I have had my Fairphone now for 21 months. I still think it is the best phone I have ever had. In my earlier review I was still trying out “SD card as internal storage”, but it became flaky within days so I made it external instead. Since then, things have continued to go well.
Like all Android phones, the Fairphone can occasionally become strange in responsiveness. Unlike most others, if it does go right out of control, all you have to do is take the battery out.
The phone remains fast when I need it for intensive communications like Zoom, and battery life continues to be acceptable. Performance with ONSIM is improved as well. Just occasionally the phone stops going away or coming home in relation to SmartThings, but that can normally be resolved with a restart.
Low battery level can occasionally affect alarm tone (Cesium playing out instead of Rooster Alarm) and Gemini’s communication with Home, resulting in routines not being usable. This came to a head in recent weeks as charging had become less efficient - correctly diagnosed as a USB port failure, which I then replaced.
On the subject of minor repairs, the Fairphone is virtually to mobile phones what the TV sets of the mid 1970s were to TV sets generally. Swapping a module is easy, needing only a PH00 screwdriver and a spudger… though where precisely to spudge is not always clear.
Android Auto is very good on Fairphone, provided of course the USB port is sound. In fact, regular failure there may be an early sign that the port is failing. I will review this point further when my new car arrives (it’s imminent).
My original idea was to evaluate this phone with a view to getting them for two other people. One of these people is not now under consideration for one, the other definitely is. Fairphone 6 has not excited me in specifications, though, and in any case, if we can wait until a later Fairphone that I can get two of at the same time, that would be even better.
Fairbuds XL are under consideration as my next headset.