Hi All, I am after some advice on if I should buy a FP2 now or if I should wait. I want a phone that I can have for a long time and am not too bothered by having the most technologically advanced phone, but I want something that is reliable and can do the basics really well.
How well does the FP2 work now?
Will FP2 be supported for a long time after release of FP3? (believe FP1 is no longer supported?)
How well does it work outside of Europe? (I’m in Australia)
My main concerns are the FP3 possibly being released this year and the fact that I am in Australia. I have seen there have been a few issues with FP2, like the case and camera, but these seem to have been fixed so I am wondering if people are now fairly happy with the phone?
I had a non-smartphone until 2 years ago when I got a Sony M4 Aqua, which I really dislike. It overheats and has issues connecting to the internet, GPS is terrible, the camera is pretty bad. It only has small internal memory which greatly limits the apps I can have. I am not interested in buying phone after phone so am hoping I can get a FP and stick with it for many years, but don’t want to spend a lot and end up being unhappy with it.
Most users are very happy with it. But since this is a forum where people come if they have issues you’ll see a lot of that here. If you’re unlucky you get a faulty device and will need do contact support to get a replacement phone or module.
That’s the tricky question. For the FP1 two things happened: Suppliers wouldn’t produce some essential spareparts in the small quantity that was needed anymore for a reasonable price. Additionally Fairphone wasn’t able to upgrade the OS.
The difference for the FP2: It was designed by Fairphone themselves, so they have a little more control over production and there are #software:alternative-oses which will probably be supported by the community for a long time, so the number of active FP2 users will stay large for a long time which in turn makes getting spareparts easier.
I’d say chances that the FP2 will be supported still for a long time are good, but something unforeseen can always happen.
You can check https://willmyphonework.net/ to see where and with which supplier the FP2 works. In Australia there is no issue. You can also search the forum for “Australia” to read some reviews.
The only issue is that getting your hands on spareparts will be harder.
That may be true, but from all we heard about the FP3 so far there is a chance that it will be rather a low end phone (like the FP1 was) and that you’ll be better off with an FP2 if you want a phone with some power.
The old camera didn’t really have an issue, it just wasn’t particularly good.
From the hardware side, Fairphone had designed the parts by itself. That means they can switch the manufacturer if the old manufacturer is giving up. Also, there are more FP2s than FP1 out there so the spare part production pays off more easily.
From the software side, the official Google-sanctioned OS is stuck to Android 6, maybe forever. The reason is that Snapdragon 801 devices like the FP2 aren’t supporting an unnecessary graphics API called Vulkan which Google like to have.
Security updates will probably come as long as Google provides them for Android 6. Some security issues may be left open when Qualcomm isn’t providing security updates for its chipset.
We have also an inofficial custom ROM called LineageOS which is on Android 7 level. Google parts are installable afterwards. Please note that some apps (like banking apps or Pokémon Go) don’t like those OSs and don’t work. The reason that this OS is insecure is wrong. You get all security updates which Google writes.
According to reports here in the forum, it works with one SIM card very well. Dual SIM won’t work because it relies on 2G which was turned off in Australia.
Thanks for everyone’s comments. I decided to buy one a couple of months ago and I think it’s a great phone! Everything works well in Australia, but I have had an issue getting 4G though which I am working through with FP. It seems to only connect to 3G for some reason.
4G conncection requires band compatibility between your phone and your service provider.
As stated in this topic, FP2’s LTE frequencies are 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz. On this website, LTE/4G frequencies are listed for Australian service providers. None of them are completely compatible to the FP2’s European antennas. I’m not 100% sure but with Telstra or Optus as a provider you should theoretically be able to get a 4G connection, at least in densely populated regions (Someone may correct me if I’m wrong).
(MicroG + iSu in my case)
