I get the criticism, but the Fairphone really shouldn't be compared to other (especially Chinese-made) phones in the same way. It's about sustainability and fairer labour (hopefully anyway).
So far the main issue I see is with the battery life, 4200 mAH battery on a 778G-class SoC should be doing better than this.
Anyone know how well the Fairphone 5 compares against the Samsung Galaxy S10? I know the specs are pretty public but I don't follow this stuff that closely so find it difficult to draw comparisons between different chips etc.
My S10 is on its last legs so I think a bit about what I will buy to replace it. I really like the idea of the Fairphone but of course you pay a lot (relatively speaking) for the ethics. One of the worries is that the phone will become unusable in a few years anyway, either because parts are unavailable or because software has become too heavy. The other option I am leaving towards is a second hand Pixel.
You don't actually pay a lot. You pay what is fair. The only reason other phones cost less, that is, cheaper is, precisely, because of all the shortcuts these corporations unethically took.
For example: a burger shop can offer you a $4.99 burger, or the same burger at $0.49 with stolen meat processed by underpaid employees working 7 days a week for 12 hours. You get used to the $0.49 deal, then you start seeing the $4.99 burger as "very expensive."
I'm well aware, I just meant that it costs a lot more than other phones of similar quality. Not saying there aren't good reasons for that.
You're technically correct, but again: It's not that the fairphone costs a lot more. It's that the other phones cost a lot less for horrible reasons.
The Fairphone is faster - although perhaps not by a huge amount, has better battery life and a better camera. The official spare parts shop has parts for the Fairphone 3 onwards, earlier models' parts are sold out. The Fairphone 2 was released in 2015 and has stopped receiving software updates this year, the 3 came out in 2019. 8 years of support and replacement parts seems to me to be much better than what Samsung or Google would offer you.
What is the reason your S10 is on it's last legs? If you see yourself needing a lot more power, maybe the FP5 isn't the best bet for you because you're right, it might not be useful to you in the later years of it's life. However, I'm not sure what people are doing with the current top-of-the-line SoCs to justify that much power (if people want it to play games or for non-practical reasons, that's fine too). As an S10e user, I feel like we've come to a point where my current phone should be powerful enough for the foreseeable future. My only issues are I'm no longer getting official software updates (I'll probably go with a Custom ROM soon), my battery life is a bit shorter than I'd like, and parts are getting hard to come by with most being "new old stock" at best.
I don't think I need more power. The charging and headphone ports don't work (so need to use wireless charging) and battery life is quite poor. I don't feel like the phone is too slow or anything so I imagine the FP5 would be plenty of power.
The charging and headphone ports don't work (so need to use wireless charging) and battery life is quite poor.
Have you looked into having your S10 serviced? I was willing to have my charging port changed a few weeks ago, but the technician chose to clean it first, and that's worked perfectly and was even cheaper. Is your battery in poor health and might need to be replaced?
I'd be sold if it wasn't literally 2.5x the price of any other phone I'm looking at. Sheesh. Yeah and I'd love to change out parts and tinker with the possibilities, too. What's that gonna cost me?
Edit - also other major brands might have removable batteries by the time I'm buying again.
The phone is expensive because they try their best to source materials from the least exploitative businesses. But yeah I can get a refurbished Pixel phone for $100 so I won't be buying Fairphone anytime soon. The most sustainable phone is the one you already have (or the one that already exists)
Despite the issues, and knowing that a different phone would get me a much better value at a lower price, I was going to buy one of these.
...but then I saw it wasn't available in the US. So I went with a (used) Pixel 7 on ebay instead. Considering this is the 5th iteration and they still don't have a US variant, I'm not going to get my hopes up. I know Murena sells a US variant of the Fairphone 4, but apparently it uses the same exact modem, so using it in the US will result in connectivity issues.
at least I'm recycling!
If 1/3 of everyone bought second hand phones Fairphone wouldn't need to exist
With the recent GNOME adaptivity changes, I wouldn't buy a phone without video out, being able to use my phone as an office PC would be amazing.
Why won't they sell it in South America? ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
American FP4 user here.
You may actually be fine, check the 5G bands in use with your national regulatory body and see if there are any missing parts. State side, T-mobile is the only carrier I can use and their 5G bands are missing pieces of what the phone thinks are avalable channels. It corrects them quickly enough for buffered data to have no issues but it drops calls randomly when switching towers... also T-mobiles network is sorta sucky...
If your country uses GSM, order an EU phone, slap in a sim card on a network that accepts unlocked devices and you should be good to go. If you are on CDMA, wait till Q1 2024 and order one from the states. There are plans to include a custom security and privacy focused android ROM with it, but im happy with my organic euro phone dispite its quirks.
5G? In my country? Impossible lmao. The phone is way too expensive for me so i won't be able to buy it anyway.
My only worry is the Chip. On the verge of clicking the Buy button but concerned about day to day performance, especially after 5 years or so.
It's a 778G, it'll do well in 5 years, provided Fairphone don't fuck up the updates.
Big if with a long window in the tech world.
Always like the idea of the Fairphone but I always find the chip to be a bit lacking.
Like if it had (at least) last years flagship chip then I feel like it'd be less of a compromise and the switch to a more sustainable phone would be a much easier sell.
Can't imagine using a chip that's deemed 'lacking' now is going to feel any better 4 years down the line.
Lacking what? What are you running that a chipset from last year will be struggling?
I don't get it, what's wrong with the 778G? It was a highly competent SoC that was still relevant last year (Samsung's A series from 2022 couldn't come close to it with the Exynos line, save the A73 which came with the 778G), and there are gazillions of comptent phones using slower SoCs that work just fine.
Do people really use their phones or do they look at spec sheets and go, too slow in their mind, like some kind of reverse placebo?
or do they look at spec sheets and go, too slow in their mind, like some kind of reverse placebo
Yes. People hate on the Tensor chip in the Pixel 6/7 because it's "slow", despite day to day performance being literally no different than any other phone.
The idea is nice and all, but just keep your phone longer. After 3 years or so, do a factory reset and reinstall ONLY the apps you actually use. That should get you a good year more out of the phone before it starts to get too old. The biggest issue is the lack of seoftware updates. Not getting a new OS is one thing, but the lack of security updates is the biggest problem. Lots of software that people use on a daily basis will stop functioning if they see your OS is behind in security. Unfortunately that's the problem. Not the hardware, but rather the software.
I would add that it's the inefficiency of software that drives our phones to the bin.
The applications often relies on non optimized libraries, or are an aggregation of more and more of features and options that then requires the latest phone in order to work.
I know this is ridiculous but, if I'm buying a phone to last at least 5-6 years, I'm going to wait for something with Qi2.. I want one of these but I'm thinking about what it's going to be like to live with long term.
In b4 people complain about the headphone jack.
LITERALLY unsustainable 0/10
Just get an external DAC bruh. If your DAC lasts long enough, it is not unsustainable. Also at most times, a DAC sounds better than the jack itself.
Yeah the built in phone DACs are often quite poor. The Samsung Galaxy S7 I used for a while was a huge downgrade compared to the Apple dongle.
I get the criticism, but the Fairphone really shouldn't be compared to other (especially Chinese-made) phones in the same way. It's about sustainability and fairer labour (hopefully anyway).
So far the main issue I see is with the battery life, 4200 mAH battery on a 778G-class SoC should be doing better than this.
Anyone know how well the Fairphone 5 compares against the Samsung Galaxy S10? I know the specs are pretty public but I don't follow this stuff that closely so find it difficult to draw comparisons between different chips etc.
My S10 is on its last legs so I think a bit about what I will buy to replace it. I really like the idea of the Fairphone but of course you pay a lot (relatively speaking) for the ethics. One of the worries is that the phone will become unusable in a few years anyway, either because parts are unavailable or because software has become too heavy. The other option I am leaving towards is a second hand Pixel.
You don't actually pay a lot. You pay what is fair. The only reason other phones cost less, that is, cheaper is, precisely, because of all the shortcuts these corporations unethically took.
For example: a burger shop can offer you a $4.99 burger, or the same burger at $0.49 with stolen meat processed by underpaid employees working 7 days a week for 12 hours. You get used to the $0.49 deal, then you start seeing the $4.99 burger as "very expensive."
I'm well aware, I just meant that it costs a lot more than other phones of similar quality. Not saying there aren't good reasons for that.
You're technically correct, but again: It's not that the fairphone costs a lot more. It's that the other phones cost a lot less for horrible reasons.
The Fairphone is faster - although perhaps not by a huge amount, has better battery life and a better camera. The official spare parts shop has parts for the Fairphone 3 onwards, earlier models' parts are sold out. The Fairphone 2 was released in 2015 and has stopped receiving software updates this year, the 3 came out in 2019. 8 years of support and replacement parts seems to me to be much better than what Samsung or Google would offer you.
Specs differences: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=12540&idPhone2=9536#diff-,,*
Chipset comparison: https://versus.com/en/qualcomm-qcm6490-vs-samsung-exynos-9820
Spare parts shop: https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?ref=header
What is the reason your S10 is on it's last legs? If you see yourself needing a lot more power, maybe the FP5 isn't the best bet for you because you're right, it might not be useful to you in the later years of it's life. However, I'm not sure what people are doing with the current top-of-the-line SoCs to justify that much power (if people want it to play games or for non-practical reasons, that's fine too). As an S10e user, I feel like we've come to a point where my current phone should be powerful enough for the foreseeable future. My only issues are I'm no longer getting official software updates (I'll probably go with a Custom ROM soon), my battery life is a bit shorter than I'd like, and parts are getting hard to come by with most being "new old stock" at best.
I don't think I need more power. The charging and headphone ports don't work (so need to use wireless charging) and battery life is quite poor. I don't feel like the phone is too slow or anything so I imagine the FP5 would be plenty of power.
Have you looked into having your S10 serviced? I was willing to have my charging port changed a few weeks ago, but the technician chose to clean it first, and that's worked perfectly and was even cheaper. Is your battery in poor health and might need to be replaced?
I'd be sold if it wasn't literally 2.5x the price of any other phone I'm looking at. Sheesh. Yeah and I'd love to change out parts and tinker with the possibilities, too. What's that gonna cost me?
Edit - also other major brands might have removable batteries by the time I'm buying again.
The phone is expensive because they try their best to source materials from the least exploitative businesses. But yeah I can get a refurbished Pixel phone for $100 so I won't be buying Fairphone anytime soon. The most sustainable phone is the one you already have (or the one that already exists)
Despite the issues, and knowing that a different phone would get me a much better value at a lower price, I was going to buy one of these.
...but then I saw it wasn't available in the US. So I went with a (used) Pixel 7 on ebay instead. Considering this is the 5th iteration and they still don't have a US variant, I'm not going to get my hopes up. I know Murena sells a US variant of the Fairphone 4, but apparently it uses the same exact modem, so using it in the US will result in connectivity issues.
at least I'm recycling!
If 1/3 of everyone bought second hand phones Fairphone wouldn't need to exist
With the recent GNOME adaptivity changes, I wouldn't buy a phone without video out, being able to use my phone as an office PC would be amazing.
Why won't they sell it in South America? ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
American FP4 user here.
You may actually be fine, check the 5G bands in use with your national regulatory body and see if there are any missing parts. State side, T-mobile is the only carrier I can use and their 5G bands are missing pieces of what the phone thinks are avalable channels. It corrects them quickly enough for buffered data to have no issues but it drops calls randomly when switching towers... also T-mobiles network is sorta sucky...
If your country uses GSM, order an EU phone, slap in a sim card on a network that accepts unlocked devices and you should be good to go. If you are on CDMA, wait till Q1 2024 and order one from the states. There are plans to include a custom security and privacy focused android ROM with it, but im happy with my organic euro phone dispite its quirks.
5G? In my country? Impossible lmao. The phone is way too expensive for me so i won't be able to buy it anyway.
My only worry is the Chip. On the verge of clicking the Buy button but concerned about day to day performance, especially after 5 years or so.
It's a 778G, it'll do well in 5 years, provided Fairphone don't fuck up the updates.
Big if with a long window in the tech world.
Always like the idea of the Fairphone but I always find the chip to be a bit lacking.
Like if it had (at least) last years flagship chip then I feel like it'd be less of a compromise and the switch to a more sustainable phone would be a much easier sell.
Can't imagine using a chip that's deemed 'lacking' now is going to feel any better 4 years down the line.
Lacking what? What are you running that a chipset from last year will be struggling?
I don't get it, what's wrong with the 778G? It was a highly competent SoC that was still relevant last year (Samsung's A series from 2022 couldn't come close to it with the Exynos line, save the A73 which came with the 778G), and there are gazillions of comptent phones using slower SoCs that work just fine.
Do people really use their phones or do they look at spec sheets and go, too slow in their mind, like some kind of reverse placebo?
Yes. People hate on the Tensor chip in the Pixel 6/7 because it's "slow", despite day to day performance being literally no different than any other phone.
The idea is nice and all, but just keep your phone longer. After 3 years or so, do a factory reset and reinstall ONLY the apps you actually use. That should get you a good year more out of the phone before it starts to get too old. The biggest issue is the lack of seoftware updates. Not getting a new OS is one thing, but the lack of security updates is the biggest problem. Lots of software that people use on a daily basis will stop functioning if they see your OS is behind in security. Unfortunately that's the problem. Not the hardware, but rather the software.
I would add that it's the inefficiency of software that drives our phones to the bin.
The applications often relies on non optimized libraries, or are an aggregation of more and more of features and options that then requires the latest phone in order to work.
I know this is ridiculous but, if I'm buying a phone to last at least 5-6 years, I'm going to wait for something with Qi2.. I want one of these but I'm thinking about what it's going to be like to live with long term.
In b4 people complain about the headphone jack.
LITERALLY unsustainable 0/10
Just get an external DAC bruh. If your DAC lasts long enough, it is not unsustainable. Also at most times, a DAC sounds better than the jack itself.
Yeah the built in phone DACs are often quite poor. The Samsung Galaxy S7 I used for a while was a huge downgrade compared to the Apple dongle.