The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone.
Fairphone 5. Designed for you. Made fair.
I don't like smartphones. I use a dumbphone.
But this is a wonderful initiative.
If they just didn't drop the headphone jack.
How else would they push their mediocre reviewed Bluetooth headsets and ear buds?
Ah, that's a dealbreaker for me
my phone has a headphone jack, my phone before that had a headphone jack. Wanna guess how often I used it? Zero because I have decent bluetooth headphones
I use my backup headphones when my Bluetooth headset has run out of battery
Okay? You're not the one asking for a headphone jack tho??? Pointless comment.
I use mine. Bluetooth is great and all, but it's still not the same quality as a hard-line. And they also run out of batteries.
my phone has a headphone jack, my phone before that had a headphone jack. Wanna guess how often I used it? Zero because I have decent bluetooth headphones
That’s just like your opinion man
My last phone had a headphone jack. Wanna guess how often I used it? All the time! And that was despite having decent Bluetooth headphones.
I loved wearing my cans when mowing the lawn because it cut down on the noise, and I also used them when laying in bed since they had much better audio. I would use my Bluetooth headphones the rest of the time because they were more convenient.
My new phone doesn't have headphone jack, and I'm super bummed.
Ok I use my wired headphones
I used mine all the time because I hate using bluetooth even though I have expensive bluetooth headphones, I have now cancelled you out
My decent Bluetooth headphones have the option to plug in a headphone cable to use them wired. I use it occasionally so I can reduce audio latency, which can be useful with gaming...and essential with rhythm games.
Boo this man!
Wanna know how many times I played a piano in the past 20 years?
Zero. Clearly they shouldn't exist.
This is fine if you don't care about having the best audio quality and lowest latency possible.
Good for you.
That's cool. Let me know when it gets support for GrapheneOS and finds it's headphone jack again.
The answer is likley never, GOS devs dont trust Fairphone devs (due to poor security practices) and Fairphone devs are unwilling (in some cases unable) to meet the extremely high standards for GOS.
I really wish this was available in the US. I've found myself able to hang on to devices longer and longer. So this would be perfect. I'm only charging my battery to 80% and discharging it to 30% before charging it again just to prolong the life of the battery because that's the first thing that dies on most devices. Having a user replaceable battery again would be an absolute godsend.
This is a 50% DoD and is considered best possible practice to prevent lithium-ion dendrite formation.
Updoot for good advice.
Proof:
If you don't mind clarifying, what do you mean by DoD?
What kind of software creates this plot?
The really nice thing is that the larger phone batteries get the more you get to use at 50% depth of discharge. My phone is 5,000 mAh and so I get to use 2,500 mAh of it. Once average phones start getting 5,500 mAh, that will mean I will be able to use 2,750 mAh. 250mAh may not sound like a lot, but it can go a decently long way.
This is a 50% DoD and is considered best possible practice to prevent lithium-ion dendrite formation.
Not entirely true. "Best possible" would be left plugged in and charged to 50%. Next best would be 49-51%. Then 48-52% and so on.
Also it's not that difficult or expensive to swap a battery and not really worth the stress, in my opinion.
What did you actually gain here? With my Pixel 7 it looks almost the same with 3.1% capacity loss per year without taking any special care of my battery. Is my phone an outlier or does it just not matter? And I almost exclusively charge with wireless.
I'm interested in this one also. I like the look of it. Currently a long-time Pixel user, but I'm open to other options. It will take a truly good camera to pull me away, though.
Sometimes last year Marquez Brownlee (I think it was him, I don't think it was Dave2D) was conducting a blind test among his audience which Photos they thought looked best. Some top brands were jumping up and down from one test scenario to another but the Fairphone ended up in the midfield constantly. True, that's not a glowing recommendation of the camera but at least an insurance that one doesn't get utter trash either.
That's honestly one thing I'm really glad about. I'm legally blind, so pictures don't honestly matter that much to me, and so I could really give a fuck less what the camera looks like as long as it functions well enough to act as a magnifier for me to read small print on things occasionally.
Like if I go pick up one of those frozen pizzas from the store and I need to read the box to know what temperature to set the oven to and how long to put it in. I use the camera to just zoom in on the print and read it and then leave the camera.
the camera is average. Don’t buy this phone for the camera
Yeah, same here honestly. For real, I wish it was available in the US too
Are you using something to automate that? If so what? Does it require root?
Several Android manufacturers have their own settings in the OS for battery longevity (automatic schedule based smart charging, or charging limits)
Don't think it's native in Android. Charging limits need support in the charging controller chip, plus driver support in the OS.
So my device settings have the functionality built in to stop charging automatically when the battery hits a certain percentage. And so I have set it to stop charging automatically at 81%. I also use BatteryBot Pro from F-Droid to alert me when the battery rises above 80% or drops below 30%
There's other phones with user replaceable batteries. I looked it up a month or so ago. They're not as ethical as fairphone, but still better than my drawer of working phones with dead batteries.
Phones like the Galaxy Active which have terrible hardware to make them entirely unappealing outside of that one crucial feature. They do this on purpose.
Murena does ship them to the USA, but with /e/OS preinstalled, which is great if you're into privacy and degoogling. I don't know how it works with US carriers though. Feel free to ask them on their forum, community.e.foundation
/e/OS doesnt interest me because its far to iphone(esk) in design. Though i might be able to flash LineageOS instead. I also want nothing to do with Google Play Services or even Micro-G. I even think Micro-G is too much of a compromise and won't use it. If an app won't run because Google Play Services doesn't exist, then I don't run that app. If I don't get notifications because Google Play Services doesn't exist, then I don't get notifications. So be it.
They ship fairphone 4 US, but not 5
I hope Graphene eventually shifts to support the fairphones. Doubtful, but it'd be perfect
No, it's the other way around. Fairphone needs to implement the things Graphene requires.
If we could get a Fairphone with GrapheneOS, that would be the perfect phone for me. Repairability & the most secure and private Android. Sign me up!
Hows their secure boot?
I wish they could implement the parts of the Pixel phones that allow GrapheneOS to be used.
What parts are these? I've always wondered what this was about, why the pixel was the only phone that could support GrapheneOS
The last I looked was that the Pixel was the only phone that allowed you to load a custom rom and relock the bootloader. Other phones kept the bootloader unlocked once it was modded.
So, graphene could be put on those phones if the devs wanted to do it, but it would be less secure since the bootloader would remain unlocked.
Also, supporting a small line a phones is probably infinitely easier than a range, of devices, but it would be nice to have another option. Especially now that the Fairphone pice is reasonable.
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/weshalb-grapheneos-aktuell-nur-google-pixel-geraete-unterstuetzt/
(From an Interview - The relevant parts are in English)
Security seems not easy.
I mean, you could use CalyxOS
It dosent have such things as 2 factor pin auth for fingerprint, but its the closest to Graphene
Not quite the same. The big thing with GrapheneOS is it can run the actual Google services, but sandboxed. Organic Maps is better than Google Maps in everyway, but it's routes are so much worse because it has no traffic into to go on. It's an anticompetitive network effect, but it's hard to fight without law makers.
Edit: Ok, it is good, but the main thing I like about is the maps can be setup to be as good as ones you'd manually navigate by. A bit like UK's Ordnance Survey maps.
I would totally be interested if they had solid Linux support, such as postmarketOS or mobian. Those systems continue to get updates long after most Android devices stop supplying updates, so it would fit really well with a repairable phone. It shouldn't be the default, but it would be awesome if they helped the Linux phone community make it the best supported hardware for the various Linux phone projects.
According to the postmarketOS wiki, audio is completely broken, so you have to use Bluetooth. That kind of sucks.
Bring back the headphone jack & we'll be happy.
Next up, make the phone compatible with Linux OSs
We can but hope. I have a dongle that plugs into my charging point to make it a headphone jack, but it's not the same
I recently went through that dongle buying experience. Having to get the correct DAC and amplifier chipset so the sound won't be too low is annoying. For the record I ended up going with one that has the CX31993 DAC and the MAX97220 amplifier, it doesn't have a real name so I'll just give a link: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005008755907868.html. It is a bit louder than my first impulsive buy, but I haven't tested the microphone yet.
This would've been my new phone if it had a headphone jack.
From an environmental standpoint it doesn't make any sense to drop it. More batteries, more e waste
They sell earbuds, that's all you need to know why it doesn't have a jack anymore.
Really sad they dropped it
Yup I'll stick with Xperia
I was trying so hard to buy one but Sony did not make them available at all in my country. The only way to buy an Xperia or a Zenfone 10 is through shady importer websites and you get no warranty.
I'm using this phone right now and I love it. it feels solid. Im using a degoogled ROM and it just works, there seems to be a lot of people pressing for graphene os specifically and discrediting the phone for what it is. its so easy to take apart and cheaply repair its great. it's perfect for folk who want a decent smartphone that you dont have to worry about being thrown around. sure it's not perfect but it is still a very good
I have been shopping for a rom for my FP. Which are you running?
I use CalyxOS on mine. It has microG all working by default so if you need that sort of thing it's probably the easiest way to get it up and running
calyx os is what I use
What's the cost to replace a cracked screen?
You can buy the OLED display as a spare part for 100 EUR on the official website. https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?category=4&filters=31
I've owned the 4, for a couple of years. Was really excited to get one.
Parts have been unavailable for a long time when I needed them. The battery is pretty dead after 2 years meanwhile my pixel which is about 5 years old still going strong. The os is the buggiest experience I've ever had, sluggish, going from portrait the landscape kills UI formatting if it switches to power save it'll skip a video. Boot loops constantly.
Never again I'm afraid it's neat I could fix things with it so quickly but they fail hard past that.
Example navigation buttons have just covered the voyager ui
Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe the F6 is likely expected by autumn and was considering this as my next. I often wondered about parts as time goes by, as I suspected the company wouldn't want a huge inventory of spares and the costs involved. If I do get one, I'll likely buy a spare screen at the least.
The UI stuff is disappointing, however maybe not a deal breaker as I'm trying to reduce my usage. Perhaps a buggy smartphone could be a decent dumbphone alternative.
Just switch ROM?
Def something I need to do
I really want this to come to the US as well..
Is this phone also more secure?
The problem we are running into right now is Apple and Google are colluding with the US government over fascism and they are supporting their Nazi regime
They have all the power and they can change all of these services overnight, they can track you and everything and you will have no idea and no way to get rid of it
We really need an open replacement. Phones are now used for everything
Well yeah, because why would phone companies care? Consumers buy devices based on camera and display quality, not for security, privacy, etc. I just had a chat w/ a coworker about a Chinese device with an incredible camera and big battery, and I highly doubt it does anything but the bare minimum for security. It's a cool piece of hardware, but a no-go for anyone that cares even a little about security updates.
I have a Pixel device because it has a long SW support cycle (Google promises at least 7 years), and I use GrapheneOS because it removes Google's spyware crap. I'm not married to GrapheneOS or Pixel devices, I just need something where the software support will last at least longer than my desire to keep the device (about 4-5 years for me). I've ditched each of my last phones largely because they ran out of security update support, and that sucks.
I'd prefer a Linux phone w/ decent security features, but they don't meet my minimum standards for things working (just need phone features to work properly, don't need apps). The moment a Linux phone comes out than actually works properly and has reasonable security, I'll switch. The FairPhone could be that, but it's not, so I don't have one.
I used a Fairphone 4 with /e/ and it was good. Not great, but useable. I expect the hardware bugs I ran into (using the camera only worked like 20 times before the phone needed a restart, Bluetooth randomly not working) to be ironed out by now. Currently on an old Samsung and it is more solid, but I also liked the environmentalism with the fairphone. Anyone with a Fairphone 5 and something like a glucose sensor thats in constant use?
I'm waiting on a Framework Phone.
Do you really think they'll make one?
Yes eventually they will. Might be still 5 years away tho
I hope so, and I hope they make it compatible with regular Linux, like postmarketOS or Mobian. Make sure all the core phone features work properly (calls, SMS/MMS, data, audio, sensors, etc), then let the Linux community go nuts on it.
I'd pay a premium for that, and I'd probably pick up a Framework laptop as well. I currently use an old Thinkpad (circa 2018), and I'm trying to make that last until Framework has an option for a 13-14" laptop with insane battery life (ARM or RISC-V is probably fine), or at least has a keyboard that has a Trackpoint and physical mouse buttons like my Thinkpad. But if they make a phone, I might just lower my standards a bit to keep everything in the family.
Only 400€ to go until I can afford it.
I have the fairphone 4 and have had no issues. As long as a fairphone exists I don't see any reason I should switch.
Have you had to replace any parts yet?
I had to replace parts on my FP5. It fell on very bad asphalt at speed whilst cycling in a foreign country. The glass on the camera modules scattered. Display protector broke and the case got some good damage. I was instantly calmed realising it is a FairPhone and knowing I could order replacement parts.
Repairs were trivial and it feels good to have created just a tiny amount of e-waste instead of a large amount. The black aluminium case has some war wounds (scratches) reminding me of the trip.
Do you use their OS?
Aaaand it's impossible to buy in the US. Even if USians want to do the right thing, we're not permitted.
Of course, not being a billionaire is illegal here.
Import? Buy one on ebay?
I've had this phone for over a year with Murena e/OS/! 90hz refresh rate is so nice
Still like the idea behind it and wish there was support for GrapheneOS (going even further than /e/o) as well as better camera quality but this is the price we have to pay for flexibility and sustainability I think. Like the concept here but never tried to go with one so far.
The hardware is good and I like the idea in principle but Fairphone's support and software QA is dreadful and you need to hope you never need the former because of problems with the latter. My FP5 was bricked by an update they pushed out and after six weeks of trying to get a solution from their support (four weeks of which they didn't respond at all) I ended up claiming on insurance and buying a Pixel. According to the forums this problem is far from unique to me.
I've been running FP4 for about 2 years now. the software bug fix cycle leaves something to be desired.
for example, the first 16 months of my ownership had every single phone call screaming at me. I mean, the volume was loud enough it was quieter than the speaker phone.
the did eventually fix that bug, but not two months later there's a bug that breaks my running processes button(square at the bottom). as of right now there's no fix other than using the OEM shitty launcher. so, 5-10 times a day I have to go to settings > apps > default apps > launcher > bliss launcher > running apps > settings > launchers > my launcher > close what I just had to use > go back to what I was just doing.
I enjoy the phone, don't get me wrong. I just wish they performed better software testing on their own hardware.
I got the phone for the ethics, reparability, and privacy. I'll never go back.
I wish importing phones were an option for my country, but no. Even if I secured a way to bring it here, it takes 1000 dollars just to register its IMEI to use here.
Şu an yurtdışından telefon getirtecek olsam IMEI değiştirir geçerdim. iPhone için mümkün olmayabilir. Bu hale getirenler utansın.
Really wish Fairphone would come to the US. I'd spend the money on it, but they only half-ass sold the last gen phone here on the US.
I don't even understand why. They support most 4G and every mid and low band 5G in America. Even if I could just import it, I'd be happy.
I can send you one probably, but you know.. tariffs (and processing fees).
I appreciate it, but I just got a new phone because I needed a new one recently. I wish it could have been something like a Fairphone, but thems the breaks.
AT&T has a whitelist system, they check IMEIs often and if your device is not approved, cell service stops working.
For Verizon, you have to call customer service to do a manual override.
Only T-Mobile allows any phone to work without explicit approval.
Probably some reason like they don't want people complaining the service is bad because they use a "no-name brand" phone, so they just cut you off and blame your phpne because it's easier for corporate. (Yay, capitalism! 🫠 /s)
I heard that Australia now has a Nationwide whitelist system that even block unapproved phones from calling the emergency number.
Technology is really getting enshittified. 😓
Unfortunately Telecomms in Australia seem to have a pissing contest on who can screw consumers more, America or Aussie companies.
Yup. I was interested in one as well, but they don't really support US customers, so I ended up w/ a Pixel w/ GrapheneOS flashed.
The headphone jack user to lemmy user ratio is apparently nearly 1:1
Yeah, Lemmy is full of people stuck in their way and insisting older tech is better because they refuse to update
Sometimes older tech is better. I have both Bluetooth and wired headphones, and I prefer the wired ones. In fact, I'm wearing wired headphones right now, because my laptop has a jack. I can't do that on my phone, because my phone doesn't have a jack (and I refuse to use a dongle), so I use inferior Bluetooth headphones.
I would much rather have a slightly larger phone with worse water proofing if it means I can have a headphone jack. I have never had an issue with water ingress, or with a slightly thick phone, but I have had an issue w/ my Bluetooth headphones dying and not being able to plug in my wired headphones. In fact, my Bluetooth headphones have the option for a wire, so I just need to plug in a cable to keep listening if the batteries die (fairly often when traveling).
Unfortunately it's not available in the US though.
Fairphone 6 approaching? They are great, the project is amazing and I wish every brand would be like them in terms of caring about users and environment
I do own a Fairphone 5 as my new company phone, I used an iPhone 13 mini before. Sadly I have to say that I don't agree with the "they are great", while a Fairphone 5 is a totally capable and usable phone it lacks a lot of the lifestyle appeal that a modern smartphone brings. The Fairphone is quite laggy, the camera is not very good and since Google focusses a lot on the pixel line the stock android experience on the Fairphone lacks a lot of comfort features. I would still recommend it for everyone willing to look beyond these downsides and just uses their phone for communication. Sadly that's not the majority of people
Anyone tried this Linuxphone?
I used a Jolla when it was new. It was pretty decent, and in fact had many innovations. Apple brought gestures to their OS several years after. It was one of the first implementations of a phone UI implement on Wayland, and one of the first serious Linux non-Android phones. Might still be.
Unfortunately, being a pioneer does not always help. Application developers didn't get interested in it enough so it never really got any apps.
Looks ok but I dont like the subscription model for os updates. First 12 months is free, then you have to pay.
But I guess they have to make their money somehow.
Great idea, but will never take down here in south America
People know that all these import parts and replacements are not exactly easy to pay for, even less to find. They need a cheap reliable phone that will at least handle day to day for years
I mean come on, the average cellphone user here is still using the equivalent of a Moto G2 or Samsung J2 and thats stretching it.
An S8 is still seen like luxury in here. And I'm not even going into iphones.
2nd hand pixels beats any midrange phone at the same price. Sent some with GOS on them to a friend in Nicaragua. Quite instantly he broke the screen , bought new screen on ebay that shipped directly to bumfuck nowhere on milestone address. But yea with fairphone I understand the issue
the average cellphone user here is still using the equivalent of a Moto G2 or Samsung J2
I guess it depends on where you live in LATAM. Most of my friends and acquaintances own newer iPhones and fancy Androids. I'm the only one stuck with a G8. 😅
Yeah most people in LATAM is poor as fuck
You are right, but people lost their minds for smartphone war race, where most of changes were camera related (still shitty) and sort of fomo.
I've been meaning to look into PinePhone myself.
As an owner of an old pine phone, I can confidently say avoid for now. Not remotely ready or reliable enough.
I just want something to have decent Linux support. I want to run postmarketOS, mobian, or something of that ilk on my phone, and I want all the basic phone features to work properly:
And so on. I don't need any special app support, I just need the phone to be able to reliably do phone things.
Here are issues I've heard about from the PinePhone (Pro):
That doesn't get into actual usability issues. I'm honestly pretty tolerant of a laggy interface, but I need those basic phone functions to work properly.
The lack of an FM radio and headphone jack make it unusable for me.
Are there phones available these days with both of these things?
Yes, a quick search on GSM Arena shows 189 phones with a radio and headphone jack. That's just phones from the last year.
Yes
yes, even some that never mention the radio have one (n10 5g us model).
I like it a lot but I need two physical SIM slots so it doesn't work for me, unfortunately. But great idea and love the price drop
500 Euro for what amounts to a midrange phone still seems like yuppie consumerism to me. Better to get an older phone and hold onto it. My Moto G4 lasted 7 years before obsolescence and physical wear caught up with it. I wonder how many current Fairphones will still be in use in 2034.
Turns out ethical wages and materials cost money. I agree that older tech being more ethical as whatever 'cost' is may have was paid by the first owner.
I still have a made in Finland Nokia N9 that cost $200 around 15 years ago. Too bad it became unusable in the US with the shutdown of the 3G network, whenever that was.
Better to get an older phone and hold onto it.
That's sort of how they've marketed their phones over the years. Fairphone exists as a fairer alternative to brand new phones, but the company has always been quite clear that the most environmentally friendly phone you have is your current one and that you should keep it for as long as realistically possible.
Anyone know what the bootloader unlock process is like for Fairphone? I know they support it, but does it take 7 days like OnePlus or constantly have issues like Motorola?
They have a howto on their support page
https://www.fairphone.com/en/bootloader-unlocking-code-for-fairphone/
And i just tested it, you get the unlock code immediately.
Oh, nice. That was my question. I wish it didn't require a code at all, but at least you don't have to wait a week like some other manufacturers. Thanks!
I don't understand why this requires a code rather than a toggle in developer settings like a Pixel. That doesn't seem like openness and a commitment to treating users fairly since they could change their policy at any time.
First thing I did on my Fairphone 4 was to flash iode OS on it.
I don't know much about bootloaders and such, but I was done and happy within an hour after purchasing it.
Also, if I am not mistaken, I think warranty is still valid if you run custom ROMs.
Fairphone is very pro openness 😄
Wait the Fairphone has a locked bootloader? The mind wobbles.
Else anyone with physical access can install spyware without anyone noticing. Thats a bit of security which most people probably won't notice but can be deactivated in a minute by any owner, so I don't mind.
Fairphone don't sell replacement mainboards, presumably to stop people building phones from parts but they look very serviceable in other respects.
Better option is calyx like the others supported, so will be supported or ported later I assume . GOS for me but 2nd is calyx in my book
You can, they partner with a mother company
I don't want to pay now then £200 for a phone and i want a small one.
Then an ethically and sustainably built smart phone isn't for you, because that won't be possible at that price point. But that isn't an issue as there is a sustainable option at that price point: buying second hand.
Out of curiosity... how is doing that in 2025?
Its fine, I haven't noticed any slowdown yet, the main issue right now is that there was a screen problem that caused the OLED pixels to stay on when a black screen was present. They removed the AoD while they fix it, they've fixed it a few months back, but we still don't have AoD.
i got a 4 a few years back and it's still works great, still gets security updates. it still has the default android on it, so i've been looking into alternatives but it seems complicated. then again, i managed to switch to linux on pc so maybe it's not so bad
Probably don't want to play graphics heavy games on it. For everything else it's pretty much like any other phone. Although of course it's not quite as premium as flagship phones. Hardware wise, a Pixel 8 leaves it in the dust. But you can't swap your battery or really anything on that one.
I am happy with it.
A firmware update from Fairphone bricked mine last year. Not impressed. Apparently it's happened to a lot of people who went to an alternative OS (Lineage) then back to stock. I just woke up one day to a paperweight on my bedside table and the support was horrendous: it took over six weeks to get any response and after another month of back-and-forth with responses taking a couple of days at a time I ended up just claiming on insurance.
Went to buy one but they don't sell to USA any more. THAT will tell off tRump.
They say it's supported until 2031.
What will a 5G phone with at most 8GB RAM have to offer in 2031?
In what kind of bizarro world do we live that 8GB of RAM in a phone is not enough? Also 6G is currently expected to be available around 2030, so 5G will most likely still work in 2031.
You're familiar with bloat?
assuming it supports 5g calling and 5g lasts as long as 3g did it will still function for calls, MMS, SMS, and email at a minimum (assuming encryption doesn't change too much)
No headphones jack.
Trash generating hypocrites.
HMD are doing everything better than fair phone now with their latest models. More repairable, more flexible, long term support and updates.
Cheaper too.
Are HMDs really more repairable? Most recent phone they had that tried to be repairable was Skyline and even there it was pretty limited. And btw that one didn't have a jack either.
long term support and updates.
Three years of security upgrades is very bad, in my opinion. Google offers seven years, and Fairphone offers eight.
HMD are doing everything better than fair phone now with their latest models.
How much are the factory workers paid? Where are the raw materials sourced? What percentage is recycled? What work is HMD doing to change the industry?
No headphones jack.
Most people use bluetooth devices nowadays. Few have wired headphones, which they can still use by using a €2 adapter that you just leave plugged to them all the time. Then there is a 0,1% that complains on the internet demanding that phone companies keep a extra hole on their devices for a specific purpose another hole can already do. Oh and HMD phones don't have it either, at least for what i could find.
More repairable
They seem about the same (glass, back, speaker, battery, port), but on the ff5 you can replace the cameras as well.
more flexible
Tf does that mean? You can bend it?
long term support and updates.
Liar? Fairphones have like 8 years of security updates and major android version upgrades. HMD gives like 3 years on their latest devices... What are you talking about?
Cheaper too.
I'll give you that, but it really ends there.
HMD phones are not a bad choice at all but if the affordability isn't first in the list I don't see how they would make a better purchase over a Fairphone.
I don't know anything about HMD so I can't add to that. However I'd like to correct you regarding the headphone jack. The people that like it so much are generally privacy enthusiasts. Leaving your Bluetooth on makes you easily trackable. Using USB-C headphones helps in that regard but expediates wear and tear on the port by a lot and often makes the phone unusable a lot quicker, because you obviously need it for charging. Audio jacks generally have very low wear and tear. Hope that helps you understand we're not crazed evangilists hanging on to the past for the sake of it.
Another hole can carry analogue audio? I think you're referring to a USB port when you say "another hole can do the same job", but obviously it can't carry analogue audio. You need an external DAC to convert the digital audio it can output, to analogue. (The phone already has an internal DAC so this is dumb)
And then of course you run into the issue of being unable to use it while the phone is charging because you have 1 port for 2 different jobs
Not all of us like the idea of wireless earphones, there are still many who prefer to spend good money on nice IEMs or headphones that don't have to be charged to work, rather than overly expensive, subpar wireless options that will inevitably turn into e-waste when the batteries can no longer hold a charge.
Not to mention the ubiquity of the 6.5mm/3.5mm jack, this is standard across every piece of music gear you can think of from synthesizers to electronic drum kits to guitars, pedals, and interfaces.
You certainly don't walk into a recording studio and find USB C ports to plug into
idc about hmd, but usbc for audio is just shit. Ive tried various setups, I have a dac for phones, i have iems with usbc and yet the port is just not constructed for usage on the go where i preferably use in ears. So in total: aux got taken, instead we use the charging port and if we actually do that the ports gonna be dead in a year maximum if you havent aldready ripped apart your in ears because of these darn constant disconnects. I do have wiems that are more expensive than my iems and yet bluetooth audio transmission still sucks compared to cables and I long for the moment where i finally have a phone with aux again so my ears dont have to constantly bleed (wildly exaggerated obv). Last time i almost bought a Sony because of aux, but theyre just way too expensive for the software support they deliver. I just hope in a few years time theres a value phone built for me :).
ass stock operating system, no macro lens, shit battery, still overpriced. you are better off with a refurbished pixel with a custom os.
im still not sure the whole business thing is a just a greenwashing scam or not.
on the other hand the battery can just be popped out, has a cool semitranspaerant early 00s design.
Well even if the manufacturing of the phone is no greener, replaceable battery is still greener.
im still not sure the whole business thing is a just a greenwashing scam or not.
What does "greenwashing" actually mean to you? None of your criticisms are related to the environment.
Shame there is no Graphene OS support for it
The biggest downside of Fairphone IMO is that they don't maintain their hardware support in LineageOS and for the retail product then branch development off, add a bit of custom branding and adapt whatever Google requires these days. It would greatly improve custom ROM support in general.
Graphene isn't the best choice for everything. It doesn't have good backup solutions nor device to device backup or anything solid for complete snapshots and when restoring your so called backups you'll realize what all it truly lacks.
It's hardened and has a lot of security and privacy features but none of that matters if your opsec is bad, or it's feature set doesn't match your threat model. I am not knocking it at all. It just isn't the white knight for every case.
What's wrong with Seedvault?
Agreed.
That said, it would be awesome to have an alternative to Pixel devices if you do want GrapheneOS.
Seedvault worked fine for me when I moved phones last year.
And it doesn't support US bands for TMobile
For 4G. 5G is fine.
T-Mobile supports these bands:
Fairphone 5 supports these bands:
It looks like the Fairphone 5 covers T-Mobile's 5G Frequency Band 1 frequencies (bold), but Frequency Band 2 is not covered (italic).
Regarding 4G, the Fairphone 5 covers all LTE networks (bold) except for extended range band B25 (italics).
It covers some, but not all.
Was thinking the same thing. Not Graphenes fault though but a failing of OEMs to provide what’s necessary.
It has CalyxOS support though. A decent alternative.
Agreed. I was debating between CalyxOS and GrapheneOS, and I ended up w/ GrapheneOS because I ended up picking the Pixel 8 due to the long software support cycle. If I picked any other phone, I would've ended up w/ CalyxOS.
Both are great projects.
no other manufacturer than google ever will have graphnene os support. their requirements cannot be met unless you are a tech gian, and with exceptionally good connections to the hardware manufacturers
Fairphone brand is basically saying to everyone "Hey look at our generic Android phone with everything you need from Google, including AI stuff and data collection" and when you ask if you can have a privacy friendly features they basically say "Nope, we just do a phone with replaceable parts, that's all. Don't ask for more"
And it would be such good marketing strategy "replaceable parts + privacy"
At least someone commented CalyxOS supports it which seems to be a good alternative to GrapheneOS
You could always go for /e/os though
Edit: Didn't know it was this bad...
/e/os is a security dumpster fire. It's even worse than stock Android. Stay away from it.