Just for completeness, I also post the latest news here:
Despite all the obstacles, there is now a working Android Nougat (LineageOS 14.1) for the FP2!
Please consider, the available OS is still quite BETA and not officially supported. But if you know your way around custom recovery and your life does not depend on your phone (or you just have a decent backup strategy ) then you should definitely give it a try!
Please see this
and
for more info.
Is awesome to see, what the Fairphone community is capable of!
(even overtook my girlfriends newer Samsung device, which still runs Marshmallow )
So the “Who’s got the higher version number?” game is coming to Fairphone? I can barely hold myself back from exploding into excitement, circus and extravaganza .
At least the CDD for Android Nougat exists by now, so maybe someone else finds any hint to why FP2 may not be able to pass the CTS for Android 7. I still don’t see any reason.
This German article claims something that sounds almost too good to be true: Android 7 will come onto the Fairphone 2, perhaps even Oreo? (“Android 7 fürs Fairphone kommt”). According to the article which makes reference to Olivier Hebert, it’s not a question of “if”, but “when”. I really hope this is not just a misunderstanding.
My own improvised English translation of (page 2) paragraph 1:
The successor model seems more future-proof: For the Fairphone 2 which runs Android 6 by now, the manufacturer* promises an update to Android 7 Nougat, Hebert just won’t state anything on the possible release date. Potentially only in the year 2018. What about Android 8 Oreo? Let’s see, according to the Fairphone CTO [Chief Technical Officer]. However, skipping Android 7 and upgrading straight to Android 8 would be a too challenging endeavour.
Interesting read! I still hope for a new Fairphone that keeps screen and most modules compatible, so I can keep using perfectly good camera and loudspeakers and screen, for example, with a new SoC.
Fairphone is very careful with its media strategy - announcements are made on the right time and platform to generate the greatest impact. An announcement on the forum would lead to many questions from forum users when it will come & complaints about ‘outdated’ Marshmallow.
we are currently following up with the author of the article. It refers to a question for Olivier during our Camera Launch press conference in Berlin 2 weeks ago. Olivier verbatim said “we are looking into it”. That means that the FP2 is currently still officially limited to Android 6. That also means that - in the interest of software longevity - we are definitely looking into possibilities to provide software support for as long as possible. He was stressing the obligation we have towards trying to provide longer-living software solutions. The article took it from there and spun it further. Rest assured that you will get all relevant information from us directly.
I hope this has clarified the circumstances of this article. Why should we be bold and clear to journalists and secretive to you?
You have a point there; yet, please let me direct your attention to this recent posting by @AlbertJP
That’s some kind of information not only many would have loved to get straight from the horses mouth, it even was asked for multiple times; addressed at you, if I do recall it correctly.
Could you at least confirm that info?
I am really considering getting the Fairphone 2. However, software updates are very important, especially with security. It seems to me there isn’t a clear OS update path on any of the Fairphone literature. I would therefore be concerned of owning one, as you would basically be stuck on Android 6 with very little in the way of bug and security patches. Personally I think Fairphone should aim at the higher end of the market and make the phone very capable, that way each iteration of phone (surely as few as possible to be more sustainable?) would have a longer OS upgrade shelf life. I guess what really needs to happen in this market is for standards to be created across all the phone companies to reduce the social and environmental impact of phone production. I am not certain one company on their own can bring about this change. Is fariphone working with other manufactures to try and bring this about?
There isn’t a clear update path on any Android phone. Whenever G%§$e puts out a new OS version they basically decide which phones they deem worthy enough to be able to upgrade.
Afaik Fairphone hasn’t given up on upgrading to Android 7 - and technically it’s possible, see #software:alt-lineageos - but going against G%§$e isn’t easy.
Fairphone is currently rather thinking of going in the opposite direction and making the FP3 another mid-range phone like the FP1, so FP2 owners don’t through away their phones to buy the new model but rather wait for the FP4.
But you don’t necessarily need high-end hardware to upgrade to a newer Android version - you just need to be lucky to have picked the kind of hardware that G%§$e decides to support.
Yes Fairphone is working with other companies and strives to motivate them to change their bad practices.