I would like to have your feedback on a number of issues that I have with my FP1, and I am torn between investing into repairs or getting a FP2. I would love to keep my FP1 for the philosophy, but also need a working phone. The twist: I am living outside of Europe, and will be visited in two weeks. My visitor can bring spare parts. It won’t be before October that I can send in the phone, but I desperately need it for my work.
The issues:
The screen glass broke a few days ago. The phone is operable right now, but I don’t know for how many more weeks the scattered glass will hold. Any experience?
The battery won’t survive many more weeks; When charging, it jumps up from 20% to fully charged within 20 minutes, but then discharges rapidly as well. Since yesterday, I cannot get it charged at all above say 20% (“charging” won’t stop). The battery doesn’t seem bloated to me. Question: Could this be the infamous USB issue or not?
I had a water damage a few months ago. The phone is working flawlessly on first sight, but it appears to me that the phone doesn’t connect to the phone network as well as it did before. It often doesn’t pick up the network, or 2G internet just wouldn’t work. Also, I am sometimes logged into the network and cannot receive calls (they don’t get through). Using 3G seems to drain the battery much more since then, but could be related to 2). Question: Could this behaviour be a consequence of the water damage?
There are companies that can forward packages to anywhere in the world - you just register with them and then use their adress in Europe to have FP send whatever you need there. (I don’t have any name right now, but if you don’t find any let me know.)
ad 1: FP1 Screens are currently not in stock and noone knows when they will be back. You could however try to save your screen with a foil.
ad 2: Did you try the battery reset? (#batteryguide) If it doesn’t help but your phone/battery is less then 2 years old you’ll probably get a new one under warranty.
ad 3: I can’t help you much there but have you tried to switch SIMs(lots)?
I wrote this comparison a while ago, maybe it well help you?
I’m not a big fan of the FP1. I own one because I wanted to support the project. It was a good idea to use a stock phone to get the project started, don’t get me wrong, but there are better phones around for the price of a motherboard exchange. They are also better supported software-wise (Android >=5) with batteries and spare parts available. It also doesn’t really work as a modular phone (usb-port, case) and it doesn’t have much software support left.
If you have the resources: Read closely to see if all current issues are fixed and get a FP2.
It would be great if FP would one day post a “all clear” message for the new batch of phones or develop an easy to use burn-in test to find the most common issues. Currently there are no numbers available, so it’s hard to tell how widespread some reported problems really are. Maybe most of the phone as just fine and only the forum posts make it look much more worse than it really is. I’m not able to tell you.
