Does the FP3 *NEED* an FM radio?

No, I’m full of ideas why someone finds FM overly important. Also, that was one argument; not two. I’m not the one who brought up the scenario about FM being necessary during a catastrophe.

I can give you another one: refusal to adapt to new situation. Typical something elder people suffer from.

I also gave several alternatives to the situation, which was conveniently ignored. There’s headsets which have FM functionality (heck they existed 20 years ago as well). You could use such a thing, if you find this feature very important. That one believes they need to carry their SGS3 around with FM, for this reason, is overly dramatic. Although, to be fair, different smartphones have different pros/cons, and its reusing an old device; in essence something to applaud. As you see, you can explain such things positive or negative. Entirely up to you.

Yes, there are differences, but that does not equal that FM is somehow still required. I argue it isn’t in The Netherlands. I don’t know exactly about other countries, probably going to be different there.

I frankly don’t care about a country like Romania or Serbia (technically Europe) or other East European countries. Fairphone does not cater to them, and they’re as corrupt as I find it unwise to use your normal smartphone there (ie. use a burner, like with China). The coverage where Fairphone officially does sell the FP3, that does matter indeed, but mainly what you use a smartphone for: 4G.

Uh, there’s tons? My smartwatch lasts a month. My e-reader lasts months, and has on-demand WiFi (if I keep that on, yes its going down fast). There’s 2G dumbphones which last months as well. Then there’s LoRa devices, and other IoT, 2G, 3G, even 4G devices. Besides, there’s powerbanks. The notion that you need a FM radio for in case of a catastrophe is ridiculous. We have an ample amount of alternatives. If you want to argue the 2G towers are down, well you don’t know if in such a case the FM transmitters are still working.

Yes, one-way analog services can be used anonymously (though it can be detected that the receiver receives). However, in case of protocols like FM they can generally only be used to receive (due to license reasons).

You sense the pattern? T-Mobile. I don’t know about EU, but T-Mobile Netherlands (and Tele 2, formerly) has excellent 4G coverage. Their 3G coverage has been notoriously weaker though, where KPN and Vodafone have good 2G/3G/4G coverage with Vodafone’s network being clogged (logically, as they’re the cheapest AFAIK). However, sunsetting 2G has the advantage that the frequencies can be used for 4G/5G. Modern smartphones (including FP2 and FP3) will only gain from that, as the very same frequencies will continue to work on the smartphones, with 4G. 4G is better for the battery, data-wise, and has native IP stack and VoLTE. Its a bold move by T-Mobile (might lose them customers on short term) but on long term they’ll be the first ready for 4G/5G on more frequencies.

TL;DR FP3 with 2G being put off to make room for 4G/5G is gonna be no problem for reception; it will probably increase throughput and decrease latency.

From the same source:

So if you’re in Europe and your smartphone does not support 4G, or 4G coverage is bad, you could consider Vodafone. Again: you can stream perfectly fine over 2G. Internet radio with an efficient codec such as AAC or OGG Vorbis is going to deliver good enough quality; better than FM.

True, if you find tracking important, then your cellphone being connected to 2G/3G/4G allows an adversary to track your movement approx (at the very least based on GSM triangulation), or nefarious things if its unencrypted data. That could be a valid concern. However, that’s a given when you own a smartphone without killswitches, like a Fairphone 3. If that is a valid attack vector for your use-case, then I would say don’t get a Fairphone 3, or just remove the battery at times. It is actually an argument for a dedicated device like a SGS3 or headphones with FM or DAP/walkman/… with FM.

Let’s just cut it short:

  • You can find other solutions for everything.
  • I (hopefully) never stated, that FP has to offer a FM-radio.
  • I just wonder, why FP seems to have decided on disabling that functionality, they first listed as available.

And you really come across like a missionary on a trip.
To be honest, in my humble opinion such a statement like the following one is gross and unfriendly:

And I really find it a bit strong, that you, as FP-community-moderator, are in fact telling me to get new and different devices or switch providers to get something, that FP - for some unknown reason - chose to disable. Since that to me seems neither sustainable nor reducing electronic waste.

Finally:
Since I don’t see anyone here trying to convince you that SmartHome (LoRa), spotify, podcasts etc. are something to avoid, please stop trying to tell everyone, that FM/AM-radio is next to the downfall of mankind (extreme exaggeration on my side!!).

Btw:

Here you are completely mistaken:

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/202005103-Where-do-you-sell-and-ship-Fairphone-products-to-
You will find on this list:
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia as well.
So FP does cater to them.
But hey, us living in the Netherlands and Germany don’t need to care about those corrupt countries. Wow, that’s what I would call a chauvinistic statement (at least).

And I - now truly - will refrain to add anything else to this kind of discussion.
(Gladly listening to FM-radio on my FP2.)

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I really don’t see how this way of arguing is appropriate for an “Community Moderator” and “Fairphone Angel”:

This is not a discussion about the “need” of FM any more, this is a discussion about deficits of people. I tried to persuade you that seeing arguments in favor of FM does not necessarily have psychological reasons - but for the third time in succession you insist to “give another one”. Obviously you are not willing or not able to separate your psychological speculations from the technical, social and political aspects of the topic. That makes a discussion impossible.

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If you find posts inappropriate, you can flag them.

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What I did not think of yet: Have fun paying 10 Euro per megabyte or so, should you be outside the EU roaming area.

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To add my 5 cents: I always think that if the hardware can do it, it should be there. So when I shopped for a new smartphone, I’ve seen that there is no FM radio, and it is OK, I don’t listen to FM radio much. But reading here that the hardware could do it makes me feel that it should. Let’s see if the engineers surprise us at some point… Unless they did not build the necessary circuitry into the phone.

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Since this a public question, my response would be no, I personally don’t see the need for an FM radio in a smartphone like FairPhone.

I think the entire discussion is moot. Just take a look around at this forum and see how many things people deem ‘necessary’. In fact, I think it’s a modern-day problem that consumers feel they ‘need’ everything and are even entitled to everything. I teach teenagers and they seem to feel it is unsafe to go outside without a phone. Their parents, who went to school before mobile phones were even a thing, seem to agree with them. Frankly, I think it’s unhealthy how much contact my students have with their parents while at school. They’ll have nothing more to discuss when they get home and nothing they do happens without their parents knowing about it. I guess it’s easy to become dependent on technology, but we shouldn’t forget generations managed to get by without it. So, no, you definitely don’t need an FM-radio. Or LED-notifications. Or a smaller FP model. Or an een open OS. That you might want them is an entirely different thing, and I respect your opinion, although I must admit I have some difficulty respecting people’s choice to buy a phone that was produced under bad working conditions using materials sourced from god knows where, just so they can have their coveted LED notifications.

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This, said by a Fairphone evangelist, made me sincerely laugh.

This argument would keep being valid if you extend it to “you don’t need a smartphone”, including Fairphone.

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…and just to add my last 2 cents, I find it a bit egocentric, if not elitarian, to look at technology needs as “what me, or my friends, or my city” needs.

Just as an example, the whole city of Rome (not exactly your typical mountain village) literally lives in symbiotic relationship with their amazingly high number of FM radios. It’s the pulsing hearth of the city, it’s were people meet and discuss. “Which FM you listen” is a typical question.

World doesn’t end at the border of your backyard.

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Oh but I definitely agree I don’t need a smartphone :slight_smile:

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We should open a new thread: “Does my FM radio need to make phone calls?” :wink:

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We’re going down on a bumpy road which will end up with “what’s the meaning of life” :upside_down_face:

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It could be good if FP3 could have a FM Radio.

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And now 18 more characters…

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What I am missing from this discussion is that FM is passive: it doesn’t require a handshake. Finding out that I listen to FM radio takes a lot of technological effort and is impossible after I quit. None of the modern alternatives brought forth so far, with the exception of DAB+, allow that. Privacy is one issue there, power consumption another: two devices streaming the same URL close to each other will double energy consumption (in times of SSL, there are no efficiency gains through proxies), while two devices tuning in on the same FM station only add their own running costs.

So, I wouldn’t mind no FM if I had DAB+ — the latter suffices for me — but pretending that handshake based protocols are Superior for the purposes that FM has been covering for decades is hardly a serious proposition.

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After my FP2 is developing issues (random reboots and not detected SIM cards) and I am annoyed by them, the only reason to not ditch my FP2 in favour of the FP3 is the missing FM radio in the FP3.

And as I want a headphone jack, an exchangeable battery and easy repairability in case of a failing connector, a non-Fairphone would be no option for me.

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Yes an FM radio would make a lot of sense as where I reside for the last 30 years there is little or no mobile signal so I use wifi. As I’m off grid the wifi is not on 24/7 and not even 12/7.

So a radio would be excellent. As it is I use an old Nokia for radio. It seems a crazy idea not to have a radio on a supposedly eco phone :frowning:

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SHIFTPHONES - Nachhaltige Technologie aus Deutschland

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SHIFTPHONES - Nachhaltige Technologie aus Deutschland

I didn’t see an FM radio in the specs :frowning: