✨ Fairphone 5 live stream ✨

As expected by many, the FP4 is now offered at a new price, 50€ lower than before in all configurations. I checked the smallprint and this doesn’t seem to be a temporary promotion, but a permanent price cut. So the grey 128GB/6GB one is now at 530€ (was: 580), the other three versions all with 256GB/8GB at 600€ (was: 650) each.

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…in a store here in Switzerland you get the FP4 with 128GB for CHF 429.00 - its’ tempting somehow, as we need a replacement of our old FP2 and we do not urgently need all the new specs of the FP5. We will think of it, it’s a differnce of CHF 200.00 :wink:

Interestingly Fairphone’s Press Release regarding the FP5 also names a lower suggested price for the Fairphone 5 in Switzerland (699€ vs. 629€). Anyone know what that is all about?

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Yes, I realized that, too. But No, I don’t know why, but it is welcome to me :wink:

Other custom rules? I have no idea. It can’t be the currency, we are more or less even.

Ah well, it’s just the usual fairness of our world I guess. Higher wages, lower prices… :sweat_smile: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Yep, that’s the way it is and runs :wink:
(Except for a certain bank…)

Quite comprehensive video, thanks for the hint.
Hmm, as this feature
is not important to me, I can buy a FP4 some CHF 200 cheaper here in Zurich.

Tax laws as explained

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I’m so happy to see that, because so far all reviews I saw on YT showed a total black screen, which made me wonder if FP made it AoD possible or not. But it looks like it is possible :tada:

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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?

Alkes klar, die liebe MWSt…

A nice simple photo comparison of Fairphone sizes, from Celebrating 10 Years of Fairphone - Fairphone

(Man … coral red always looks so … radioactive in photos! :scream: :laughing: )

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Times are changing, I was so mad about the ‘huge’ FP2 that followed my beloved FP1 :rofl:.

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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?

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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:

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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.

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Tested: Battery removal when device in use

Inspired by the information (to me it was news, I guess someone probably found out long ago and posted it elsewhere) that the FP4 allows usage with the battery removed while being connected to a charger (links to closed Facebook group), I tried this now.

:x: 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.

:white_check_mark: 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).

:x: 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)

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