Hi all first post on the forum, and looking for some answers to a few questions
Im currently running a pixel on graphene os, originally coming from long term IOS devices. I decided 18 months ago to shed all ties, to tracking and privacy intrusion from big tech. So I went down the rabbit hole removing apple and Microsoft from my life. The phone is the last piece of the journey.
Im drawn to the FP 4 as the battery is easy to change, almost like the old Nokia I used to have,
Id carry a spare battery and change them on the fly, also like the option of configuring the phone without Google services. I dont do anything like playing games or other taxing things with my phone. I basically need phone, sms, encrypted messaging (Molly) and calendar function. I value privacy more than the availability of apps for everything, and prefer to run Foss apps, where I can. My Graphene OS Pixel ticks a lot the boxes, but all of the pixels have a reputation for poor battery performance, which is why I am looking into the Fairphone, and the 4 in particular.
so my questions are : -
Is the FP4 still a useable device in 2026.
How does EOS run on it, responsiveness and battery life etc.
Is EOS fully degoogled.
Are the Later Fairphone a lot better devices.
Should I dismiss the FP 4 and go to a 5 of 6 and forego the ability to change battery on the fly for better performance
I advise you to do some reading here in the fourm and on Murena documentation and forum and get your own picture. No one can do tvis for you and give you the full picture.
Having a FP4,5,6 I would not want to use the FP4 as daily driver. The FP5 btw still has an easily replacable battery same as the FP4.
FP5 has the same ease of changing battery on the fly as the FP4. It is newer which means that it should get updates later than the FP4.
Never used eOS but have some experience with CalyxOS and iodeOS - both worked fine for me. I prefer CalyxOS but I consider it a personal preference.
Weather deGoogled LineageOS-based ROMs are more or less secure / private / degoogled - you can read very much different yet highly convienced opinions out there, on the www.
I’m using my FP4 from day one since 5 years with self-flashed e/OS/. For me it works well as my daily driver. Your need for replacing batteries would be a disappointing experience though as the back cover keeping the NFC antenna is made of 100% recycled plastic does not like being taken off and refitted too often and the tiny nibs will easily break.
In sun light the display may not meet your max. brightness expectations. But everything works snappy for me and the provided camera app supports the full 48MP range.
In all these years I never met any problems with or after updates, they all went flawless and over time some quirks simply got fixed and improvement were made without any fuss. Have a search in this forum about Fairphone users experience how Google Android updates and problem fixes are dealth with.
But since support is quite poor I decided against a FP6 and got me another new Shiftphone 8.1 as cashless pay device. Surely nothing I wanted to do all in one device.
You can be pretty sure about this. I think they are technically ahead of Fairphone meanwhile and
their principle for longevity is somehow more complex. Generally their idea “is” upgradability.