You appear to be correct. I though I had seen other people report the same, but after a quick search I didn’t find anything. Still my opinion stands, that the experience with the phone is less than stellar and does not seem worth 700€ (even though I would happily pay that much for the hardware with well working software). Potential buyers should be aware of this before buying.
Hi there,
I can provide my experience.
I have mine FP5 since 01/2024.
Before (from 2018) I had Nokia 3.1, which Is low cost low end device, even it had ALU body, dual SIM in first tray and SD card expansion slot in second tray (128GB), but RAM 2Gigs, internal 16Gigs (system took 60% of internal memory), regarding processor, was used Mediatek with 28nm technology.
My wife still has Nokia 6.1, from 2019.
This device has procesor Snapdragon 630 with 14nm tech (with 4Gigs RAM)
In case you want to see more specs
What I see in time 5-6 years, really huge difference in our case is the processor. Nokia 3.1 is now not usable, reaction time is in minutes, mediatek even could not handle GPS signal last half year. And not mentioning free internal storage memory. Snapdragon 630 is in these days still usable, not for gaming, of course, but for normal use fully OK (web, WhatsApp, GPS, video…etc), so my wife still keeping it, Nokia 6.1 can still do its work.
And when I took processor in FP5, QCM6490 is somewhere around Snapdragon 781 or 778plus, if I remember correctly. So it is not top class, but Snapdragon 630 was not top in purchase time as well. So my expectations are, that in terms of processor FP5 could be still usable without any issue. In terms of internal memory I could not imagine any issue too (SD card up to 2TB).
Regarding battery, when I can easily change it, also OK.
When speaking about RAM, it would be nice to have in FP5 more than 8GB (16GB would be better?) but what I see, how Nokia 6.1 running with 4GB RAM, those 8GB in FP5 might ve still OK. When I do my observations for my use case, I barrely cross significantly 50%.
In terms of device battery time, I can do with my FP5 easily 2 days in normal use, when is calm time period I did 3 days too. But when I play with FP5 (camera, GPS, YouTube, video watching) battery is done during one day.
Otherwise, with FP5 I did not have single issue, technical or software, no bugs. I appreciate good solid design, after lots of falls I have no damage, no cracked display (used protective case and tempered glass display protection).
Some people complaining about growing size of the smartphones, which was also my problem too (one of the reason why I had Nokia 3.1, small and light), but now, I am probably over it and even I have my company phone iPhone SE 2020, which is small and light as well, is not comfortable for me (misstypes, small display to see something on the photos / pictures…etc), so I am OK with 6.4 inch display.
So in my experience after 8 months, FP5 exceeded my expectations and I am going to use it as long as possible.
Cheers…
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I’ve had mine since November 2023 and coming from a FP2 it was a big jump for me in terms of camera and performance and SIZE (I hate the size of this thing so much).
Processor - it seems fast enough.
Photos - it seems really good to me.
Battery - I charge it up to 100% every other day or sometimes every third day. I don’t use it for looking at films or things though.
I just wish it wasn’t so big and that the built in case was usable. I basically wish it was a FP2 with a better camera and longer lasting battery.
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Here’s my 2 cents…
I’ve had my FP5 for approx. 9 months now. I’m satisfied for the larger part of it. The phone gave me a few mild headaches in the beginning. And I sometimes have some issues with it. Though most of them have gone over time (I guess software updates?) The problems I still have are:
- Sometimes when I remove the phone from my charger in the car I get the message that there is dirt or water in the USP port (and there definitely isn’t!)
- When I make a picture in low light circumstances, the image on my screen seems perfectly sharp and clear. However, the picture itself is often blurred (pretty annoying)
- In google Maps, when I arrive on my location after navigating there, I can’t “close” the navigation. It says “finish”, but I can’t finish it except by killing the app (I heard from a friend she has the same problem, but not on a FP5)
So, these are the “problems” I still have. They are all first world problems… And except for them, I’m pretty happy with my FP5.
Hi, just a quick comment on pictures. When taking the pic in low light circumstances, it seems that the process of saving a picture is longer, you can actually see the circle around the picture (being stored) moving indicating the process (usually it is very fast and the picture is stored instantly). So I guess if you move the phone during that stage, this would impact the end outcome.
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Hi Meaghan,
Yes, I can confirm the runing circle after taking the photo in low light (=night scene). This is the software processing. In my case, processing time is few seconds. I am keeping the phone in the position of the sceene first second and its OK. Only moving objects (like waves in the ocean) are blurred. Which is done by longer capture times.
You might have seen the leaks about the green version of FP5 having lower specs and price. While all the users here commented on the standard version, it might be something to consider as well.
Yes, but if the leaks are true, it’s a smaller storage and less RAM so it might not fix the problems mentioned here.
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Soooooo, I bought the transparent Fairphone 5 yesterday so here’s my one day review! 
Very happy with screen quality and photo quality. The default settings for the photos is a bit aggressive on the colors but I will try to change some things about that.
The phone is fast and responds well.
Seems solid.
The only thing that worries me for now is the battery: it drained quite quickly in the first day (watching videos, but I was warned about that) and idle during the night (I will change the battery settings for the apps causing it).
Also, charging the phone is SSSSSOOO SLLOOOOWWWW. Fairphone 3 goes from 0 to 90% in no time. With Fairphone 5, it takes 2 hours almost. I’m using the “quick charge” official plug I bought from Fairphone 5 years ago (output 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/1,5A). Phone says “quick charging” while plugged but still. It’s very slow. Do you also experience that?
I’ll check the dedicated post about FP5 battery as well.
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The FP3 has a 3060mAh battery, the FP5s contains 4200mAh. For ‘quick’ charge you need at least a QC3.0 compatible Charger with round about 30W, not the ‘old’ 18W USB-A plug.
Then you can charge 50% in about 20 mins.
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Is not clear what charging protocol FP5 use, before half year i get respond from support about QC4, as i have only some QC3 and this charge my FP5 only with 8-12W, but on other side for fast charge i use Lenovo USB-C PD 65W (NOT QC) notebook adapter (one modern small/slim travel size) which charge 22-24W (from low percent to i think 50 or 80%?), but another Lenovo USB-C PD 65W (classic size “brick”) charge only 8-12W ;-)
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I see! I’ll check that out, thanks.
In case any of you want to add your vote:
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Hi,
After my iPhone SE (2020) quit cellular networking I bought the FP5 and took in to Indonesia for travels.
For this trip I used a Nomad eSim for mobile data.
I use my FP5 now for 1 month.
Experience overall good.
- Performance ok, once or twice the camera app hung
- Camera is weak part compared to photo quality of my iPhone
- Battery life is ok. I used Google Maps a lot, made quite a bit of pictures, booked taxis, but never used my power bank
- Update OS without any problem
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