I was pretty annoyed that none of the reviews mentioned software issues, at all. Don’t get me wrong, I like the phone - but at launch it had many software problems - made me wonder if reviewers are even using the devices they’re testing for more than an hour. Fortunately with the latest patch it’s in a decent state now.
And the software issue angle is valid, unfortunately. After my Fairphone 5 was permanently bricked by a firmware update I’ll be holding off on Fairphone for a good while. Apparently the issue I had was common (lots of people talking about it in the forums) but Fairphone support took six weeks to even acknowledge my issue and never actually sorted it. Dead at 18 months. I ended up claiming on my insurance and buying a Pixel.
Do you have the phone? What’s your impression of it? I’m in the market for a new phone but I’m struggling to find a device that grabs my attention. They all seem to have something that puts me off them.
It’s a good mid-range phone - nice display, sturdy build - but a little bit thicker than most phones, which is probably due to repairability. Camera is ok, but not remarkable. Battery life is perfectly fine too, I’m charging it to 80% and it lasts me two days.
Overall really nothing fancy, but at the same time I don’t feel like I’m making any big compromises considering the focus on sustainability. Software has improved a lot, still needs a bit more work - but the most glaring issue, which was stuttering/low framerate after unlocking for a good minute is gone.
How good is the sustainability in practice over a couple of years? A midrange phone is unlikely to keep up with computing power demands of new software for long.
I’m not sure, it’s my first Fairphone - time will tell. It’s guaranteed to get 7 years of updates if I’m not mistaken. I think for my use cases it will be sufficient, I don’t play games on mobile for example.
I was pretty annoyed that none of the reviews mentioned software issues, at all. Don’t get me wrong, I like the phone - but at launch it had many software problems - made me wonder if reviewers are even using the devices they’re testing for more than an hour. Fortunately with the latest patch it’s in a decent state now.
And the software issue angle is valid, unfortunately. After my Fairphone 5 was permanently bricked by a firmware update I’ll be holding off on Fairphone for a good while. Apparently the issue I had was common (lots of people talking about it in the forums) but Fairphone support took six weeks to even acknowledge my issue and never actually sorted it. Dead at 18 months. I ended up claiming on my insurance and buying a Pixel.
Pxl did do it to me… , phone bricked due to update bug when the phone has two profiles activated, never looked back at pixels…
Do you have the phone? What’s your impression of it? I’m in the market for a new phone but I’m struggling to find a device that grabs my attention. They all seem to have something that puts me off them.
It’s a good mid-range phone - nice display, sturdy build - but a little bit thicker than most phones, which is probably due to repairability. Camera is ok, but not remarkable. Battery life is perfectly fine too, I’m charging it to 80% and it lasts me two days.
Overall really nothing fancy, but at the same time I don’t feel like I’m making any big compromises considering the focus on sustainability. Software has improved a lot, still needs a bit more work - but the most glaring issue, which was stuttering/low framerate after unlocking for a good minute is gone.
How good is the sustainability in practice over a couple of years? A midrange phone is unlikely to keep up with computing power demands of new software for long.
I’m not sure, it’s my first Fairphone - time will tell. It’s guaranteed to get 7 years of updates if I’m not mistaken. I think for my use cases it will be sufficient, I don’t play games on mobile for example.