About the possibility of a mini version of the FP2: I’m quite sure it will never happen.
Last Thursday I was at an event in Vienna where a study on “How fair is the Fairphone” was presented. Tina was there too and talked about the Fairphone and answered some questions from the audience. I’ll repeat some points she made that - in my opinion - make a FP2 mini a very low probability:
The FP2 was designed from the inside out. They first planned what comes into the Fairphone (Minerals, Modularity, dual SIM, …) without thinking about the design and size of the phone. So the size just happened.
The design/patents… cost a lot. I don’t remember the exact sum but in was on the scale of millions. Tina said even slight design changes and new modules would again cost a lot and they don’t have that kind of money just laying around. Atm there are plans for a new camera module but no other changes.
The cost of the FP2 is a bit higher than comparable phones (although I always wonder how you compare the only fair and modular phone with other phones). The reason for that is not a “fairness bonus” but caused by the small production quantities. My guess in Fairphone won’t create many different versions of their phones but rather try to get the quantities up for the one phone.
Regarding screen size : the phone thickness can, more or less, be converted in accessible screen area, as a thin phone allows a grip in a position where the thumb is dominating a bit more the screen.
And, as a matter of completness, the edge width (around the screen) is also an optimisable variable, but no edge means muscles of the thumb are touching the sensitive part of the screen… which must result in erratic movements.
I bought an FP2 to support the project, this is done.
Now, I’m really not confortable with the fact you must plug it once every two days, constantly having to check this parameter to get actuel services from the device (will it last until tomorow morning ? Until I reach the appointment ? Until the the end of the meeting ?) And using a regular USB port to reload it, the FP2 just spend 10% of its time plugged.
(Not to mention that my cover (also) cracked within the 1st month of use…)
Would it possible to get more info on this? For me this would somehow kill the project. Patents in the scale of millions? For what? Was that a misunderstanding?
Oh, I found a small screen sized device (3,5") with built-in : « Accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensors, compass, gyroscope, barometer, thermometer, RFID… » (just as I was suggesting here ).
100% free softwares out of the box, if the box comes in one day (as I was advocating here ).
« The Neo900 project aims to provide a Fremantle (Maemo™ 5) compatible successor to the N900, with a faster CPU, more RAM and an LTE modem. » https://neo900.org/
The main interest of this project is it’s baseband sandboxing design allowing the user to control, for the 1st time, when the baseband works, and what it can reach inside the phone. Continuing those discussions:
And will support Replicant right away among other OSes (as discussed here).
If you consider the N900 case (screen half, keyboard half), the battery and the NeoN mother board as separate modules, it’s even a modular phone (at least as the so called Puzzle Phone) [edit more detailed modules distinction]
To me the “mini” part should also be about reduced functionality. I’d want a very basic phone, i.e. something that makes phone calls and SMS, no camera, no GPS, very few apps (only utility apps like calculator). A touchscreen dumbphone if you will.
So maybe use a few of the existing components and plug them on a small, non-retina screen.
Have you thought about getting a used phone (smartphone or dumbphone)? I think you will not need up-to-date specs on this phone. This will save you money and is more environment-friendly and consumes less resources than making a new phone.
I second the idea of a mini, although it’s obviously much too early now. I would first want the various glitches taken care of, above all being able to phone without problems, having a camera that works an various other problems.
One of the reasons I ordered a FP2 was because I thought it would be the size of the FP1… dumb of me, I know. When I read (after ordering) that it would be a little bigger because “that’s what the market wants” I thought okay, but I didn’t expect such a monster! Previously I had an old iphone (bought second hand) because it was the smallest one I could find used (am in Switzerland where phones are replaced very quickly).
I think the main problem is the modular system. I would not mind at all having a phone that is thicker instead of thinner because it’s more ergonomic, despite “what the market wants”. However, I fear FP will not have the resources to make another modular design for a mini, especially if they cannot find solutions to the numerous problems already existing.
If FP keep the same modules, it wourld be possible to create a Fairphone midi, by cuting a bit on the left and right side from the case, were the akku, is so the phone would be a bit shorter, but i guess it would not be enought to call him mini.
A funny name could be Fairpone -, miss Fairphone, Fairphone junior.
I think it could be possible to have three different sizes, with nearly the same modules.
FP jr. (FP2.01), FP2 and FP pro with 7"
These numbers confirm that one-third of the active iPhones users are loving their 4” display and aren’t exchanging it for a bigger one. If you add the iPhone 4s and older 3.5" models, we get a number close to 40% of users not using larger model iPhone.
Hi,
New here. I was planning to sold my Nexus 5 (which runs Sailfish OS) to buy a FP2. So, I took my Jolla phone back in my small hands. And despite the horrible screen of the Jolla phone, I thought: “Hey, it’s better in my hands than the N5”. As a result, I’m full of doubts regarding the opportunity to buy a FP2. I really want to support the initiative, but 74 mm is really too wide for me.
I think the engineering process and lot of artefacts could be reused from the FP2 to make a FP2 mini. Same style, same frame design (keep it thick, it’s way better to be driven with one hand), same battery, same components, but a 4.5" 720p screen (around 66mm width) would be really really great and I would buy it in minutes, with, of course, the ability to run Sailfish OS.
I too expected the fp2 to be the same size as the fp1, as really don’t like big phones. OK stupid of me, should have looked more closely at specs, but I wanted to support the fair electronics thing.
Am two weeks in to using this brick and finding lots of buggy things… And just too big for my purposes.
But having spent serious cash on this now not sure what to do. Is there a re sale market out there?
For myself, I’m abolutely happy with the size of my FP2, actually, I got used to the screen size surprisingly quick (had a 4" SGS before).
But my wife refuses to replace her old phone by a FP2 because it’s just too big for her. Her maximum acceptable size is somewhere about 4.5".
I absolutely see the difficulties of designing a FP2 mini and it’s clear to me that this is not achievable short or mid term (e.g. in the next year), but I also think there is a market for smaller sized model.
No thanks. 4" would be unnecessarily small for me. Also Nokia N97 was a pretty horrible device, so I’m not sure what you mean by Nokia being “at it’s best”. That time was Nokia at its’ worst imo.
Just adding my two cents pro Mini: a couple of months after I received my FP2, I’m still using my old Samsung S4 Mini, among others because I had been so supportive of the FP concept I hadn’t payed attention to the size… If it weren’t that I want to be a living promotion of it, I might even consider ‘giving it away’.
I consider myself definitely part of an existing market for a mini… but still, a solid strategy, integrated concept,… is vital. So keep the debate, info and arguments coming :).