Anyone love their FP3? (= no issues)

Sorry, I was wrong. This works perfectly well with FP2 on LineageOS 16 (based on Android 9 Pi) with microG (which should not matter). It works with Trebuchet and Lawnchair, so I guess it is not launcher related as it does not work on FP3 on Android 9 Pi (official firmware) with Lawnchair (nor the default launcher, QuickStep or whatever it was called).

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After almost 4 weeks with my FP3. Battery life is very decent, camera is ok, good screen, speed of the phone is just fine, call quality is good: it works too well, itā€™s almost boring. Nothing I have to fix, nothing I have to worry about - as a nerd I am almost disappointed. :joy:

Worst of all, I canā€™t take it apart like the Fairphone 2 because itā€™s screwed together. Fairphone, you have stolen my party gag! :wink:

P.S.: please, fix that thing with the notification LED!

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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 ā€œGoogle hellā€ 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 :frowning: )
  • 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 :+1:

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 donā€™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 ā€œproā€ 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 :smile:
  • Oh and notification LED does work only on charging but I donā€™t need it so :man_shrugging:

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.

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Iā€™ve had FP1, FP2 and now FP3. Each is much better than the previous one. FP3 is stable, good battery life, works fine. I do also have the problem that I inadvertently touch the fingerprint reader when I just want to look at it and it gets confused. Maybe Iā€™ll learn to keep my fingers under control :wink:

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Been using it for a week now, and basically everything works better than before. The issues I have are mostly stock-android-related (no quick home/away profiles, anymore, no LED notification), I will survive. The camera is a little slow when used with OpenCamera, even in good light conditions it takes half a second to shoot, but I did not explore this any furtherā€¦

All in all: a big thumbs up! If only we had a LineageOS port alreadyā€¦

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I finally made my FP3 fully working without gapps! So iā€™m basically using it for a day now. Itā€™s such an improvement to my FP1 - Camera seems to be pretty dope, battery life & GPS, too. Just an open OS is missing :wink:

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Works perfectly for me and has great 4g connectivity even in the US.
Also like how the stock OS is light on bloat and doesnā€™t put too many restrictions on removing/disabling default apps. Still I am eagerly awaiting a port to Lineage though.

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That is a first, AFAIK. Congrats! Which provider(s) do you use? Would you mind sharing the region(s) you used/tested the smartphone?

I read about this ā€œfeatureā€ in a review ā€“ and just in the last days I wonder, if my FP2 was still that bright as it is. Using it in the night or in dark settings the display is a little bit too bright. That would be an aspect for not using Recycling | Fairphone

Is it not possible to control this by software? Or ist the display modul just ā€œas it isā€?

Thanks, webaschtl

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I think what Webaschtl is referring to is the manual brightness adjustment. Without root access there is no way to make the display less bright than it is at the factory set lowest setting. That being said I donā€™t find the lowest brightness setting any less bright than my last 2 phones, so it is not anything super bright for me.

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I read this in a German computer magazin (ct)

The display shows the contents in sufficient sharpness. With a maximum of 460 cd/m2
the IPS-Panel can also be installed in the sun
with a little effort. But the
Minimum brightness of 19 cd/m2 is a
Weak point; annoying, for instance, when you
before falling asleep in the bed still on the
Smartphone reads. Last we have a
similarly high minimum brightness at the
100-euro mobile phone Nokia 3.1 measured
(14.6 cd/m2
). Even the uneven
Illumination of the panel is a weak point.

(translation via Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version))
https://epaper.heise.de/download/archiv/e1b045f1c9ed/ct.19.22.088-089.pdf

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@JeroenH I use T-mobile. I live in the NYC metro area and have only really tested it there so far.

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+THE IDEA
+display (colours)
+camera
+battery
+fingerprint sensor
+phone overall (looks solid and cool)

-front speaker
-microphone (microphone and front speaker might be a problem of a software, I donā€™t know but from time to time when I pick up the phone caller cannot hear me or I cannot hear him. In order to get rid of this problem I have to restart the phone. Itā€™s so annoying
-headphones outlet (I couldnā€™t recognize when it happens yet. Instead of music, or any sound that should be in your ears, I just hear crackling sound - solution is, again, restart

I am comparing with other phones available (no experience with FP2)

I have my FP3 about 3-4 weeks

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Had it for two weeks now. Everything works out of the box.
Big upgrade from my previous phone, so I am very happy :grinning:

Would recommend.

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How often do you get that crackling sound through the headphones? Iā€™ve had it happen 2 times during 1.5 months.

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It happened twice during mentioned period

:heartbeat: my new FP3 either. It is a major improvement regarding the FP2 :

  • battery life (It can last 2 days, and the battery indicator is far less ā€œsurprisingā€ : if youā€™re less than around 10% with the FP2 it can shutdown anytime soon). Key point for me as I had taken the habit of always having a power bank with me with the FP2
  • stability : FP2 used to reboot sometimes (at least once a day). Iā€™ve seen the FP3 reboot once in one month and a half
  • fluidity : the processor is not a beast but is good for the everyday use (FP2 was lagging when several apps were used together)
  • GPS sensor is much more accurate
  • USB-C is convenient for me as I have my laptop connector that is the same
  • I prefer the general aspect and in-hand feeling
  • it is solid (I dropped it twice :worried: )
  • and still very easy to dismantle

On the cons, I feel like the wifi is slower (but I did not measure it, feeling when seeing the downloads of my podcasts).

So I replaced the top module of my FP2 (that was broken after 4-5 years), fully reinstalled my FP2 with lineageOS and gave it to my son. He is very happy with it.

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Iā€™ve been using mine for more than a month now, no issues. Wifi works fine, sound and headphone jack as wellā€¦ Itā€™s big (but i think that makes it very convenient for reading articles, holding it in landscape mode)ā€¦

I hope an alternative OS like Lineage will be available soonā€¦

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Interesting to hear from you about the microphone problem. I have only recently bought the FP3 and already had 3 phone calls, in 2 of them the other side could not understand me properly despite having no connection problems. Do you know more about this particular issue? Many thanks in advance.

Sure, my guess? Problem is in OS. Before FP3, I had UleFone Armour and it comes with completely identical OS and identical issues.
Unfortunately this is something I donā€™t understand but Iā€™d welcome better working system. eM

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