Fairphone 3 - Interview of Bas from FrAndroid

I have a slim cover since short time but there were any new issues as you have mentioned.
Things like random reboots I simply did not experience with my initial and not with the new slim cover.
I only had one random reboot since I have this phone from the beginning in 2016.

Regarding requests for an USB-C connection in future FP phones I can provide this link:

ā€œhttps://omnicharge.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000663448-USB-Cā€

I have backed this powerbank and at last are glad that theese engineers stepped back and took this issue serious moving back to ĀµUSB.
Otherwise I would had to use any of the other options it offers for charging/discharging the device itself and any other device being attached.

I did not get it why many people think it is neccessary moving to USB-C taking this 50/50 risk for frying any device.
I meet people having smartphones of other brands with USB-C connection not even knowing its advantage over ĀµUSB let alone having one device making use of it beside the charger itself, so whatĀ“s the need beside of another ā€œnice to haveā€ option. (neglecting higher charging currents for quicker chargingā€¦)

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I would like to study the article at length for the purpose of improving my French. Is there a printer-friendly version available?

If you are on Firefox, you can enter the reading mode:

Partly correct - people who buy Fairphones want a fairly produced phone WITH a fair OS - and Googleā€™s Android is not a fair OSā€¦ (and as for the usability a shere catastropheā€¦)

Well I disagree. This forum shows that not all Fairphone buyers have the same profile. Many of them want a fair OS (and most of them are ative on the forum, so it seems that they are a lot), but a the huge majority of Fairphone users go for Android with Google and not for FPopenOS.
Personally, I think like you that a fair OS is important. At the same time, I understand that most users are happy that their phone is produced as fairly as possible but donā€™t care about Android not being fair. You are talking about people using Windows/MacOS, Chrome, gmail/yahoo/hotmail, etc. How many people use Linux and only/mainly open source software?
According to me, Fairphone is right in choosing to work with Android (including Google services), but should also help developing other OS (like they do with FPopenOS, but maybe also by helping other projects). People will choose alternative OS more and more if/when they see how easy it can be and that there are many advantages (like battery lifeā€¦) . FPopenOS is a good example, as it is easy to install and official! As soon as there will be an official way to install Lineage, Sailfish or Ubuntu (for example) on FP, a lot of users will give it a try too!

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Hi everyone,
I bought a Fairphone 2 a week ago and now I am trying to catching up with all the discussions about the Fairphone 3 and the rumours.
I would like to give my opinion in this matter even if someone does not agree with me. I can see that there is a different point of view with every single reply.
I do not have a clue about how the FP3 is going to be, or what Fairphone is doing but I will share here what I think.

I think Fairphone should focus in have an ecosystem for their phones. Starting with the FP2, modularity is a reality (ā€œsort ofā€). Agree that it can be better, but all the time and money, that they have expend in developing this platform, should be used. Some of you talk about a cheaper phone, and other about a completely redesign. I believe that due to the modularity, a lot of things can be done over FP2 platform, for example:

  1. camera improvements. (on the way, although I think the camera is pretty decent)
  2. Battery improvements, new specification with more capacity for example.
  3. New main boards,ā€¦
    With point 3 I am not sure what is not more discussed, instead of a FP3, what not to load the same FP2 platform with some other cheaper main board (since that seems to be the most expensive part). Having two configurations allows to have a cheaper terminal and a middle-high end terminal sharing several common components. (This has been suggested by other people in this thread and other parts of the forum).
    If we want to reduce waste, increase live span and re usability we should think in a platform rather than a fixed phone.
    As an example, a PC can be configured and designed according to your necessities, if those change you can always update the system, you do not need a new screen, or new keyboard, or new power supplyā€¦
    Why not can we do the same thing with a phone?
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Of course you are right in principle. Nevertheless I remember well that we had these discussions about ā€œfair OSā€ already in 2013. And of course I am working with FPopenOS and tried out ubuntu touch (that will be discontinued) and Jolla Sailfish. The latter suits fine but still lacks an email and agenda MS Exchange client, which -unfortunately- I still need for my workā€¦

Great to have the movement involved in the creation of FP3. As FP2 owner, i hope not to need it anytime soon, but my feedbackā€¦ Stake a claim on a FP5G asap - does not even have to have a target date yet, might even be the FP you have already re-launched, but stake a claim. Operators / Service Providers need 5G to be transformative & will invest to hype it up - 5G should be Sustainable & Ethical - delivering UN SDGs / Vision 2020 / etc. Use the Force of the current FP movement and sign up the Operators early to realise the 5G sustainable development promise.
Thanks, Keith

My wish list for FP3

  1. Please please please: NO RANDOM REBOOTS.
  2. Please make a screen that has no bright spots, a microphone that works all the time and, proximity sensor that works.
  3. Spare parts in stock.
  4. FP3 should be a natural continuation of the FP2. Keep the specs in the same market segment (upper middle), keep the price in the same price range.
  5. Make it work in other places: USA and Canada and, Australia and New Zealand should probably be the the next steps.
  6. Sell a lot of phones and take over the world.
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To build a rock-solid, modular smartphone is not easy, and I want it to be reliable as good as possible. And that should be possible when the phone is non-modularā€¦

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I, too, like the idea of an biannual release. If it will be alternating in the sense that the odd Fairphone versions (1, 3, ā€¦) are cheaper/smaller while the even FP versions (2, 4, ā€¦) are more high end. I for example wouldnā€™t have joined the movement if the FP1 had been 500ā‚¬+ phone as the FP2 is.

So, as already has been stated by others, FP cannot please everyone, but Iā€™d say it is a good idea to target at least the low end and the power users.

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Nice discussion already. I think @Douwe is right, not everybody be 100% satisfied with a new model.

I would really like to have some compatibility with the FP2 (SE), in that some modules are the same and use the same connectors. Or, in case the FP3 is a smaller lower end device, i vote for an upgraded FP2: Same display (or 100% compatible), but better camera and faster chipset + RAM.

The FP2 is great for users today, but in (late) 2018, it will hardly be possible to sell the device to new customers. By that time, most new phones will have Android Oā€¦ and expectations regarding performance and camera quality, for example, will naturally be higher.

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I think probably even if the FP3 will be low end FP2 production will be stopped soon after - except for spare parts.

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I hope they are going to care about availability and make preparations to supply enough spare parts for Fairphone 2, otherwise they will walk down the same dead-end street they took already with Fairphone 1ā€¦

I see the progress and plans for Fairphone 3 critical. I have a lot of concerns/doubts because

  1. Unused potential of the FP2 plattform:
    The Fairphone 2 plattform has a lot of potential, so if you say, there is no chance of upgrading the SoC or other components, and just a little chance of upgrading the camera module, so why modularity? Just for repair reasons? I thought the idea of modularity was once to upgrade the plattform modules from time to time to reduce the waste. Without this, it is just for easy repair.
    Whatā€™s with the back connector? No ideas? So why I had to pay for this part?
    Whatā€™s with a better battery? Wireless charging?
  2. Long term availability of spare parts
    If I have a look at FP1 and see the availability of spare parts, I can imagine, that it would become harder to get spare parts in 2 or 3 years for FP2.
  3. Shared human ressources between FP1, FP2 and FP3:
    Fairphone is a very small company compared to other smartphone companies. They just have 100% of manpower and have to decide, whatā€™s important now and which project gets the ressources. So if you take a look at FP1 you see, when FP2 was announced, all manpower was put in FP2, thatā€™s definitly normal, so now there is just a small amount of resources left for FP1, seen in the porting/development of Android 4.4(?).
    So I think itā€™s very realistic that more and more ressources are used for FP3 and there is no time left for porting new Android versions to FP2. So if there a plan for releasing FP3 in 2018 I can imagine that right now a lot of manpower is used in FP3 and FP2 is just ā€œdoneā€?

So FP3 becomes now main priority, more and more developers are solving FP3 problems, porting software for FP3 etc. So my hope was once, that FP2 could be longer the main project, maybe for five or six years. With upgraded modules or ideas like to use the FP2 plattform to release a low cost and a high end smartphone or just things like an online configurator where buyers can choose individual, for example a low cost camera, a high end SoC, a normal display and a bigger battery with wireless charging. Just for example :slight_smile:

So my hope was that FP2 could live next to FP3 side by side with 50:50 shared ressource, i know, sounds naive :slight_smile: and I hoped that the process of innovation at FP2 is still not over, but right now it feels like the end of the road for FP2 :frowning:

Or am I to pessimistic? Just look at transition of FP1 to FP2 to estimate what will happen.

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Yeah, that was the main reason. And itā€™s not ā€œjustā€: in fact it is a huge problem-solver. Just look at the planetā€™s state on electronic waste and what was the first phone to get 10/10 repairability on iFixit.

Well, some people (I included) thought so. But they didnā€™t confirmed that, they just didnā€™t discard it. They had been working on it, but there are (again!) big technical issues and bad industry practices. Systemical challenges, after all. No one can win all battles at the same time. Not excusing them, just explaining the situation. Words are easy.

So deterministic you are here. Businesses and projects, like people, change with the experience. Also, they designed FP2 with other spare parts model, so this is just fallacious (no ofense).

They just released Android 6 with security upgradability in mind, removing Fairphone-specific parts and being more mainline with the Android source. They are currently also working on Fairphone Open OS Marshmallow upgradeā€¦ I donā€™t think they are devoting all their resources into a ā€œconcepting phaseā€ FP3.

Also, there is a whole topic for the ā€œporting new Android versionsā€, with bad-decissions and (tada! again!) systemic industry issues.

Phoneā€™s modularity is not computerā€™s modularity. Not even close.

Solving the world is just so easy, I must go do it right now. Bye!

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Thank you, @Roboe, I fully agree with you. As a software developer and traffic telematics engineer I donā€™t wont to think about, how hard and difficult it could be to design something like a modular smartphone, no one really did before! So Iā€™m a big fan of what they realized with the FP2, itā€™s incedible and they proofed, the concept is working!

So with the modular plattform in mind and all the euphoria, i hoped that FP2 had a much longer maintenance life and the plattform would used for a FP 2.5 or a FP2 low cost or some back connector module cover.

Hmm nahh ā€¦ish! I know, i know, but just think about display, camera, battery, back cover modules. Please let me dream :slight_smile:

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OK, I agree that screen size does matter for many people, whether it is small or large. But the costs should not differ that much from each other, as long as Fairphone do not aim to develop and produce a ā€œfair hightech state-of-the-artā€ display. :wink:

One thing to consider (reading about the ā€œdisplay desasterā€ - Iā€™ll handle my FP1 with even more care now!) for FP3: Use new hardware only when absolutely necessary. A camera is a camera, a display is a display, a USB port is a USB port, after all. And if parts are modular, that should be even less of an issue. The case of your FP2 breaks? Doesnā€™t matter. Any future case will fit. FP3, FP6, FP35: A case is a case.

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