I’m surprised to read such repeatedly here while in the Shift Community I read it the other way round.
For rephone: future will show what happens now that Gigaset is insolvent…
And for Shift: they do a lot good things, while their devices show the same struggels than Fairphones with a community that is a lot smaller and a “Flagship” device still running A10 and no updates at all since around a year…
I think that Fairphone has a communication weakness they should address.
A company that has such an ethic footprint shoul be even closer to customers than it already is (and thinking of other companies it’s already quite close).
Sometimes disappointment (such as this one on missing spare parts) could be mitigated by timely responses and information sharing.
Ciao,
Max
That FP users peek at shift and the other way around is probably not rational but more emotional. Issues I experience on a regular basis, maybe even bugs that do nag daily, are perceived more relevant than issues I briefly heared they happen to others in “the other ecosystem”.
From user perspective, it does not make a big difference whether no updates are released or they are released but not easily installable – the latest firmware my FP3 offers is 4.A.0019.1 while https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048139032-Fairphone-3-OS-Release-Notes listes several newer ones. Yes, I could manually install newer releases, but as far as I read it’s a considerable effort + uncertainty (installing some software on a PC, unlocking the mobile, loosing all data so backup + restore are required, maybe banking app refuses to run at all (there’s something with root or the like) or at least not accepting the fingerprint any more,…). Side note: I am still on a 1.5 years old Android 10 firmware 8901.3.A.0136 which causes a bad feeling due to omitted security fixes, but that feels less bad than the fear an update will again make me loose data/functionality that is important to me. If there just was a proper “undo update” feature…
should you be interested in “fixing” this, a new topic would be a good idea. There are many things mixed together in this statement that dont fit together. Just one comment: you will see further updates, once the one offered now is installed.
should you be interested in “fixing” this, a new topic would be a good idea.
Done: List of known side effects of updating from Android 10 to Android 11 or 13?
you will see further updates, once the one offered now is installed.
The update screen does not tell that. It does not even tell it’s an upgrade not an update, so probably the vast majority of users is not aware the installation will switch from Android 10 to 11 with all related effects – some of which are considerable, like effects of Scoped Storage (apps can become unable to access data that was available to them before the upgrade). Ensuring that users can anticipate the consequences of an action is one core requirement of UX (User eXperience) and the feeling of “too poor” UX of the complete “FP package” (hardware, spare parts, software, processes, communication, support desk,…) compared to the marketing & price is to my understanding the core of this thread. And also, how that may be changed 
Hi Dryhte,
That looks familiar to me from the world of (open source) software. Little and not unimportant difference: updating open source software goes is a rapid cycle. You wish your phone to last for 4 years at least…
Cheers,
Cor
(both my wife and me have a PH3 that we bought second hand early this year. So far, so good… )
Mine served me well for nearly 4 years (still usable, we keep it as a spare). That was with only 2y of warranty. For FP4 and FP5 5 years is offered… I fully expect this to be honoured,
That is not to say that things like the FP3 fingerprint scanner cannot happen again - some things are out of control. But I still think this has been blown up out of proportion.
Very nicely put @mpolito1969 (and as an ex engineer and project manager, I also agree your explanation of spare shortages was spot on, thanks). The humanitarian and sustainability side of Fairphone is why, however frustrating the spares sitch gets, I would stick with them; there simply doesn’t seem to be another smartphone with anywhere near the same improved impact, and I don’t need a super phone, just a good enough phone (performance also adds negative impacts). I’m currently sending mine off for repair despite some advice in here to just buy someone’s spare as 1) I have a borrowed phone (not a FP) which will do for now 2) it is totally dead so beyond my repair ability - but hopefully not theirs- and 3) as a sustainability consultant, repair will always come higher up my action list to try first. And the repairers will let me know their diagnosis and can dispose of the phone officially and responsibly if it really is sayonara. So long as the repair is cheaper than a whole new phone, and the repaired phone will last a few years support-wise, the environmental impact is minimised as only the bad parts should get changed, so this is a fab combination of least damage and lowest cost. I like your approach as an Angel- I do much the same in my day job when bidding to clients about carbon footprints!