Does the FP3 *HAVE* an FM radio?

Discuss The Products
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21

:grinning: of courseā€¦

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22

No, you can directly download .apk files from their website. :slight_smile:

23

Youā€™re right, clicked the wrong linkā€¦
The first link is meant for an external device, the second link is a spiritfm apk which needs rootā€¦
Seems like I will need to wipe my phone :slightly_frowning_face:

25

Any new information on this? My retailer mentioned FM radio, and I consider it an essential feature. Seems like I should have bought a used Fairphone 2 with upgraded camera module.

I often hear that is is included in the hardware of many phones, but somehow disabled or without any software to make it available. Probably a ā€œdropped featureā€ at the last minute?

Streaming audio often worked better for me in the past, but I still would like to have an FM radio.

Also note that ā€œSpirit FMā€ has disappeard and that there is a radio station of the same name (which has a streaming app of that name, like most radio stations). There are generally very few real FM radio apps that use tuner hardware, and they usually require root or are designed for certain phone models only. When searching for ā€œFM Radioā€ or something, you will get zillions of garbage apps packed with ads.

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26

I just checked again the feature list on the vireo homepage.
Now it reads:

FM Radio: No

So, it seems clear now, that the FP3 comes without a fm-radio. :frowning:
Thatā€™s really a pity.

Very clear as well is memolife, another German reseller:

Das Fairphone hat keinen FM Radio Support.

:uk: The Fairphone doesnā€™t feature FM Radio support.

Edit:
As I am a curious guy, I checked some more resellers:
The PhoneCoop

FM Radio with RDS

Sosh et Orange

Radio FM oui

Belismpel

FM Radio :heavy_check_mark:

So, there are still quite a few resellers, that list an FM Radio as feature.
Still, the Fairphone homepage does not list it and the German resellers explicitly say there is no radio.
My bet stays with no radio. :sob:

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27

Fairphoneā€™s first spec list still showed the FM radio, but it disappeared quite quickly, so I think the FM radio is really not builtin.
Too bad about that. :unamused:
I would exchange the FM radio for the barometer at any time

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28

The SoC, Snapdragon 632, does contain an FM tuner though. So FM reception would be possible, if only a working app existed.

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29

Have you searched on F-Droid?

30

Only Google Play seems to be full of those apps.

SpiritF might work (which is available on F-Droid), and the previous and now vanished Spirit-Versions, but it requires root.

There is no guide to rooting yet, and when I tried to unlock the bootloader, it just went into a white screen.
(The downside of rooting would also be that more and more apps refuse to work on a rooted phone, Iā€™v only come across one so far)

ā€œNextradioā€ - just displays a ā€œnot supportedā€ error message and seems to be targeted to the US (you have to try the .apk, as google also displays ā€œnot supportedā€)

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31

Iā€™d be wary trying random apps on Play Store. It is full with adware, spyware, and malware.

There are methods to root which circumvent these checks, but it is a bit problematic agreed.

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32

I think it is s bit strange, that Fairphone is communicating so badly with us, potential customersā€¦

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33

Not really.
They donā€™t advertise that feature, so itā€™s not supported.
What more are they to communicate? Ok, they could expressly state, that there is no FM-radio, like vireo and memolife do.

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34

Well, the radio is just one example. I wished, they would e.g. also read the forum postings and answer technical questions right awayā€¦

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35

I am with you there.
On the other hand, this forum is marked ā€œcommunity forumā€ for a reason.
I guess, they are following discussions here to a certain degree. But they have the bugtrackers to follow as well and the support hotlines, feedback from resellers, media etc.
Therefore expecting an answer from Fairphone in a forum maintained by a very active and energetic community has to lead to being dissappointed.
And quite important as well: It is just a small company! They can only address a certain amount of requests at a time. And right now they are working on getting the FP3 delivered and the first reports of problems worked out.

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36

But people are so good at expecting. Donā€™t try to limit them at what they are good at with realism. UNFAIR :wink: !

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37

Thx for the good laughs!!! :rofl:

38

Sure. It is a small company. For other phones Iā€™d just go to the local store and ask the people there, take the phone in my hand, and so onā€¦ As I do not know any user of a FP3 yet, I also cannot just ask someone else. And for ā€œgoodā€ products (ethically speaking) I somehow expect a good communication with us, the customersā€¦

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39

Is here anybody successfully using a third-party FM radio app on his/her FP3?

(A Twitter user asked me that.)

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40

No, but I just found another specification Listing:

  • NFC
  • Audio Jack
  • Radio FM
  • Computer sync
  • OTA sync
  • Tethering.
  • VoLTE
  • VoWiFi

So, I assume that somewhere the reseller/test Websites and so on get their information from. One possibility: Radio FM was planned, but for the release to market Android version no stable app was available, so they dropped it?

41

I was wondering, maybe we can notice from the iFixit teardown.

How powerful does the receiver/antenna need to be of a FM radio? Where is the chip located?