Live data from Hacker News

Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

ifixit.com

231–240 of 491 posts

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 1. Always sad for me to know how much popular are wireless chargers, wasting 47% more energy aprox for charging the same as a wired charger. Sure, but compared to everything else we use, smartphones use almost no energy. The one I'm typing this on has a battery capacity of 12 wh; if you have a resistive electric water heater, standing in a hot shower during the winter for an extra second would offset half of that.

This is the one less eco-friendly thing I'm not letting go of. Hot showers are amazing.

Ice-cold showers are also amazing. And healthy!

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#232
post #194

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…

This is why I like the Framework way: keep the chassis the same so you can just buy a shiny new motherboard with the latest processor if your old motherboard dies. It's probably not as suitable for phones what with changes to antenna requirements and such though.

To be fair, you are describing a 1:1 comparison of how Fairphone does it here. The issue of economical viability for PC motherboards is easier than smartphone mainboards, but the premise is basically the same- the core component of the device dies and needs to be replaced. There are more modular standards for PC to make the hit here less hard (memory, being the big one) but it's all the same. Fairphone has not done as good of a job as Framework has in making it viable for customers to replace their mainboards, and I will say I think Framework is the odd one here in really stepping up in that market.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why people buy iPhone. Unless you drop it from a speeding car, it won't cause any issues for 4-5 years at least.

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…

It's glass because it needs to be transparent for the wireless charging coil. There is a hole in the aluminum frame for this coil.

The options are basically just plastic or glass. At least with the current phones it's now possible to replace this glass if it breaks.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#235
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why people buy iPhone. Unless you drop it from a speeding car, it won't cause any issues for 4-5 years at least.

As much as I love iPhones, that's simply not true. Hardware fails, no matter who makes it.

Hardware can just fail, but just from what I've seen, Apple stuff seems to randomly fail the least. I've had so many other brands just randomly die without any damage. While the only time I've had this happen with Apple was a macbook SSD that died. I took it in to the store and they replaced it for free out of warranty.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#237

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

Seems like the problem with targeting a niche market is that the buyers all have some very specific hard requirements.

It has to have a headphone jack, it has to have wireless charging, it has to have cameras as good as the iphone, it has to have an AV1 video decoder, etc.

Same problem with the Framework laptop. Everyone has a different set of obscure hard requirements.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#238

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…

It's glass because it needs to be transparent for the wireless charging coil. There is a hole in the aluminum frame for this coil. The options are basically just plastic or glass. At least with the current phones it's now possible to replace this glass if it breaks.

That's why I hate wireless charging trend. Manufacturers adopt heavy and fragile glass due to this, and its heat is bad for battery health.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#239
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

All reviwers will complain about products being "plasticky" or "a fingerprint magnet", none of which are an actual issue for users.

"plasticky" is one of the most widespread invalid criticism for me. It's a feature, like we can throw GameBoy to the bed.

Re: Fairphone 5: Keeping it 10/10?

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised you're getting downvoted. The iPhone has been IP67 since iPhone 7 (so 7 years now). I figured more people appreciated this. I assume most Androids are the same. It's nice to be able to go kayaking and not worry about having to have a waterproof case. Mine once spent 10 hours in a back cycling jersey pocket where it rained the entire time and it was perfectly fine.

Yeah, but to be honest the entire time I've been baffled that Apple advertised such a useless thing as a feature. I've never once dropped my phone in water. Not in some 15-16 years of owning a mobile phone. It's not really onerous to take a little care to not get my phone wet.

There have been several times I've been outside with my phone, apple watch and airpods, and it suddenly starts pouring down with rain. 10 years ago this used to be a really stressful event. I used to carry around a zip lock bag in case this happened. Today I can comfortably just accept being drenched knowing all my tech is waterproof.
Post reply on HN