Hey everyone, I’m sharing this not to ask for specific advice but more to share my experience. Not sure if this will be super hepful to anyone but felt like it’s right to leave a small note on how my Fairphone experience went.
If I had to TL;DR in one sentence, I’d say the phone was decent, but it left me wanting more. I figured I’d share and see if any of you have had similar experiences, and whether things have improved for you if you tried later Fairphones. I’m at a point now where I need to decide whether to go for the FP5, wait for the FP6, or explore alternatives like HMD.
After almost 4 years (3 years and 11 months) with my Fairphone 3+, I finally ran into the dreaded “sudden death” issue. My phone was sitting on the sofa while I was watching a film nearby, and it just shut down and never turned on again. The battery was fully charged, but I tested it myself with a multimeter, and the voltage was fine for an old battery, sitting at around 3V. The phone showed no signs of life, not even a light when plugged in to charge. The power button also didn’t really do anything. I saw other threads pointing to this German phone repair Youtube channel Smartronik, which explained the “sudden death” problem and suggested a fix by reflowing one of the chips on the core module. With nothing to lose, I gave it a shot—no success. The phone still won’t turn on, and it’s not drawing any power when charged. So, I’ve decided it’s time to move on. Luckily most of my important stuff and authenticators were backed up, so I didn’t lose too much except some recent photos and Signal chat logs.
How was the phone? In general, my experience with the Fairphone was somewhere in the middle.
On the downside: It wasn’t particularly fast, and it was quite laggy. There were times it took ages to wake up, especially after periods of inactivity. The fingerprint sensor was unreliable—could’ve been due to sweaty hands, maybe? Not sure. Either way, I ended up rarely using it. The internet connection also wasn’t always stable; I’d often notice it dropping out, whether on wifi or mobile data, only to reconnect a few seconds later. I also really didn’t like the update from Android 12 to 13 midway through my time with the phone. Android 13 seemed to make the phone more laggy, but I could also just have imagined it.
On the upside: I had some good experiences too. My charging port started acting up (probably due to wear or some dirt I couldn’t clean out), but I bought a replacement bottom module which arrived in like 2-3 days, and that fixed it. I was really impressed by how easy (dis)assembly and change of the bottom module was. The battery life wasn’t perfect but fine for me. Sure, if I used the phone heavily, the battery would drain fast, but after 4 years, I never had to replace it, and it still lasted a full day when not in heavy use. It was also good to see the regular software and security updates even several years after usage, and knowing that 2 new models of Fairphone have been released since then.
Overall, as I said, the experience was somewhere in the middle. On the repairability side, I was genuinely impressed by how easy it was to fix things when they broke, from the bottom module to even reflowing the chips on the core module, when I attempted my “desperate” fix. That being said, for a phone that’s marketed as sustainable, a 4-year lifespan doesn’t seem like much. I was expecting it to last 6-7 years at least (and replaced because of aging hardware, not because the motherboard or core components failed). When the “sudden death” issue hit, I reached out for support and got an auto-reply telling me I’d need to wait 15-20 working days for a response. Not sure who has the possibility nowadays to stay without a phone for that long, especially with apps for banking, messaging, and most importantly authentication. I tried contacting local Fairphone Angels too, but none of them responded. So while the phone is repairable, I feel like it falls short when it comes to diagnosability, if something goes wrong, it’s tough to figure out what’s broken. And without that it seems to me the repairability doesn’t matter much, as the average person won’t have the time, knowledge, or motivation to troubleshoot and figure out what’s happening.
From a tech perspective, the lag and moderate battery life didn’t bother me too much, but the inconsistent internet connection kinda sucked. I would have wanted more in that regard.
I’m a bit disappointed that my FP3+ didn’t even breach the 4 year mark, which has left me with some doubts. But I’d still like to support Fairphone again, hoping they have improved since 2020~. The FP5 seems to address most of the issues I’ve mentioned, at least watching a few reviews and reading some stories here online. And there’s also some rumours of the FP6 coming soon? On the otherside I saw other options like the HMD phones, which are also reportedly quite repairable and apparently outperform the FP5 in some areas.
Would be interesting to know your opinion if you have something to say regarding what I shared here.