I wrote this in a state of total disappointment, after my music playback stopped for the 6th time this afternoon. I am slowly going insane and it might show in the following post.
I happily acquired my Fairphone 4 in the spring of 2022. I was hyped and totally loved the vision of that company - fair production (well, as fair as possible), sustainability inherent due to maximum repairability. “This is great”, I said to myself. Well, what could go wrong?
Let’s skip forward to how my life looks like in 2026:
- My Fairphone wakes me up every morning - because I got lucky and am not affected by the random reboots.
- I get ready and on my way to work. And I can listen to music on the way using my favorite streaming service - how cool is that? Well, not so cool since I can only use that one app at a time. Opening any other app - be it my favorite browser, my favorite navigation app, whatever, also carries a ~40% chance of my music suddenly stopping. Hmm well, so I have to continuously re-open my music player every other minute, only to have my previous app completely reset its state when going back. How is that, you ask? Well, seems like there was some oopsie-doopsie in the update.
- I arrive at work. And for some tasks, I use that built-in Android work profile on my Fairphone. How cool is that?! Well, not so much, since that work profile completely breaks my phone ever since A15 was released. Whatever I do, some background service crashes. It goes as far as the tunnel background service being killed when I open my mail client - meaning I have to wait for some 1-2 minutes. But anyways, a nice short break from work can’t hurt too much. If only it wasn’t for my nerves getting shredded in the process.
- I leave work. Not having used my phone too much, I did not even think of attaching it to a charger during work. Well guess what? Somehow, around 30 minutes of screen time during the day somehow made my phone drain 70% of its battery. Okay, looks like I have to carry a power bank with me whenever I leave the house.
- After work, I commute back home. Since my battery is low and I have to collect a parcel on the way back for which I need my phone, I just put some music on and enjoy the end of my work day. Weirdly, after some minutes, my music just stops. Is it someone calling me? Connection issues? No! Turns out my phone connected to my favorite public transport company’s public Wi-Fi while passing a station - triggering some background activity which unfortunately made my Fairphone kill the app it deemed most useless at that moment - my music player!
- After getting off public transport, I continue my short walk home. Right at that moment, I get a call! I accept the call, only for the other person to tell me the sound quality is terrible, every other word said by me is inaudible, while every tiny molecule of air passing my Fairphone’s microphone can clearly be heard. We decide to switch to texting for now.
- I arrive at the point of pick-up for my parcel. By now, my battery level has dropped to 11%. My Fairphone is doing everything in its power to desperately save the last drops of energy. I barely make it, the parcel is in my hands! I go home with a smile on my face.
Interlude - You might now ask “well your phone is four years old and batteries are known to degrade in capacity over time, you might have to buy a new one”. Well, been there. Done that. No change. I even used my favorite battery health app to track degradation on the old battery as well as the new battery - not a big difference apart from normal degradation rates. Ironically, my favorite battery health app’s background tracking does not work properly anymore - by now you might be able to guess why :’)
- I arrive home. Wanting to relax a bit in the evening, I open my favorite social networking app. Shortly after scrolling a couple of minutes, I find an interesting post and decide to give it a read. My eyes suddenly experience what can be described as an optical stroke. My Fairphone screen just decided it’s the perfect time to go berzerk and emit all kinds of fuzzy touch events: random buttons are being pressed, random up/left/down/right movements happen, the content is being zoomed in and out. After a short episode of total outburst, it decides to do one final downwards scroll on infinite velocity. I find myself somewhere completely else in my timeline. Well, it’s probably healthier to close that app anyways.
- Looking around my home, I remember I wanted to purchase that one piece of furniture. “No problem” I say to myself, quickly opening my favorite furniture company’s website on my Fairphone. Logging in would be easy - if only my favorite password manager’s background service wasn’t dead. So I start my password manager’s app manually to let is also start its auto-fill service. After logging in and filling my cart, I decide to check out. Nice, I can use my favorite payment service for check-out, and in fact I happen to have its app installed on my Fairphone. Glorious! I choose check-out, and am redirected. Since I am not too dumb, I have two-factor authentication set up for my account. So as usual, I open my favorite 2FA app to quickly fetch the 6-digit code. I switch back to my payment provider’s app - and oh wonder, it has been killed. So it is completely re-opening, losing any state and awareness of the current payment process. Sigh.
- So I decide to switch back to my browser, to re-start the payment process in the shop. I like to be prepared, so before checking out, I open my 2FA app first, copy the 6-digit code, proceed with check out, open my payment provider’s app and paste the code as far as I can in the hopes that it is not expired yet.
- After completing the purchase, I sit back relaxed and decide again to listen to some music. So I decide to lean back and let my Fairphone play some music for my via my bluetooth speakers. I am having a nice time until my Fairphone decides to kill my audio player again. I resign and go to sleep.
All of the problems I just described have been discussed in the Forums. In detail. Everyone who spent some time exploring that ecosystem we all live in known of the issues.
What strikes me most is the complete lack of any serious communication or even confession of any problems or mistakes - while many customers are affected and clearly communicated that.
I was lucky enough to dodge that accidental brick due to another “oopsie doopsie" update around Christmas ‘25. Now I am still stuck on the completely broken memory management in FP4’s A15. How is that even acceptable to any manager at this company?! The product is clearly in a (to put it mildly) bad state as there are now multiple parallel release channels, all of which break a portion of the products on the market. How does that fit with the aspiration of providing a sustainable phone?You fixed the hardware aspect of that in a great way, kudos to that. Important parts are easily replaceable. Really, I am deeply thankful to whoever saw the opportunity and gave us the possibility to own such a truly smart phone with great hardware engineering. I recognize the great efforts that were being put into its supply chain, which is in my eyes phenomenal and should be idolized among the industry.
Beyond that, the product and Fairphone’s handling of issues makes the whole thing look like a total train wreck.
Display issues (ghost touch) for a large portion of users? Blame it on software, release a sloppy update months later, claiming it fixes the issue. In reality, it changed the calibration, making the touchscreen quality miles worse while slightly reducing ghost touch rates.
Horrible microphone/call quality reported by a large portion of users? Apparently not a reason to disclose anything or offer any support.
Even worse, some of these issues have been reported across the product line-up. How can you release a new iteration of a product when the new iteration has the same issues as the old iteration? How does this happen?
What I’m also disappointed by is how the support handles requests for any kind of replacement during the 5 year warranty window. In my experience, when reporting the aforementioned issues, the only suggestion they made is “well you can send it in and we will check the phone for issues”. How does that make any sense? Am I supposed to buy another phone while it takes week to send my phone to another country, get it “checked”, potentially fixed, and then sent back? All while I am supposed to backup and wipe the phone completely? Are you even aware that phones are an essential utility for day to day life these days?? How is that a sane way to approach sustainability? Why is there no different offer (free replacement parts, large discount on replacement parts, you name it) for known issues that affect a large portion of the customer base?
Who in their right mind decided this is the way to treat customers who deliberately made the choice to invest in a sustainable, longevity-oriented device ecosystem? Fairphone should try to hook these customers with everything they can, making sure any lasting frustration with their product is being eliminated eventually. This must be the top priority! You must keep the trust your customers provided by buying your product. These people willingly committing to a relatively bad price-to-performance ratio, because they TRUSTED YOU and saw your vision.
You have to know the market you are operating in, and I feel like Fairphone is completely unaware how their handling of all kinds of problems is massively destroying their reputation, and with that, their business model.
Reliability is what it is all about. People use phones for essential tasks in their lives. The product is not reliable. And it turns out, after all, this company also is not.
Very sorry, Fairphone. I am leaving this ship after four years, and I am never coming back. So long…
