Comparing Samsung flagships with FPs is a bit unfair (as it’s not really comparable from a HW perspective either). For current Samsung flagships, you get an even longer update time, I read smth about 7 years. Which is nice.
Their other phones also get 3-5 years, which has gotten better over the years.
Back when FP started its work, the big vendors didn’t really care. Even the flagship models only got 3 years, some low end devices didn’t get any updates at all after a year or so.
So maybe/hopefully FP had an influence on them, or it was just time to extend support in general. Nobody knows.
I would also like quick updates and would welcome better communication. But we can’t really influence that.
Why shouldn’t that be fair? Fairphones were always sold with the argument of longevity, and software updates are part of that. They reached 7 years with the Fairphone 2 and 3. I always expect that Fairphone at least matches the longest period of software support of other Android phones. And when they give a guarantee of at least 5 years then they absolutely have to deliver that.
I wouldn’t say Samsung is way better though. I had a Samsung s21 before and I got a system update and security update only twice a year. (I sure do hope they will make it more regular with their new devices)
In definition that is a supported device due to it getting “regular” updates but i wouldnt really call it that. fairphone is somehow better even with being a month late with the updates ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just FYI to get away from the flagship comparison, Samsung is saying they’re going to offer 6 years of Software updates and 6 OS upgrades on the A16 5G, a device I can buy for 150€ at a grocery store. It’s running a Mediathek Chipset though instead of Qualcomm, maybe they’re not as uptight with their long term software support.
6 OS upgrades is quite a statement, not bad. And in principle this should make 9 years of support possible, given that Android versions are usually supported for 3.5 years.
Though the German Samsung A16 5G page only speaks of “up to 6” and the US A16 5G page doesn’t specify anything about software support duration.
the marketing of the bigg brands start trying to attract customers with ads about longer support. which means more market for those products.
More competition between the phone brands to make longer lasting devices.
Wat sounds like one of the original goals of Fairphone awareness campagne, convincing phone makers to make products beter for nature and people and so their customers.
yes it is wishful thinking.
ofcourse only time can tell if its just a empty chell like most marketing claims.
the experience that most users are not that interest in keeping a product for long.
Pointing to all how ask me way i still had my old phone for so long time, dont you want something new… …No thank i’m fine. (what was before it died)
Or looking for excuses to buy a new, wel there is nothing wrong with the current one. and not wanting to admit that it’s only because they want to. does that sound familiar? maybe you dit it yourself as well. i probably dit.
I’m afraid that will always be the biggest market.
I don’t know about Mediatek and their software support, so I was just guessing
“up to 6” is still a lot better than what that price class usually got. Software support that long in a price class this low by a manufacturer as big as Samsung is very good and should hopefully be a nice kick in the butt to chipset manufacturers so they support all their chips longer. Not just high end and IoT variants.
Then we hopefully don’t have this situation with the FP4 again where Qualcomm just shrugs and leaves Fairphone out in the rain alone to deal with Kernel upgrades.
Maybe we’ll see a Fairphone running a widely used, high end, mainstream SoC that’s actually designed primarily for smartphones in the future and offering up to 10 years of support with backing by the chip manufacturer. That would be the dream!
I compared the FP4 with the flagship Samsung released more or less at the same time because very few Samsung phones had so many years of updates at that time. And the conclusion is that only a flagship could equal the FP4 at that tine (unlike what a comment affirmed) in terms of updates support duration.
People talking about phones released now should compare the period of support with the FP5 since the FP4 is an old phone now. And still, we should remember that announcements have to become true (we will see in 6 years if the Samsung A16 had git 6 years of upgrades).
Nevermind. This is ablut Fairphone 4. Where we got 2 Android Updates so far. The last one ca 1 year ago. And the last comment on it by Fairphone 3 months ago… While putting the update cycle to 6 months without communication.
I ask everybody to stop conspiring until FP officially announces the full information. Many of you base your opinions on incomplete info and get to wrong conclusions. Somebody else might read them and think it is a conclusion made of full information.
The only thing I wanted is to speed up the FP announcement. But their PR is what it is. And they definitely don’t monitor this forum.
Not discussing, but guessing what might be and already accusing Fairphone for not following their mission.
Please wait until something official is on the table.
FP could very easily stop all the speculations in matter of seconds rather than minutes, if they would just let their customers know, what they actually plan. Yet another complete communication desaster by FP!
I contacted support about the A14 update. I will share their response if they do not reveal their plan in the meantime.
It may take long, but the whole thing is a kind of turtle race anyway
Yes, I regret it now a little. I thought just telling there is information is not the same as telling the information. But the speculations spun out of control. I’ll remember this lesson.
And my motivation still was to push FP a little to finally talk publicly. But that would mean somebody at FP would have to care. I’m quite unsatisified with FP’s communication. This way they definitely cannot become a love brand.
