I have been using the phone for 2 weeks now and I would like to share my opinion compared to previously used Blackberry KeyOne Black edition:
- First of all is speed. On BB speed was OK to use and Fairphone is much faster. Nothing else needed to say.
- I do not care much about “Google hell” inside because I simply love using their services. Clean Android without any additional apps is awesome (I miss BB suite apps but they did not work on BB very well for last year
) - KeyOne is almost the same size as FP3 but thanks to extra thickness and sharper corners the phone appears bigger in pocket.
- I probably use my phone more than most of active users here. I spend around 5hrs of active use, which is mostly YouTube, Firefox browser, Twitter and Instagram (according to data read from settings), mostly on 80-100% brightness. I use wireless earbuds and Xiaomi Mi Band 2 both connect and disconnect several times a day and BT reach is good enough for me to cover whole my flat and office. WiFi reach is standard for me (so no change from previous BB). Lastly the phone is almost nonstop connected to internet (WiFi and 3G/4G) through Wireguard VPN.
With this usage my BB Keyone held whole workday (starting at 6am) but after I got home at 16-17hrs it needed some juice. FP3 has around 40% at 22-23hrs. So big
Now some things that I do not like (mostly software issues):
- The phone cannot recognize when I am just holding it and not trying to unlock. As soon as I touch fingerprint reader it starts to vibrate like crazy until I change my grip.
- Automatic brightness is strange. Phone claims it will learn with time what brightness use when and where but I don’t recognize any change to better recognizing even when I am pulling it down almost everytime I unlock the phone.
- Camera is a bit pain for me. Photos come out good but “pro” option is too far from reach and I need to activate it every time I open camera. Would apreciate some 3:2 crop as well. Most of the time Photo mode would work good for me if I could focus and then took pictures when I want and not immediately after focusing.
- Semi-transparent cover shows gaining dust around display which is something we need to count on when display is not glued to frame.
- USB-C connector is not in the middle (I will get used to it soon).
- An O on back side is starting to move thanks to beeing slightly higher than other letters and I assume that in a month or so I am going to glue it back
- Oh and notification LED does work only on charging but I don’t need it so
Overall I love this phone. Issues that I have can be solved by software update or can be found similar on any phone in any price range, nothing is perfect. The thing I hate most now is absolute absence of any glass protector for my display and camera module because the phone is too large for me when trying to carry it with the protector bumper.