The FP1 was my first smartphone and initially I liked the basic ideas behind it.
That is long gone now.
For the money I got a pretty bad phone where GPS never worked (yes I followed all the tutorials how to improve it), a very bad camera, broken movement sensors which mainly produced jitter, a very randomly working touch screen etc. (I actually went back to my ages old Sony Ericsson after a while, that at least worked fine as a phone).
While I liked the fact that it was rooted by default. it is also stuck with this now ancient Android version with security issues and approaching obsolescence.
The one time I needed support when my phone got bricked, they were just sending me pre-made template answers that did not help me one bit - I wasn’t even sure if they read or understood what I wrote.
I found a solution on the forum in the end, but support did definitely not live up to it’s name.
Almost all of the idealistic concepts went overboard. The only things left are some micro-grams of tantal and tin and some relatively small niceties for the workers. Other than that, it’s just as much electronics-waste as every other phone.
I became very wary from this experience towards people who have more idealism than brains.
While it all sounded good, in hindsight I should have become suspicious by it actually sounding too good. In the end it was totally upside down: Too much sexy webpage, too much blabla, too much social media hype, too much “we change the world one phone at a time” but way too little knowledge about actually building a phone and making it sustainable.
A smart phone is by definition bad for the environment, wasteful and non-sustainable, bad for the mind (by making people depend on it even for the most trivial stuff), bad for social life, bad for the eyes, makes people poorer by draining them in micropayments, bad as can be for privacy…
So I would say that making a “Fair Phone” is an utterly idiotic idea from the getgo.
The only thing it does is to give people who are at least partly aware of how bad “smartphones” actually are a thin coating of feeling a bit better than when buying something else.
Like painting the local coal-driven power plant white.
Makes all the difference, doesn’t it?
Sure.
Sure I can understand the decision if you have financial stability trouble.
But this, this means you’ve lost a customer. I don’t see myself buying a fairphone again now. I’ve put my trust in this and you have stepped on it, even begrudgingly. This blows.
Sad, but to be expected since we’re almost a year after the initial planned date for the android update.
As I’ve said before, I’ve backed the project because of the thoughts behind it and I still stand behind my choice, eventhough it meant paying more for less uptodate technology and accepting problems without complaining ( bluetooth, battery charging, uncompatible apps), The intent of FP was to build a serious compatible phone, which has only partly been achieved.
My FP1 screen started having problems recently ( my own fault, don’t keep it in your hand when running and sweating ) so I had to buy a new phone.
I didn’t buy a FP2 as I don’t want to spend that kind of money on a phone anymore. It would have been nice to have a bigger discount on the FP2 as a FP1 backer, but I accept that for this type of company there’s no room for that kind of promotions.
I’ll keep following what’s happening with Fairphone. Happy to have been a supporter, hope all goes well with FP2 and FP3.
Today Fairphine ceased the suppurt of FP1. I can’t even buy a new batterie - instead my FP1 is working still well. Why should I order a FP2 now ? Because its camery modul is’nt rather better than the poor of FP1? Because of its long waiting time? Or should I wait until FP3 is deleveloped perhaps in two years? - So much inconvenience for a fairly high price! Fairphone seems to do everything to drive out confident clients to other -conventional- brands… I really like your idea of a “fair” phone, but I cannot support its slow and inconsequent realisation.
I can’t think of any realistic excuse for not having spare parts (and especially batteries). If there’s one subject one doesn’t need any knowledge of building smartphones: if you want them to last you do need spares. So they should have been in the same order as the very first batch phones.
And thanks for the encouraging remark about having learned lessons (meaning I paid for the FP2 ).
But given the lack of FP2 spare parts, I doubt if the lessons were fully understood…
It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just produce a number of batteries that will be sufficient to supply all customers for a long time. Once a battery has been laying around for a few months it’s pretty much worthless.
I think they planned to order batteries when they needed them, but they did not expect that nobody would want to manufacture them in those low quantities.
That’s not correct.
1- Li-Ion batteries can be stored for years without any (noticable) degression.
2- At least one second batch of batteries (the version 2/2100mAh) has been produced. By than FP should have known the demand was high (especially as the original (version 1/2000mAh) batteries were of a fairly low quality: I used 3 of them, and my 2 version 2 batteries have no issues whatsoever.
You might also have to consider that stock space actually costs money.
If you buy ten years worth of toilet paper because there is a discount, you’ll have to rent an extra storage space and that will eventually eat up all the money you have saved.
It is impossible to forsee exactly 1) how many of which parts will be needed so in the end all parts die at the same time 2) at what time the demand for what part will drop below the ammount needed so an external producer will produce it for a reasonable price.
I really see no point in this discussion, especially since I’m sure the people at Fairphone who discussed this extensively have 1) more knowledge of the matter 2) more data available about what quantity of which part is needed and 3) at least as much interest to keep the FP1 alive as we all do.
They did all they could, lost time and resources trying to provide us with something that they couldn’t in the and and I’m sure they feel misrable even without you blaming them for things they had no real power over.
As one of the first F1 users I’m glad I’ve never needed maintenance on my phone, but it’s a pity that there will be no Android 4.4 for the F1 since I can not download some apps I really like to use.
Yes, it is!! Never had a problem with it. The only thing that I had to replace a few times was the case, but since I can print them myself on my Ultimaker 3D printer it was fun to do.
One question that I would like to ask (have not been using the forum in a long time): does any of this feedback actually reach the Fairphone team, maybe Bas? I would like them to know what the general opinion about this step is (they probably can guess). Again, not to blame, but to improve future development and I think some direct responses to the feedback here might be helpful or just a sign of good faith.
I can say that most of the team reads along as this topic is very important to us. Many of the feelings of disappointment are shared by the people working at Fairphone. Many of us joined the movement in the crowdfunding phase and brought their Fairphone 1 to their job interview. Some of us still use it, even if they can get a FP2 for free as a company perk.
No one at Fairphone is happy with this. But we are proud of what, with all limitations and the optimistic naivety that is part of a startup, we were able to achieve and will continue achieving.
Rome wasn’t build in a day and neither is the perfect Fairphone. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying.
Also, I want to thank everyone for taking time to share your views, opinions and experiences. It shows that the Fairphone is more then just a device. It stands for something bigger that matters. You are heard and we take it very serious.
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