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i used this phone for a year. the phone is a bit bulky and heavy, but not much more than a flagship phone with a case on it. i never needed a case because of the metal build, and the back is this rubber/plastic material that’s really nice. no stupid glass that will crack if u drop it.
the back comes off nice and easy and everything is removable with a screwdriver. the battery doesnt require a screwdriver to remove if i recall correctly. the replacement parts are available on fairphone’s website. the bootloader is unlockable so you can change the OS if you wanted to aswell. the stock OS isn’t so comfortable so i do recommend trying out alternatives, i had good experiences with /e/ and CalyxOS.
the fairphone marketing is a bit gross in my opinion. removing the headphone jack right as they release their own wireless accessories. having the hardware inside the phone for a second SIM, but making it inaccessible to end-users. promising 5 years of warranty and software support despite using old hardware that will not have 5 years of firmware updates, let alone security updates down the line. they base this on their long-term updates to fp2 and fp3 which also lack these critical components.
the phone’s specs are nothing special. which is fine when you consider that the premium you’re paying is for your own ethics; NOT the quality of the phone. but remember, fairphone are no stranger to misleading marketing and greenwashing. if you care about security updates, this isn’t a 5 year phone as they’re promising it to be.
i ended up installing grapheneOS on a used pixel, that’s my phone now. it’s a much, much better experience and i get to know that it will hold this quality of life for a long time to come. i do miss the removable battery, though.
please correct me if im wrong on anything.
to also note, we shouldn’t make Good the enemy of Perfect.
if the fp4 fits your needs, even knowing everything in this thread, then it’s still a massive leap forward and a future that NEEDS financial support to ever exist. i regret buying my FP4, but i would have still donated to fairphone either way. however, we shouldn’t blindly accept their misleading marketing either.
edit: clearing up a vague sentiment
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.
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.
I’m interested in the next generation of fairphone whenever that comes out. For me it isn’t about ethics as much as longevity. I want a phone with a replaceable battery because that’s the main reason why I find myself replacing my phones.
the hardware itself should last. just make sure that the replacement parts are available on the website and buy some early, i had issues before part availability.
the repairability of the fp4 is awesome. the back comes off with just your fingernail, the battery isnt screwed in, and some of the components most likely to be damaged are easily replaced (assuming stock availability on the website). there’s also a cool crowd called fairphone angels, volunteers that will repair phones for people for free if you trust them enough. i think it’s awesome. fairphone also provides all the design schematics if that’s important to you. as an ethical thing, it’s important to me.
fairphone support also seem really down-to-earth from my experience with them in case you have any issues.
of course, the hardware will likely last. if the specs are enough for you, then it’s not a bad phone at all. like i said above, fairphone have an awful track record with software updates and misleading advertising so this should be a concern if you are conscious about security.
Fairphone 5 is rumoured to come out this year.
Greenwashing is a pretty strong word to use. What makes you say this?
Replacement battery is all I would need in order to keep a phone for longer than I currently do. My previous phone was still fine in all aspects except for battery life and OS updates.
If you don’t care about gaming, any phone has good enough specs to last you for 5+ years without any issue.
I was considering this some time back, but the fact that this sustainable phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack irks me.
I understand that it’s the trend nowadays but it’s still an extra dongle people will loose and need to buy again and again.
Not to mention charging and listening to music at the same time…
Bought an FP3 for that reason (and because I’d rather be as late as I can to the moronic 5G-party).
I think I’m OOTL, what’s wrong with 5G?
Well AT&T labels some stuff wrong, sometimes when you’re on a 5G capable tower but network congestion moved you to a lower band, they label it as 5GE when it’s actually 4G/LTE. Otherwise, I’ve certainly not heard of basically any issues beyond the usual growing pains like we got with 4G.
More of a personal/situated POV, my previous comment was a bit rashly worded.
From where I stand, it’s yet again another useless trend generating e-waste.
Like “oh look with 5g you’ll be able to load netflix and pornhub in 10k very ultra mega high hd on your tiny phone screens, you really need it and you need to ditch uour old phone before its end of life and to buy a 5g one”.
They even tried to sell it as philantropic " thanks to 5g, poor people in poor countries [insert picture with black people here] will have access to good doctors from good places for surgeries [insert white old dude in a white coat picture here]".
And it opens a whole new field of connected items which sounds really nice in terms of corporate/state spying.
It makes Corona!!!111
While I won’t be getting it as I don’t really need a new phone any time soon, I really hope they take off in the US. I like to think I’ll start owning more repairable tech down the line.
Has anyone tried using it? What was your experience?
The phone is such a good idea, I really hope it is compatible with carriers here in Canada.
Honestly, just last night I was trying to replace the battery in an old Samsung phone, an A5. (For my son to play with, for making lego stop motions, videos etc.) So I bought a battery and repair kit. How hard could it be?
I’m sure it was designed to never be repaired or opened. Replacing the battery required me to totally dismantle my phone, then hopefully reassemble correctly. However the whole thing was so filled with glue and this proved to be impossible.
It was a really nice little phone. So ticked off with how stupid and disposable the design ended up being.
I purchased the Fairphone 4 a couple of months ago to use in Canada. It works great with my carrier here.
The phone I purchased runs stock Android, not the /e/ OS. And yeah, it’s super easy to open up and repair. I purchased an extra battery and an extra camera module. I have no idea what stock will be like 5, 6, or 7 years from now, but that’s how long I typically run each of my phones before switching to something new and I wanted to make sure I could keep the thing running regardless of how the company performs.
Thats very good to know! Thank you for the info. :)
So I’m from the Netherlands. My wife and I have this phone. We also have the framework laptop and “repeat audio” headphones (https://repeat.audio/, which are also repairable)
After owning and breaking a few phones and apparal that I could not fix, was hard to get serviced, and got stuck with repair bills I was done. Plus, I’m in a well-paying job (IT) so I figured; if anyone is capable of voting with my money, it’s me.
I did install lineageos, and I use Linux on my frameworks. But the phone is simply wonderfull! I have an extra battery in my nutsack (https://nutsac.com/) so when I need it, I can swap battery’s in like 10 seconds and continue my day with a full battery (https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/fairphone-4-battery-22?category=4#attr=)
My wife already broke the screen ;-) which was a 5 minute job to switch with simple tools. Absolutely wonderfull
Thank you for sharing your nutsac. I’ve been looking for a good one to play with for a while now and I just know I’m going to have fun with this one! My kids are gonna love this!
My wife cannot say enough good things about my nutsac. Holds everything we need while on the road.
I’ve got the larger 13" nutsac, which does impress everyone who sees it.
About the extra battery, I’ve considered getting one myself, but it sounds a bit like a hassle having to turn off the phone while swapping them out? Or can you connect it to a power source while swapping to keep it on?
No it turns off as soon as you take the battery out ;-) All in all no more then 20 seonds, including starting back up (10 seconds for just replacing the battery). I don’t mind it. Especially since now I do not have to carry a larger powerbank and cable.
Hopefully this will extend to Canada as well.
If GrapheneOS could support it then I would get one for sure, hate giving Google money.
unfortunately fairphone’s goals do not align with Graphene’s. the former lead dev of graphene daniel micay (who is by far a controversial figure, but if you’re hoping to use Graphene then im sure you’re aware) was VERY critical of fairphone.
i tried to find an old twitter thread where he gave more specifics, but i dont have twitter and it’s currently being elon’d, so the best i could find currently is this wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/20230601122507/https://twitter.com/DanielMicay/status/1444040811998588930
there was a lot more to this though than his complaining in that tweet. fairphone would need to take security a lot more seriously before graphene turns its’ eyes on them.
The lack of a headphone jack and FM tuner is a deal breaker for me.
It also looks like it’s missing a few LTE and 5G bands that are used in the US.
SWEET! i just replaced my phone like yesterday actually but i will keep this in mind for my next device
Interesting - they sell not only repairable phones but OEM phones with the /e/ os (degoogled Android).
I guess if all you want is a phone, you’re fine. I rely on Android Auto too much so I’d have to load Android on it, which pretty much defeats the purpose of this phone. :(
With no google apps I don’t know how well this will sell.
then again they’re probably gonna target people who will care about the non google experience.
I’ve always been interested in FP so the news that it’s available now is exciting. I recently upgraded phones so I’m not ready to dive, but assuming Fairphone is making a commitment to the US, I could see myself getting one of these in the future. I have been trying to untangle myself from the Google ecosystem, as ethics and privacy are a big concern, but so is security. I feel like more research needs to be on /e/ and some of the other android ROMs before committing.
if you do end up going for an FP4, i can’t recommend CalyxOS enough. it’s degoogled but was also makes android major release updates available to the FP4 before fairphone bothers to. CalyxOS has a much more stock feel than /e/, which is a bit of an iOS clone.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will look into CalyxOS!
God damnit I just caved and bought a Pixel because I couldn’t get a Fairphone.
I’ve been using my Fairphone 4 for a couple of months now and I really like it. It wasn’t easy to get it in Canada, but it works great with my carrier here. Getting my hands on some spare parts and a wallet case here wasn’t easy either.
But now I have a repairable phone with an extra battery and an extra camera module. I should be able to run this hardware for years to come regardless of wear and tear or the longevity of the company. I’m hoping to get 6 years out of it. I ran my previous LG phone for 7 before switching; had to replace the battery twice, which was easy because that model had a removable battery.
It wasn’t easy to get it in Canada…
Getting my hands on some spare parts… wasn’t easy either.
I should be able to run this hardware for years to come regardless of wear and tear or the longevity of the company.If the company folds won’t that make it harder to source replacements? If you can still manage to source replacement parts, what will you do during the weeks or months waiting on replacement parts?
Also, how will you handle software updates if the company disappears? Rely on community provided updates?
Not trying to poo poo the company nor the product, I don’t know much about it, just curious.
Sorry, I probably didn’t phrase myself clearly. I’ve already got the spare parts in my hands. It took a bit of work to get the phone and parts here in Canada, but now I don’t have to worry about it in the future.
And you’re right, software updates are still something I might have to manage myself in the future. However, that’s something that isn’t very hard for me. So I’m not too worried about that.
Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense!