I hope they bring the Fairphone 5 to the US in a reasonable amount of time, because the 4 is just too old for the price being charged.
The Fairphone 4 costs 649 here in Sweden so it doesn’t seem that different to me. Plus if it too gets 7 years of updates, that doesn’t seem like a bad price to me.
The main reason I moved to iOS over Android is because I hate changing phones every year, not even Google supports their phones as long as Apple does.
This is a good move by Fairphone. Hope they succeed.
I never did, but keeping my OnePlus One functional for six years took a lot of manual maintenance which I hated. Particularly the last two years.
My iPhone is super hands-off. I input my pin, click “install update” and put it on the charger for ten minutes or so, it does the rest.
No need to figure out which gapps to get, no need to find a good ROM, no BS with console applications, no hooking it up to the computer, no workarounds with Magisk to restore functionality lost with the flash, etc.
7 years of updates sounds good, but it could also mean anything. They can update localisation files for 5 years
You should’t change your phone every year. Just but phone with LineageOS support. And reflash it. 3+ years of additional support are yours.
Oh I don’t. Had my OnePlus One for six, and my current iPhone XS is 3. I just don’t like the hassle of flashing ROMs and enabling BS with Magisk and what not. I just want it to work.
Instead of all that, with my iPhone I input my pin, click “install update” and put my phone on the stand for ten minutes. It’s very hands-off.
I also only paid $500 for it so it’s been a value for the money.
My 2016 Xiaomi Mi 4S has received Android 13 update via LineageOS.
PixelExperience 13 is still being released for Redmi 4X, which is a 2016 phone as well
I used my OnePlus One (2014) until 2020. Ultimately what made me move away from it was that software support wasn’t there anymore, and having to manually find images, and flash them myself was just too much hassle. I just want something that works.
Here in Sweden, having a phone is almost a necessity. Lots of daily-life infrastructure goes through it. We have a service called BankID which is essentially a digital identification method (where your bank steps in and strengthens your identity) allowing you to do various things on the web.
- Medical services
- Making appointments
- Viewing journals
- Renewing prescriptions
- Transferring money
- Purchasing items
- Managing my account
- at my ISP
- Electricity provider
- Landlord
- Paying bills
- Managing my insurances
Everything here uses bank ID. Up until recently if I wanted to pick up a parcel at the nearby post office, I’d give the clerk a code, and show them my ID. That changed so I can verify my ID using BankID in the app, and they can scan a QR code. Now I just show the QR code to a machine and a robot fetches my parcel for me.
A while ago I called my ISP to cancel a service, and I had to validate my ID using bank ID.
And that’s just one of the online services. My municipal public transport doesn’t let you pay for tickets on the buses anymore. It started with them removing cash (to prevent robberies) to them now just not letting you pay at all. You either buy a card at a store (which you can then add money to either online, using bank ID, or at a store) and pay with that, or you use their app to buy a ticket.
Because of the safety requirements for BankID to work, if your OS drops out of support, and the phone manufacturer doesn’t update it, you’ll need to get a new phone. I work as a software developer and do not want to screw around with tech stuff in my free time, so going with an iPhone was really the way to go for me. It “just works” and Apple provides updates basically forever. The iPhone 6S (2015) received its last major OS update recently, and will likely continue to receive security updates for a while yet. I’ll be surprised if any Android OEM has provided a 12.0 update to any of their phones from 2015.
The company actually skipped Android 12 to deliver Android 13 due to all that “build the BSP yourself” work. Monthly security updates probably don’t arrive all that regularly either.
This might be a dealbreaker for many people.
My last android phone was the Xiaomi Mi A1, supposed to 3 years support under Android One. The updates were delayed and it was a very bad experience overall, imo.
This is what made me leave android for iOS, just tired of having to change phones every 1-2 years and having several issues like the above.
I’d buy this in an instant if they would have included a headphone jack. What an idiotic design choice to make especially on a device like this
Honestly, the headphone jack days are gone and there’s not a lot we can do about it.
And honestly? Wireless Bluetooth headphones/earbuds are good enough now that I don’t see a need for wired ones though so I don’t see what the issue ism
I’m glad that it works for you. Doesn’t work for everyone, unfortunately. There are still a few brands out there that release new phones with the jack. Supporting them demonstrates that there’s still a market out there. I find Bluetooth buds, even the great ones, a frustrating enough experience that I don’t want to rely on ONLY that for music listening.
Same thing with small phones; there aren’t many out there, but I show my support where I can. I may not be the majority but I think the jack is a large enough “niche” that it will absolutely be out there for a long time. In fact I suspect as people get tired of the $200/year (for good bluetooth buds) hamster wheel the jack will actually increase in popularity. But it takes time for all of those bluetooth buds to break down on people, and for people to decide that enough is enough.
I use my headphones on multiple devices. Pairing them every time I want to switch is a pain in the ass. Also, my current headphones are still good and will hopefully last for a very long time, as I specifically went after headphones that are study, easy to maintain, and repair. So I have no need for Bluetooth headphones, and I have no desire for Bluetooth headphones. I just want a jack to plug in.
What headphones are they? Can they not just pair to multiple devices? I have mine hooked up to my two laptops and my phone, and they just automatically connect to whatever one I’m using (unless I’m using both in which case I just have to toggle it on the second device if I want).
I hate the fact that so many manufacturers removed it that I refuse to buy a device like that purely out of principle.
My current device has a user removable battery aswell and seems like EU is going to make it mandatory for new devices so my next device will probably have it too. I can imagine someone saying the same thing about removable battery that you’re now saying about the headphone jack. Time will tell.
7 years. Wtf!!!
This is the way! Hope competition does its thing and others will follow. Today’s phones have great hardware. If apps and android releases in the future won’t require much more power for no reason, I can see sticking to phones for that long.
