About 10-15 years ago (?) small FM transmitters for personal use were common. I think this also was a feature of some early smartphones, and you could transmit audio without a cable or Bluetooth. This should be legal if the radiated power is very low (50 nanowatts?), which should limit the range to a few meters.
Somebody above already said it. The hardware/ processor can handle FM radio, Fairphone simply wonāt let you have it. Itās Crippleware. There is no rational reason why a FP canāt do FM radio. In the end, it would have added one or two tracks to the PCB, saving two cents per phone.
The company Fairphone will not comment on whether there are hardware or software limitations. So we have to discuss this further.
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I moved a lot of posts to a new topic to keep this topic here on-topic about whether the FP3 actually has an FM radio.
If you are interested in discussing whether the FP3 actually needs an FM radio, please see the new topic:
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oh i posted in the wrong topic then, sorry about that
then i will write it here again, because more fitting:
local tech store has that in the specs of the FP3
but they could be wrong? idk (ja=yes, for non-german speakers)
Maybe the store has a FP3.1.
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Yes and no.
Yes ā¦ itās not in the current official specs.
No ā¦ it obviously was in specs circulated to resellers before the release of the phone, possibly because the SoC used in the phone supports it in general, but it would still have to be implemented with antenna wiring and software support. Software support seems not to be there at the moment but perhaps possible, wiring seems unclear (if I didnāt miss something).
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While working on LineageOS for the FP3 I fell over this. Itās based on the device config from Motorola G7 which has a working radio. The radio device is also provided by the kernel. So I played little bit around and got the error codes from the FM-Radio app solved. However the signal level seems not to be enough. I tried with several headphones. This is part of the logcat output I get:
04-23 00:25:46.392 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received event. Count: 1
04-23 00:25:46.392 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received <2>
04-23 00:25:46.392 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Got SEEK_COMPLETE_EVENT
04-23 00:25:46.392 3124 3288 E android_hardware_fm: index: 1
04-23 00:25:46.470 3124 3288 E android_hardware_fm: Free the buffer
04-23 00:25:46.470 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received event. Count: 4
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received <1>
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Got TUNE_EVENT
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 D android_hardware_fm: BT soc is
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 V FMRadio : Current state is 0
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 V FMRadio : RxEvtList: CURRENT-STATE : Search ---> NEW-STATE : FMRxOn
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 D FMService: FmRxEvSearchComplete: Tuned Frequency: 103000
04-23 00:25:46.471 3124 3288 D FmSharedPreferences: Save preferences
04-23 00:25:46.472 3124 3288 D FMRadio : mServiceCallbacks.onSearchComplete :
04-23 00:25:46.472 3124 3288 D FMService: startNotification
04-23 00:25:46.472 3124 3124 D FMRadio : mSearchComplete:
04-23 00:25:46.482 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received <8>
04-23 00:25:46.482 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Got BELOW_TH_EVENT
04-23 00:25:46.482 3124 3288 D FMService: FmRxEvServiceAvailable
04-23 00:25:46.482 3124 3288 D FMService: FmRxEvServiceAvailable: Tuned frequency is below signal threshold level
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received <11>
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Got MONO_EVENT
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMService: FmRxEvStereoStatus: false
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : mServiceCallbacks.onAudioUpdate :2
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Received <13>
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : Got RDS_NOT_AVAL_EVENT
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMService: FmRxEvRdsLockStatus: false
04-23 00:25:46.483 3124 3288 D FMRadio : mServiceCallbacks.onStationRDSSupported :false
So I guess some hardware wiring or antenna components are missing. Maybe someone with hardware knowledge can check for that on the PCB.
To me personally it wouldnāt matter too much if FP3 would lack FM capabilities. I never use it. However it would be a pity for you guys who miss it.
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So FM is available and working but thereās no antenna? Would providing a wire to the soc work?
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No, it would not. It seems that FM capabilities were wrongly advertised before the FP3 actually came to market. And this rumor has persisted still. We should just forget about it and close this useless topic forever.
I know the story about the wrongly advertised featureā¦ I was referring to the log @Max_S postedā¦
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Hello teezeh, I donāt think this topic is useless. Because tmho, looking for a way to listen to radio without spending mobile data money nor wasting data centre energy, is useful.
This is true for fm, not to forget dab+.
Surprisingly, the environment-friendly Fairphone company missed this, while the fp3 includes the required hardware ā¦
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Definitely donāt want this topic to die/close.
It seems @Max_S has at least got some degree of understanding the obstacle(s)
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As I need a new smartphone, Iām considering buying a FP, either 3 or 3+.
However, Iād like to make sure it has an FM radio receiver/transmitter included.
I listen to the radio A LOT, and I donāt want to be forced to listen to it through an app requiring an internet connection (4G/Wifi).
Many thanks to the one(s) who can help me answer this question 
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Welcome to the community forum.
I moved your post here to avoid duplicate topics. Please have a look around.
While the Fairphone 3 uses an FM radio capable chipset, it seems the necessary antenna wiring isnāt there, so FM radio canāt be used.
Any place in the internet still listing FM radio in the specs is listing outdated specs, Fairphone and most sellers corrected the error quickly after the launch of the phone.
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