I would argue that buying a second hand phone is not necessarily more sustainable. Many people buy brand new phones every one or two years because they know they can sell their previous ones. So you might enable someone else to buy a new phone.
A refurbished phone would be pretty sustainable, I guess.
Anyway, the FP5 looks nice. Still too big though, and still not a word on a more serious focus on security. Long support for security updates does not equal good security (in its entirety). Will it still run OS’es signed with test keys? Will it support Secure Enclave like features? Will they release Android patches faster?
Seeing all these euphoric comments I guess you all have forgotten about the problems that came along generation-spanning. In Fairphone 4 there are still brightness issues (there are said to be solved in October) and since Fairphone 3 there are problems with the display connection to the mainboard resulting in ghost inputs (they tried to masquerade them as software issues but it is obvious that it’s a hardware issue), the ‘fix’ did not solve the problem in general.
So the question is: Will the FP5 suffer from the same problems like the two before? Are the suppliers more bounded so we can expect problem solving actions and do not have to live with problems like the finger print sensor case.
Furthermore the support is anxious for making it very hard getting answers, finding answers and so on and they tend to block issue requests.
With a history like that and no referring statements I can not recommend to even think about the FP5.
I checked the 5G bands used by the providers against the list on the Murena site. The FP5 is missing n40 (used in a few non-Eurpean countries and Lithunia, and reserved in a few more European countries) and n78 (used in Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithunia, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom). The two gigahertz bands n257 and n258 are also missing. They are also reserved in some European countries.
While I can believe that the gigahertz bands are missing for tech reasons, I very much hope that n78 is missing due to an editorial error. Anybody know if this band is really something one would miss?
Does anybody have a source closer to Fairphone B.V. for a definitive list of 5G bands? Or the name of the relevant chip?
I just checked the AGM G2 which uses the same SoC. And this phone seems to support the n78 band. So technically this should be possible for the FP5 as well:
Thank you for confirming my gut feeling that the missing n78 was just an editorial error. And for giving more substance to my feeling that the missing gigahertz band have a technical cause.
The public available specs of the Qualcomm QCM chip however don’t specify the 5G bands. So while the specs of the AGM G2 should be correct, it would have been nice to have an official confirmation.
I just checked the Murena page due to another thread again, and it seems it has been updated to include n78 now. So the assumption that n78 was left out due to an editorial error appears to be correct.
The Fairphone 5 turns black screen and unresponsive when you remove the battery even when there’s an uninterrupted connection to the charger. It will only turn on again after reinserting the battery.
I can confirm the Fairphone 4 report though: The display stayed active uninterruptedly when I removed the battery. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s “healthy” for the internals of the FP4 to do so over longer periods. Just speculating: There might be some “emergency power” mechanism in the device which might not be made for long-term use. Then again, the FP4 switches off instantly when the battery is removed without the device being charged.
The FP4 won’t power on without battery and just charging. A crossed out, almost empty battery symbol with just a minimal red area at its bottom briefly flashes up on the otherwise black screen, that’s all (tested on the stronger of the two chargers, see below).
I also tried this on the Fairphone 3 which just has 2-3 seconds screen time left to display a “… is shutting down now” message.
Note: My charger is a year 2005 iPod charger (USB-A out) which naturally has no quick/fast/superdooper charge capability. I doubt it makes a difference, but you never know.
UPDATE 15:44: Tried it again with another, “just” 8-9 year old charger (output 5.2 V | 2.5 mAh). Same result as with the antique iPod charger (5.0 V | 1.0 mAh). Extra info for FP4 see above.
EDIT on 19 April 2024: Added today photo of active FP4 with empty battery tray (not in picture: the device is connected to a wall plug)
Is the information presented here true or partially false?
I expect at least
Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus® 2 on it.
And certainly not IP55, dust and water resistant, as far as I’m concerned, at least IP68 and MIL-STD-810G.
I finally got around to roughly try the interchangeability of screws between FP3, FP4 and FP5.
Trying it out in practice (screwing them in and out in between all three devices) gives the clear impression that you can screw in each of the five screws into each (Phillips) screw hole of any of the three devices deep enough to make the screw head sit deep enough.
Note: I used a Phillips PH00 screwdriver and tried this with the 1-2 screws in the bottom right corner of each device. The FP3 has just one type of screws, both the FP4 and the FP5 have silver screws (for the modules) and black screws (for the display). I have marked my “test” holes red here:
Thanks a lot! The FP3 has 2 places where it might be difficult, as the backcover would not close, however no issue at all as hardly all will break at once.
Just to make sure someone pointed out the obvious: Please be very careful when using longer screws in a place that was not designed for it! That can potentially damage the PCB or other components under the screw hole!
You got me wrong (but I agree that my message was not very well written). I am not saying Fairphone should not propose a powerful phone.
What I’m saying is that since the FP3, we have every 2 year a new phone which basically is the same than the one before, except a bit bigger, a bit more powerful, with a bit better camera, a bit bigger battery… a bit more fair materials, a bit more recycled, and repairable the same way. So honestly, for 90% of the people, you give them a FP3 or a FP5 and they will barely notice the difference. They will take a few pictures, send them with whatsapp, read some news online, browse a bit Facebook / Twitter / Instagram, use their GPS to go somewhere… All this the exact same way with a FP3 or a FP5 (except a bit faster, with a bit more picture quality, etc).
As the FP3 has a 5 years warrant, buying one now would still be covered.
So my point is, the FP5 is not exciting me, because it does not answer any use case which wasn’t already answered by the FP3 or 4. My suggestion would then be to, every 2 model, try to build a smartphone which is actually different. Smaller, maybe more robust, idk. Basically, to have two offers, a powerful big smartphone like the FP3 / 4 / 5 are, and a small resilient one. Each model would be released every 4 years (basically, one year before the end of the warrant of the previous model), with a delay of 2 years between the models.
To be clearer: the FP3 is a powerful one, released in 2019. In 2021 you would have had the release of the “FP compact” or something like this. Then now in 2023, because the FP3 starts to be outdated, it makes sense to release another version of the powerful model (which is the FP5). Then in 2025 we would have a new version of the compact one.
I think releasing a new version every 4 years when the phone you sell is supposed to last 5 years sounds acceptable to me.
Am I clearer?
2.1 The Fairphone smartphone device, the separately bought Fairphone accessories and replaceable smartphone modules (“Modules”) are covered by this Warranty for 24 months from the date of delivery to the original purchaser.
It certainly doesn’t have a 5 year warranty right now:
Get up to 5 years of cover, for free
Extend the warranty of your Fairphone smartphone from 2 years up to 5 years. This is available for the following products:
Fairphone 4
Fairphone 5: Registration form available from 14.09.23
)
.
The Fairphone 5 turns black screen and unresponsive when you remove the battery even when there’s an uninterrupted connection to the charger. It will only turn on again after reinserting the battery.
I can confirm the Fairphone 4 report though: The display stayed active uninterruptedly when I removed the battery. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s “healthy” for the internals of the FP4 to do so over longer periods. Just speculating: There might be some “emergency power” mechanism in the device which might not be made for long-term use. Then again, the FP4 switches off instantly when the battery is removed without the device being charged.
Note: