I bought a Fairphone 2 in 2015 and used for about 4 years. Because I am not the most able regarding technology, when it started to be really slow and the camera was bugging a lot, I decided to buy a new refurbed phone from another brand. I don’t need a fancy smartphone, I just need one that works (phone and video calls, good camera, basic apps like FB, Signal and co.)
Now that my other phone is dying, before buying another one, I really want to get back to my Fairphone 2 again. Ok, it os heavy and looks quite bulky, but I was quite happy about it.
So, I will need to update it. The camera(s) were the major issue (blurry, freezing a lot, underexposed…) so I guess I will need to change it. The display was never changed. Should I? My Fairphone is also quite slow, even with an extra sd card. Should I buy more meory? Is it even possible?
And I have never replaced anything by myself on this phone (or any other electronic object). Is it difficult?
So, I suppressed a lot of unused apps, reduced it to the minimum. Took some pictures, the resolution is really low. I am dl songs form my Spotify rn (that weirdly enough, keeps on abruptely closing, so if anyone knows why, that would be awesome). It seems I have an old version of the software since I couldn’t install some apps I had on my previous phone. The version is OS 19.11.2
So, how do I make the phone a bit more powerful? And which hardware should I update (never changed any piece on my phone and I have since 2015)?
You can test the phone’s hardware using Settings > Maintenance > Checkup.
If everything works, there is no need to replace any parts. However, if you haven’t noticed yet, Fairphone needs to stop selling FP2 bottom modules (includes primary microphone, USB port, rear speaker and vibration motor) by the end of this month, you might want to consider this.
Screen Test: white stripe at the bottom, quite large. I have noticed that my screen glitches sometimes. After the screen test, the placement of the menus were frozen.
Drawing: good
Ear speaker: worked (the music is cool, it reminds me of a song by Manu Chao)
Rear Speaker: ok
Primary microphone: doesn’t work
Secondary microphone: worked
Mobile connectivity: seems ok, but I can’t use mobile internet. Without WiFi, I have no Internet. This is weird because I can’t even change it in the settings. But the phone recognize my simcard.
WiFi: always turning on and off, loosing the connection really fast (at least at my place and it isn’t something new, it was already like this with my other phone, I guess we are too many people using the same routeur)
Vibration motor: vibrates like crazy, so I guess it is ok.
So, what do you guys think?
I have also noticed that some apps (like Spotify for example) are spontaneously closing, for no reasons.
The phone is also quite slow (used 1.2 Go out of 1.8) and the battery is sometimes getting crazy (this morning, I lost one percent of battery every two seconds, without doing nothing)
I definitely need a new microphone, but do you see anything else that might be useful to change/update?
Thanks for your precious advice! I have bought a new battery and a new bottom module. Now the phone is working quite well, except for rebooting totally randomly. I thought it was a battery’s issue but even with a new one, it still turns on and off at a random pace, for no (found yet) reason. I’ll check the forum for more info.
There are some occasional issues with random rebooting caused by battery connection issues or modules not being screwed in tightly enough. Both should be solvable at least to a degree - see links below.
In the meantime, yes the OS may by now be a bit behind and not able to install some apps - however a new update to Android 9 is currently being rolled out and so you should be able to update to that within the next week or two
If you get the new camera module, it should not be too difficult to fit it as long as you are careful and follow the instructions. Phones are quite delicate after all, but it has been designed in a way that it is pretty easy to do yourself, no previous experience needed.
