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Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

androidcentral.com

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Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#481

Post by forty »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #476
forty wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people often get that wrong, it's not modular or upgradable, it's repairable, which is already great. IMO we are far past the point when we should have decided smartphone hardware is good enough, and stop having people upgrade over and over. But I guess capitalism needs to be fed and everything is made to make sure that never happens (including making sure everyone thinks we do need better hardware)

> it's not modular or upgradable, it's repairable, which is already great. Well, I was going to observe that I broke my phone recently for the first time out of more than 10 years of having a smartphone. But I remembered that while I didn't break it, my Nexus 5 spontaneously broke and couldn't be fixed, causing me to lose about a year of chat history that I would like to have back. That said, if the parts are replace…

Since 2019, I replaced once the battery of my FP3.

I often see people with broken screens. USB ports can get damaged by too many plug cycles etc. None of these reason should justify buying a new phone, but in practice if replacing the part is not relatively cheap and straightforward, this is what happens.

And yes upgrade can be cool too but much harder and probably unrealistic for a small company like this one. Look at how well it works for PC, after 10 years you have to still change everything to upgrade anything (your new CPU socket forces you to change the mother board, and the CPU fan, then your old ram is not compatible, etc and at the end you keep the case and maybe the PSU. And this is on a relatively open ecosystem compared to the mobile world with their SoC/SoM, high space constraints and a single supported kernel etc...)

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#482

Post by palata »

DaSHacka wrote: post #397
WhyNotHugo wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An OS which focuses on security and privacy with slightly imperfect hardware is much better than an OS which focuses on spyware and tracking from an adtech company on the same hardware.

/e/os and LineaseOS are neither, and are both available on the Fairphone.

And CalyxOS

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#483

Post by palata »

jacek wrote: post #264
snvzz wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if I am alone in thinking 5yr is way too short. It should be 10, if not 20 years. This is software, not hardware. It is ridiculous to pretend it is ok for a phone to artificially stop being useful after just 5 years simply because the vendor won't give software support or even provide the necessary documentation, source code and keys for the community to do.

True, longer would be better. And if the platform was truly open, we could just treat phone like PCs. You can still install Linux on a 20 year old machine and it will work. At least this is 5 years from "the end of placement on the market". So more realistically it should be around 7 years from release.

This.

Why can't we enforce that they mainline their hardware?

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#484

Post by thaumasiotes »

forty wrote: post #481
thaumasiotes wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not modular or upgradable, it's repairable, which is already great. Well, I was going to observe that I broke my phone recently for the first time out of more than 10 years of having a smartphone. But I remembered that while I didn't break it, my Nexus 5 spontaneously broke and couldn't be fixed, causing me to lose about a year of chat history that I would like to have back. That said, if the parts are replace…

Since 2019, I replaced once the battery of my FP3. I often see people with broken screens. USB ports can get damaged by too many plug cycles etc. None of these reason should justify buying a new phone, but in practice if replacing the part is not relatively cheap and straightforward, this is what happens. And yes upgrade can be cool too but much harder and probably unrealistic for a small company like this one. Look…

> None of these reason should justify buying a new phone, but in practice if replacing the part is not relatively cheap and straightforward, this is what happens.

The reason that is what happens is that you can't upgrade the old phone. But you have to upgrade the phone anyway, so you take advantage of the only way to do that, buying a new phone.

I wasn't upset when I smashed my phone screen recently, because that phone already needed to be replaced for other reasons.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#485

Post by stiray »

palata wrote: post #450
stiray wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That part is simple, install it and check the settings.

I use /e/OS without the Google Play Services. I don't use any app from the FAANGs, and /e/OS uses a custom location service and blocks thousands of trackers. Surely that's better than "nothing", isn't it? GrapheneOS is more secure, but you're talking privacy here. With GrapheneOS I could run the Play Store or Google Maps in a sandbox, but it would probably not be better than not running them at all, would it?

Good for you, I was also doing it when I was a kid. Actually was even cooking roms and removing everything that I didn't need.

Then I got my first banking app and was decompiling it on each new version, removing checks for root, "compatibility" and security checks, and compiling it back. Then another app came, this time for public transport, and I was reversing two apps, once every 2-3 months. Became quite efficient with it.

Then I deliberately bought pixel for GrapheneOS, installed it and never looked back.

As I have already mentioned: I am not using Android because I like it or I would want it. Sailfish has everything, I will ever need. For myself.

But not for living in this world.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#486

Post by sierra1011 »

guappa wrote: post #90
snapplebobapple wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried phones with it on the power button? That was the best for me by far.

Yeah it's great! I want to put off the screen and instantly after going off, it reads my finger and goes on again! Who came up with that idea?

Coming from a Pixel ~5 to a Fairphone 5, this is by far my biggest gripe. Constantly finding it unlocked because it unlocks as soon as I lock it.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#487

Post by palata »

stiray wrote: post #485
palata wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use /e/OS without the Google Play Services. I don't use any app from the FAANGs, and /e/OS uses a custom location service and blocks thousands of trackers. Surely that's better than "nothing", isn't it? GrapheneOS is more secure, but you're talking privacy here. With GrapheneOS I could run the Play Store or Google Maps in a sandbox, but it would probably not be better than not running them at all, would it?

Good for you, I was also doing it when I was a kid. Actually was even cooking roms and removing everything that I didn't need. Then I got my first banking app and was decompiling it on each new version, removing checks for root, "compatibility" and security checks, and compiling it back. Then another app came, this time for public transport, and I was reversing two apps, once every 2-3 months. Became quite efficient…

Either you can't stay on-topic, or you don't actually know what ROMs like /e/OS or CalyxOS are. They don't require any work: you can buy a phone running one of them and use it just like you use a normal Android. If anything, it's probably closer to Stock ROMs than GrapheneOS is.

I am not interested in your complaints, really. I was interested in your take about the privacy issues on other custom ROMs, but it really feels like you don't know. And that's okay.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#488

Post by chaosharmonic »

jack_pp wrote: post #138
chaosharmonic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hotter take is that this is the same problem as IR blasters, and relative to the old normal -- when device makers like LG were specifically advertising how awesome their built-in DAC was -- this whole thing could be solved in a much more elegant, flexible way if anyone at all would just give us a second fucking USB port.

Sony tried to compete with the best camera, best DAC and I don't think those phones sold. Manufacturers build products the market wants. Wired headphones are not what the market wants. If you are a true purist you buy stuff from fiio and carry more then one device. This is the same thing as with small phones. A vocal minority cried far and wide that they wanted them. Apple made them.. and they did, not, sell.

> Sony tried to compete with the bet camera, best DAC and I don't think those phones sold.

They were also priced like it -- and worse, many of them weren't available through US carriers, which is prohibitive to a market that often won't spend Kaz Hirai money all at once on a phone.

You're otherwise restating my point, though. Many of the niche hardware features don't have to be built into the device if you just offer more baseline extensibility.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#489

Post by chaosharmonic »

tsimionescu wrote: post #237
LtWorf wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Manufacturers build products the market wants. Every single person wants smaller phones. What do we get? No small phones. Apple doesn't count… they are priced at 3x 4x what an android would cost. People want small phones but don't want to spend their whole salary on a phone.

I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone after having a bigger one (though also don't know anyone who bought a phablet, so maybe that's too big). As people moved most of their computer use to phones, bigger phones where you can see more of the web on your page, while still fitting in your pocket or purse, have won decidedly. By and large, the only people who want small phones are those that…

> I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone after having a bigger one

Consider how small the overlap is between devices in a product lineup in the first place and an audience that can buy them -- whether that's through carrier availability to put them on plans if in the US, or the resources to spend on them up-front.

That trend also is based on touch as the primary method of interaction -- but given the tethered AR devices we're starting to see trickle out, and Android's desktop mode finally hitting prime time, that assumption might not hold long-term. I'm not saying this will be the timeline we live on, but considering some of the experiments with dedicated, external devices for powering them, it's not hard to envision the pendulum swinging back toward smaller phones that focus more on things like the compute and sensors and less around a screen you look at all day.

Think of the (modern) Moto Razr. You could, hypothetically, have a compute device that more so resembles the folded-down version of this -- aimed more toward external displays, and less toward being regularly looked at.

Re: Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

#490

Post by BobaFloutist »

bluGill wrote: post #459
palata wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that is why we need regulations that force them to make phones that last longer.

Why should someone who is going to throw their phone away in 2 years (or less) anyway be forced to subsidize those who want to keep theirs longer? There is a cost to supporting old hardware and that needs to be paid by someone.

Why should someone who is going to throw their phone away in a day (or less) anyway be forced to subsidize those who want to keep theirs longer? There is a cost to supporting old hardware, and that needs to be paid by someone.
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