Wow, i am so happy with the FP2!
This was exactly what I was waiting for!
The screen: My minimum was 4,8" (my old Galaxy3) 5" is good, but in my opinion it could have been even larger!
The specs: At last a fair phone that is in (or at least close to) the frontline in hardware! It was needed.
The longevity: the choice of a modular construction is great. It will open up so much possibilities! (And yes, more challenges too, but hey, let the Fairphone show the way!)
The price: 525€ is really a good price if you consider what is given! I could have spent even more on a fair smartphone. My phone is my nr1 tool at work. It has to be good, and has to be built without slavery (which is used by the other competitors).
For all of you who complains, please consider the fact that fairphone is a small company that has reached far longer than many expected already!
You already got your cheap, low spec, small screen phone in Fp1 so now it is time for FP to make a new model for us which the fp1 didn’t fit.
I would love the moment when the company can have different models to choose from, and hey, that time is coming! But you have to wait for the heroes at FP, they are working hard to develop their products as the David against Goliaths at the market.
And I am in fact a bit scared about how people talk about smartphones as something you buy on impulse… I think that we have to consider our right to buy advanced stuff cheap and on impulse. That way of thinking is in much built upon a world order of post colonialism. It will be more expensive to buy technology that are produced fair, (the same with clothes, cars, bananas) and that is The Real Price for it. I am glad that the FP company aims at helping us realise this.
@3on GREAT! I can read your excitement and joy from your post. And I totally agree with everything besides the screen size! Your post made me smile and filled me with joy too!
To everyone following this discussion: Thank you for your interesting thoughts. I’m trying to read every post and it is so exciting to hear all of your opinions, whether I share them or not. THANK YOU! It is another prove that the Fairphone community is a good place to be!
While you are right about the real price, we also should not leave anybody behind when access to (mobile) internet is becoming increasingly popular and necessary. It should not be impossible to buy a fairer phone with less income. I think the FP2 is towards the upper limit of a reasonable price for it’s specs. I do not have a problem with this, but i hope Fairphone will be able to lower the price in the future, maybe offering last years model at a discount, similar to what apple does (but cheaper ;-)).
I’m really enjoying the discussion going on here. Thanks everybody. And I especially want to thank those people who have helped make the wiki post so much better. Please help keep this thing up to date if new information comes available, or if new media links are known.
Now, back to the subject. I have one question that has hardly been touched upon. I believe only one of you mentioned it, but it isn’t really discussed yet. I’m talking about the battery.
The FP2 is a big phone. 5 inch screen, lots of pixels, faster chip… and it probably will have to do a lot of work, since we use our phones for more and more purposes every year. Will this 2420 mAh be enough?
FP1 battery life is great. It has a 2000 mAh battery. I sometimes run out of juice in the late afternoon, but only because it had so much charge left the evening before that I neglected to charge it overnight. The FP2 will have a greater energy need, plus more space to house the battery. Will the ~20% increase be enough?
Hi RL1,
what I would like to know from the FP-makers…
Is there RIGHT NOW any chance for changes or is everything fixed and contracts signed and we are discussing the anything for nothing. Even better - aren’t we handing them all the points they need to make a good press-work and/or commercial?
But you are right - I guess the battery should be a little bit bigger, even if the new hardware won’t need that much power (e.g. bluetooth 4.0)
Also, I totally expect there to be a blog post within the next couple of weeks which focuses solely on the fairness of the FP2. Everything released so far (images, info, web pages, etc) has been about the design, the tech and the modularity.
The fairness is a great part of the company, and I believe that the FP team wanted to separately draw attention to their new device as a phone and that new phone as being more fair.
So far, worker welfare, tin/tantalum and recycled materials have been mentioned allmost off-handedly. They have to be talked about more, and there will probably also be announcements that describe how the FP2 is more fair than the FP1 (and not just in the longevity/modularity department).
If they were discussed right now, the phone itself - as a desirable technical device - would get less attention. And then people could think ‘oh we should only want this phone if we care about source materials and workers in China.’ No, people. You want this phone. And shortly, you will also be told to want this phone because of fairness reasons. I can hardly imagine these issues not being given more attention in the near future - and I totally understand that they seem to be given less weight right now.
I pay more for fairly traded goods because it ensures that workers get a fairer cut from their goods. Quality is important too, but I will pay more for fair goods of the same quality as standard counterparts
I have to say this topic is a really enjoyable read. We’ve got all sorts of views in here. A lot of information is still outstanding and hopefully we’ll get it over the coming weeks in new blog posts
That is good example. I think in the early days, people bought FairTrade coffee even if it tasted horrible. Today, most FairTrade coffees also really think about quality. Since people are willing to pay more per Kilo, and assuming producers have a desire to make great products, that is a very good match.
Today we assume FairTrade coffee to be at least as good as middle-to-higher priced coffee. I think most people are willing to pay a premium for the same quality, but the also expect FairTrade coffee to be a good coffee.
Similary, you wont find many Fairtrade clothing producers that do not also focus on the suprior quality of their products. If you buy Fairtrade, you simply come to expect better quality.
I think this is comparable to the Fairphone. And seeing it that way, the FP1 was really great first step. All the complaining aside, it is still the best Android phone i ever had. That makes me hope for great things with the FP2!
@ben It’s one of those psychological things we have to accept: consumers simply aren’t willing to make effort or pay more for products that are morally superior. It’s sad. But fair trade and likeminded companies have started to realize this: people only want the morally good thing if it is also better in the mind of an amoral person. Because in the market place, 98% of people act amorally.
RL1, 2420 mAh isn’t enough, it would be a deal breaker for me. If you look at the Xperia Z1, it has a 3000 mAh battery. Furthermore if you look at the specifications of this almost two year old phone it is superior (Camera, Waterproof, NFC) to the Fairphone 2 and (at this moment) even 200 euro’s cheaper.
I really like the repair-ability and in some way modularity of the Fairphone 2, but it’s definitely high priced if you compare it to other phones. To be a success I think paying 100 euro’s extra for this concept (fair+modularity) is reasonable, and maybe 200 euro’s even is as an early adopter, but than it definitely has to have the same features.
All the components have to be of top notch quality, would I buy the next Fairphone.
I do not know about that number. But possibly, you are right. I listened to a special on coffee in german radio recently with on woman from a fair coffee pioneer talking about the taste of their first few coffee and how bad it was. Still, there were enough people buying it for a “greater” cause. Today, their coffee is relatively well known and said be very good – not a speciality coffee, but very good for the price.
Suprior is very subjective, it depends on your personal needs – yes, waterproof is a cool feature, but i think repairability is an even better feature. And that is very bad with Z1 or S5 or what ever. Speaking of the camera: Sony is selling a lot of sensors to third party manufacturers. We know nothing specific about the camera of the FP2 yet. It might even come with a Sony camera. And speaking of the Z1: The FP2 has a better processor, double the internal storage (32GB), dual sim…
I agree with you that repairability is really nice, but waterproof and even underwater usage are also really neat features. But I understand the importance of features are subjective to a users need so they can’t build a perfect phone for everyone. (For me 16GB internal storage would be enough, you could always get an SD cart when you run out of storage)
Looking forward to more info about the expansion port, alternative operating systems, camera.
@Vinth We were editing at the same time, and then my edit undid all your work. I’ve copy-pasted everything and believe your info is back correctly. Please check. And thanks! What an attention for Fairphone in France.
