Does the Fairphone have many issues?

I have already placed an order for my Fairphone 3, since I was convinced of it, though as I’m reading in the forum, it seems like it is still a rather immature phone with modules randomly breaking.

I would expect it to be about as reliable as a usual phone, just that if something breaks I can replace it, in contrary to another phone.

Does it live up to these expectations, or do I need to expect spending money in the future or time in the future on getting it to work again?

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Where are you reading this?

Not a lot of people even have the FP3 yet, so it’s too early to tell.

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The FP3 should be more reliable than the FP2 as the modules are better connected.

As for FP3 having many issues, people who are happy with the product won’t complain about it on a forum like this.

There are different reports here and there. We don’t know how common the reported issues are. Nor do we know if they’re confirmed, and if they can be easily fixed somehow.

Such is the boon of being an early adopter. That boon is not brand specific. iPhone and other Android devices have the very same issue. Example: antennagate, bendgate, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Fold, …

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i’ve had my FP3 for about a week now and it’s been problem free for me.

The only issue, per se, I’ve come across is the LED thing which is not problematic for me at all.
If anything, it’s surpassed my personal expectation on battery life, performance etc. The wifi’s fine and I don’t use fingerprint bits, so won’t comment on that.

Don’t worry yourself :slight_smile: it’ll be grand!

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Had it for a few days now, it feels much better than the FP3: battery running time is great, feels well manufactured, all the little bugs I know from my FP2 are gone. Many things on the plus side, so you’ve got good reason to excited, I’d say.

2 issues for me: no LED pulse notifications, and using my headphones with play/pause button is sometimes breaking audio playback completely (have to restart phone).

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Same here, no problem, just the LED thing that is really stupid from FP imho.

But great battery, great wifi / 4G, and everything is fully functional.

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Hi,
very satisfied with my FP3. Having little issues with LED and hidden WiFi connect. I am sure this will be solved soon.

So for me it ist a great product.

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What is the problem with LED excactly?

Have a read through here:

Essentially LED works for battery state (charging or needing charged) but not for notifications, so no blinking Green light, for example, when a whatsapp message arrives.

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I am also a bit concerned about the durability and the quality of all components. Could someone share their Bluetooth experience? The review in the Guardian was very critical about it.

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How are testimonials after 2 weeks of experience supposed to tell you anything about the durability of modules? :confused:

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I also am happy with my phone so far. Like many said, the LED thing is super annoying, but not so much an issue with the phone itself but either a feature that will hopefully be implemented eventually or, as mentioned above, a super …unfortunate… decision by Fairphone.

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A post was split to a new topic: Charging Problems: Switching between charging and not charging

Whats the problem with the wifi?

Hi, I am unable to connect to Hidden WiFi.

(I somehow misread above post as being about FP3. Rest of post is kept as-is.)

It is too early to tell at this point as the sample size is too small, and we don’t know if/how some of the known issues are going to be resolved.

Here is a list thus far. This is just a placeholder post of some known issues in FP3. Be aware that reports of issues need to be confirmed by the community and customer support. Therefore, everything in this list is UNCONFIRMED and heresay until stated otherwise.

Weak light FP3 photos - #3 by Roboe → other source: Tweakers review.
Bluetooth Performance - #6 by WePhoton → other source: several reviews (?)
LED notifications do not work → multiple users confirmed the issue (LED can only be used to notify about charging status; might be solvable via firmware update)
Headphone Jack/plug doesn't work → confirmed by two reports thus far
Fingerprint → the module can be removed, fingerprint sensor is known to not work with greasy/wet fingers (which is normal behavior)
Hidden WLAN SSID is not reconnectin when in range/doesn't work on initial setup → confirmed by one user reports thus far.
NFC issues - reading cards and payment → confirmed by one user reports thus far.
Battery life too high → battery life lasts longer than expected :wink: multiple reports about that.

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I’ve had it for a week now and everything works very well, with the exception of missing LED notifications.

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Everything is working well for me. Did not remark any missing LED notification because also for FP2 I did not know that it can be used for more info.

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My biggest beef with the FP2 is the frequent reboots, particularly those inconveniently timed as I was relying on my phone as a satnav while driving. I’ll admit that they seem to get worse as the battery gets older, so initial experiences only bear limited value, but… Is there any sign of such instability with the FP3?

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So far there has been no real issues with the FP3 for me. I’m quite happy with my purchase. I have only one thing to complain: My new phone seems to have a low quality DAC inside the phone. It makes some pretty quiet static noise when listening to something through the headphone jack. I can only notice it when I’m in a totally quiet room. It seems similar to the problem described here:

I’ve tried a bunch of different headphones and audio sources. This static noise isn’t there when using wireless headphones. I also had this problem on my previous phone Nokia 7 plus.

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