FP has supported previous models for many years. I certainly agree with you about many things. The “eco conscious” tech thing is peculiar. Hard to make a decision. There are some companies that guarantee phones for 5 years and provide 10 years of replacement parts but they aren’t available globally.
I very nearly bought the FP4 but decided not to based on the specs.
the problem isn’t that they dont “support” older models, it’s that the support is purely for show. they aren’t receiving the chip OEM updates and they also aren’t rolling out support for android releases. even the FP4, which launched right before android 12 launched, was stuck on android 11 for a worrying length of time. CalyxOS, a group of FOSS developers, ended up making the android 12 port for them. fairphone shouldn’t be taken seriously on their product support length claims. you will not be receiving some of the most important updates. this should be important to any of security conscious readers.
Great to know. Thanks for the info. I had a phone before that was stuck for 8 months without security or Android updates. It was frustrating and that company specifically promised 3 years of updates…they made it to 1 year on that device. I feel like there are lots of tech conscious people that jump on the FP without doing enough research and then they are severely disappointed.
Why is it peculiar to say that a modular phone you don’t need to entirely toss away is eco-conscious? Reducing consumption is a good thing, right? Of course the fact that they can’t actually support that hardware is another thing…
it’s exactly the lack of support that becomes an issue. they make these claims of ‘eco-consciousness’ on false grounds.
if fairphone claimed to be a modular phone (even if they had never hinted at being upgradeable 🤦♂️) with a couple of fairtrade gold status sourced parts, open schematics and a kind team, this could be a different story. but they promise years of support that they can only partially provide (and even then often fail to), removed the headphone jack while pushing their own unrepairable wireless accessories and they – worryingly often – can’t even keep their devices on the most recent android version.
running out of software support should be the end of life for your device. pushing people to buy unrepairable wireless accessories. these are directly contributing to e-waste. fairphone’s claims of being eco-conscious are disingenuous at best, and exploitative at worst. i think it’s just greenwashing.
FP has supported previous models for many years. I certainly agree with you about many things. The “eco conscious” tech thing is peculiar. Hard to make a decision. There are some companies that guarantee phones for 5 years and provide 10 years of replacement parts but they aren’t available globally.
I very nearly bought the FP4 but decided not to based on the specs.
the problem isn’t that they dont “support” older models, it’s that the support is purely for show. they aren’t receiving the chip OEM updates and they also aren’t rolling out support for android releases. even the FP4, which launched right before android 12 launched, was stuck on android 11 for a worrying length of time. CalyxOS, a group of FOSS developers, ended up making the android 12 port for them. fairphone shouldn’t be taken seriously on their product support length claims. you will not be receiving some of the most important updates. this should be important to any of security conscious readers.
edit: grammar fix
edit 2: got the android version wrong 🤦♂️
Great to know. Thanks for the info. I had a phone before that was stuck for 8 months without security or Android updates. It was frustrating and that company specifically promised 3 years of updates…they made it to 1 year on that device. I feel like there are lots of tech conscious people that jump on the FP without doing enough research and then they are severely disappointed.
me :p
Why is it peculiar to say that a modular phone you don’t need to entirely toss away is eco-conscious? Reducing consumption is a good thing, right? Of course the fact that they can’t actually support that hardware is another thing…
it’s exactly the lack of support that becomes an issue. they make these claims of ‘eco-consciousness’ on false grounds.
if fairphone claimed to be a modular phone (even if they had never hinted at being upgradeable 🤦♂️) with a couple of fairtrade gold status sourced parts, open schematics and a kind team, this could be a different story. but they promise years of support that they can only partially provide (and even then often fail to), removed the headphone jack while pushing their own unrepairable wireless accessories and they – worryingly often – can’t even keep their devices on the most recent android version.
running out of software support should be the end of life for your device. pushing people to buy unrepairable wireless accessories. these are directly contributing to e-waste. fairphone’s claims of being eco-conscious are disingenuous at best, and exploitative at worst. i think it’s just greenwashing.