplaceable batteries will be a one way ticket to the landfill once they’re worn out.
Personally I’m hoping they develop a true successor to the FP3, really like the feel of this device
I agree, to some level at least. It is not good enough in its current state as my daily driver, but i do believe the hardware is good. Not €700 good (more like 300 good, if we don’t talk about ‘fair’ products). If the software was better, i would’ve used it as my daily driver.
I don’t care about the fingerprintreader and camera for example (but i do understand that it is a dealbreaker for some). I think the camera is actually pretty good (again, not €700 good, might be somewhat software related). I think the vibrationmotor and battery are the things that are the worst on the FP5.
I just wished they focused on software and better new parts for once, instead of earsbuds, new versions of phones etc. They can improve what is already there, for the most part…
I wished i tried out the FP4 first, because for now it is 700 not very well spent. Hope that can change in the future.
As I understand it: Framework is for people who don’t want to sacrifice a great PC for repairability, which comes at a price. Fairphone is for people who want outdated hardware and stock Android in exchange for repairability, at pretty much the same price as a competitive product.
But: Compared to Framework, Fairphone is a pretty small company which tries to create as much of its products as possible in a sustainable manner. And for smartphones, that’s just not super easy or sustainable as a business.
Fairphone doesn’t really targer enthusiasts or the mass market, they are targeting a (sadly) small group of people who care enough about the environment to sacrifice convenience for it.
Wasn’t fairphone originally about being sweatshop-free with the sustainability or repairability claims being afterthoughts? Am I thinking about something else?
Framework uses high end SOCs. And doesn’t have to write as much code to make it all work ootb. Fairphone has to choose an SOC that will be supported by manufacturer for as long as possible since they’re on the hook for supporting the fairphone for so long. Only SOCs that are supported long term are designed for industrial/enterprise type use
Fairphone should try to get their hands on Google’s SoC and board support package. Perhaps a special deal. That’ll get them long software support without any special SoC engineering. Just improve the high level Android apps and sell parts. This would let them be closer to what Framework is. Framework writes almost no software for their hardware.