Live data from Hacker News

Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

ifixit.com

161–170 of 491 posts

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#161
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VERY ironically just do NOT buy a fucking Google phone to un-google it. I really really like the Grahpene OS project but its a damn shame that is does only support Pixels and not Fairphones or phones that are at least privacy supporting from the manufacturers end. I think "hardware security" of Google phones sounds nice on paper but you never know if these is some NSA chip or some other exploit build in that the Grap…

There are good reasons why Pixel phones are the only ones supported by GrapheneOS. See the list of requirements here[1]. If other devices met that criteria, they would be considered for support as well. The GOS team has done very thorough work to audit the supported devices, including the hardware, firmware and software components, to make sure they reach their high standards. They've made upstream contributions to A…

What's the chance that any non-Pixel devices will ever meet those criteria? 0%?

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#162

I owned a fairphone 3. It was expensive but very easy to take apart and promised years of updates. Then it broke, after about 18 months. Fine, I thought, I'm glad I got a repairable phone. I'll just fix it, it'll be easy. I determined the problem was with the main logic board and found that a) a new one would cost much more than an entirely new, and more capable phone and b) it was out of stock. I just bought a new p…

Sorry to hear that! I have a pretty low sample size of ~8 friends on FP3 and I can't remember hearing of a single hardware failure. Some batteries got replaced and some are even still going strong on their first battery. I've updated mine from 3 to 3+ and I'm on my second battery since this summer, I.e. the main board is ~4years old. A friend had some minor issues in the beginning with some internal connector but I can't remember him mentioning it again.

Another friend got rid of her FP2 this spring in favor of a FP4, but only because some apps she uses got really unusable. Otherwise she would've stayed.

IMO it's a fairly good platform and I'm looking forward to how it evolves in the future. Hopefully they will introduce a smaller phone at one point.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an iPhone 11 Pro. The back is made out of glass which is easily breakable. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why, because behind the glass is an opaque piece of aluminum. The glass broke on the third day I had the phone when I tossed it from knee height on to a folded up sweatshirt that was sitting on a rug on a tile floor. Oh, actually, I guess I do know why an opaque part of a thousand dollar phone is m…

You tossed it onto a tile floor, and it broke. That's unfortunate, but not entirely a surprise no matter who manufactured the phone. Glass is glass.

> Glass is glass

That's parent's point, don't use glass panels on the back of a phone.

I put half of the blame on reviewers promoting the idea that glass is "premium" and letting phone makers get away with this design choice.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#164
post #12

I'd buy one if it had a headphone jack!

How many current phones have a headphone jack? When I upgraded from my Pixel 4a to the 6a (both running Graphene OS) I never noticed that the headphone jack was "missing" because I use a Bose bluetooth headset. And when I want to route the audio through my car speakers? Oh... I have a USB-C pigtail splitter which allows for power to be passed through another UBS-C port and connection to the car audio system through a…

> who needs a headphone jack anymore?

Anyone who wants to listen to music with headphones and doesn't want to be tracked via bluetooth. Bluetooth tracking beacons are used extensively and can log your location within a foot of where the beacon is placed or from as far as 20 miles away.

Bluetooth also increases your security risk. There have already been several exploits with bluetooth over the years.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#165
post #8

Motivated by this article, and already thinking about handing down my current phone to a family member as a Christmas gift, I visited the Fairphone store ( https://shop.fairphone.com/ though likely available only on Amazon in the US) and read one review ( https://www.theverge.com/23895548/fairphone-5-review-price-f... ). Here's why I'm holding off. 1. No wireless charging. Switching to this phone would require a big…

Around Christmas time I always consider giving a family member one of my old smart phones. But then I remember I stopped using them because they got old and the battery life sucks.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#166

Quite expensive. For regular buyer it is better to get for the same money two phones: one new phone now and another new in 3 years.

For the planet: Not much better

There's more nuance than that. Total lifetime matters. If the first buyer keeps it 3 years, the next buyer may well keep it 3 more, or even longer.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an iPhone 11 Pro. The back is made out of glass which is easily breakable. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why, because behind the glass is an opaque piece of aluminum. The glass broke on the third day I had the phone when I tossed it from knee height on to a folded up sweatshirt that was sitting on a rug on a tile floor. Oh, actually, I guess I do know why an opaque part of a thousand dollar phone is m…

You tossed it onto a tile floor, and it broke. That's unfortunate, but not entirely a surprise no matter who manufactured the phone. Glass is glass.

>> tossed it from knee height on to a folded up sweatshirt that was sitting on a rug on a tile floor.

> You tossed it onto a tile floor

You seem to have intentionally omitted some pretty important information there.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#168
post #2

IP55. Nope. I'd kill that in 30 seconds. My phone case looks like a fish bowl on some days.

What are you doing with it? Never had a waterproof phone, never needed one. I guess very few people benefit from it on a day to day basis. Most value is just there in case of accidents

Cool, I've never needed a repairable phone. Ever. Never had anything break on any iPhone I've ever owned. I have accidentally immersed it in water several times though, after which it was totally fine. That makes the Fairphone useless from my perspective.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#169
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think it's safe to say that you're not the average phone user.

I've heard that in Japan, it's common to use phones while showering. My N=1 observation is that this would be unusual in the US.

Not really use. They play music or YouTube etc. while showering.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#170
post #158
post #4

> Fairphone promises five Android version upgrades and at least eight years of security updates, with an aim for a total lifespan of a decade. Impressive

This is comparable to Apple timeline. The iPhone 6, released sept 2014 got a security update earlier this year.

comparable to the iOS stuff at least. I was a bit frustrated to find out that a 2015 MBP I had in a closet has been out of support for a while (I have very high doubts that there was any technical reason for the line drawing on that front).

I really appreciate the iOS support window but it's messed up that their laptops ad desktops (which can last _so long_ and be useful!) just fall out of support despite still being very capable machines.

The kicker of course is I at least updated it all to MacOS 12 to give to a friend and everything still ran extremely well. But at one point these machines will stop working for purely incidental reasons

Post reply on HN