Well, assumptions.
If assuming that most of FP users are rather technology affine and capable of posting their issues here - if there is one - , the manageable amount of complaints here is a sign of a normal DOA rate. And as there are phones that have no problems (I had no real software bug), the FP2 does not come [quote=“tkos, post:18, topic:18061”]
half dead to the customer
[/quote] , in general.
But of course those with issues are naturally the larger part in this forum and post more topics (like me. And yes, after a month without phone because … well, see Fairphone 2 camera cannot focus … I am really losing patience now, because of the support, not because of the phone itself. A severe case of getting away with murder of my patience… long story), so we have no facts, only assumptions.
However my support ticket has number over 100 thousand. I could make asumptions with that too, but I dont want to …
And finally, I dont think the title of this post is too serious, so I see no problem with it. Almost. The only problem I have is that I´ll be haunted for the next nights if I do not post this link in here
@freibadschwimmer I’m sorry you didn’t like my title. It was intended to get attention and stand out from the numerous other posts from dissatisfied Fairphone 2 owners. Possibly the English idiom doesn’t translate well into other languages or cultures. It means being allowed to do things which other people would be punished or criticised for. In my opinion this is a very accurate description. In my case I would have sent the phone back within days had I not wanted so much for it to be a success. Even now I am being patient, having had the phone now for three months. All that being said, having finally managed to install yesterday’s software release (which was not easy since the updater app refused to work in standard or advanced mode) the phone hasn’t crashed in almost 24 hours.
I have to make one more statement.
In my opinion, the concept is good, the phone is good, but the OS development needs some more time, that’s ok, but i would love to be more involved in the doings and progress. Don’t get me wrong, i’m pretty impressed what a new/young company has accomplished with the FP2, a fair phone. I just was frustrated, before the last update, not knowing if there is a will to make some bugfixing, don’t know if there is a commitment to the bugs reported. I was missing some understanding, some statements like…we know your problems, we know the bugs, we will care
And yes, the “half dead” was maybe a bit too drastic formulation
I’d say it’s actually the other way around: FP users are generally less technology affine than other smartphone users. A substantial number of users have bought their first ever smartphone with the Fairphone and they are usually older than the average 1st world person when they have their first smartphone (and we all know it’s easier to learn things the younger you are).
I don’t think you need to be very tech savvy to post a question in this forum. I don’t mean to offend anybody but it seems many people manage to post here without even knowing how to search the forum (judging by the 80+ topics created about the privacy impact bug - you can see the topics that link to it in the right column.)
Even though I disagree with your premise I come to the same conclusion.
Totally agree too.
I understand your frustration with the slow support. I can only repeat what has been said in this forum a thousand times: To get a response faster call the support team or post here.
You can join the beta testers if you want to be involved more and know what bugs will be fixed soon.
Just to explain the “half dead” thing (i don’t want to be the bad guy ) here the list of my bugs at delivery:
_T-Mobile SIMs are killed
_screen is flickering
_touch is oversensitiv
_screen is black during/after calls (proximity sensor)
_phone not usable during charging with some chargers/cables
_bluetooth audio with backround noise in my car stereo (but there is a workarond, switch off and on bt on FP2 every time)
_bluetooth audio with interruptions with most of my headsets
_not charging at my notebook in charging mode
_charging at usb port of my car only in mode mount sdcard (can’t play music than, because sdcard is mounted)
_battery drains quickly, phone is getting hot
_handsfree speaker was not usable (ok since 1.2.8)
Maybe there are some more i don’t remember at the moment, don’t even care about such things like idle apps always empty, location icon always there, uncomfortable dual SIM handling
Please don’t see this list as a complaint or critic, i just want some understanding for my frustration
no. Called them. Not having a phone for a month is my problem and, quote, “its not my job to listen to your problem” did not fasten up anything. And I swear, if I have to read the phrase “as soon as possible” one more time … after a month …
FP2 is not a phone you “accidentaly” aquire when shopping in some consumer electronics retailer like its the case with most sold smartphones. You have to buy it online, thus you should be a little technology affine. But of course this as well is only my assumption … I´d really like to know the background of the average FP2 user. Are there statistics available?
Finally:
… well, knowing and doing are two different things. I really hope all car drivers know how to use the turn signal, but dont ask me how many actually do it
At least they found the way to the FP Forum.
… which is in how far an opposition to possible technology affinity?
I know too many teenagers that can barely handle their smartphone for more than texting and gaming. Still they have their 3rd Iphone by the age of 14.
On the other hand a friend is computer scientist and it was a long struggle till he bought his first smartphone. Mainly due to security reasons.
Interest in technology cant be measured by age or when you first invested half your parents monthly salary in a moblile device to be the cooles kid on the playground. Its a decision and I still consider that its likely for someone who actively decided to buy a FP2 to be abled to find and use a forum like this. Even if it is his/her first time.
The key to a 5 day battery life, is what I use my phone for, namely not to connect to the Internet while I’m not at home (I hardly ever feel the need to) but to be able to make a phonecall or receive phonecalls and being able to listen to mp3’s when I’m on the road. Both don’t happen on a daily base, it’s just a kind of backup option. Most of my phonecalls happen with my land-line, most of my music listening is done on my hifi at home and almost all of my internet use is at home on my desktop or on my tablet using wifi.
The use for my smarthphone is mostly the same as my old dumpphone: I want to be able to make emergency calls. And then there’s some people who have the annoying habit of using my mobile phone number when they need me instead of calling me at home, but luckily there’s only two of my colleagues who have that habit. And secondly it’s taken the place of my mp3-player, to be able to listen to music when I’m stressed when away from home and need some soothing.
The third function is an added one: I always have (e)books with my, since I have them on my Fairphone and can read a book if I’m somewhere waiting and feeling bored. Neither standby for phonecalls, nor playing mp3’s, nor using an ebook or pdf-app are power-hungry functions. What’s power-hungry, is the sending and receiving of data, which I don’t use very often with my phone, as I’ll explain below:
So there’s a lot of battery-hungry that can be turned off: everything that makes the phone use antennae to send or receive data: wifi, mobile data, bluetooth and gps I have turned off on my phone. If I want to look at an offline stored map on my phone (I use Maps.me) but I want the map to know where I am, I turn on gps, if I want to look for an adress of a restaurant or feel another need to consult internet, I turn on mobile data, look for what I want, then turn data off again. If I want to update my phone, I turn on wifi at home, then turn it off once I’m done.
With the most-used functions of making calls and listening to music not even happening on a daily basis, my phone is just on standby most of the time and easily lasts 5 days. That’s how.
I spoke too soon in my last post. The phone went 24 hours after the last update without any problems, This morning, however, the screen froze. I tried resetting it (using power button and volume down) . It then died altogether without the reboot menu coming up. I pressed the power button again and it re-started but locked on the initial black and white Fairphone flash screen. Finally I resorted to taking the battery out and replacing it and it rebooted.
How is this acceptable? Fairphone team, if I am one of a small minority having problems then please sort this out for me. @anon48893843 advised me to phone the support team, which I did. I thought he was in charge of the support team. After being given the run-around by Fairphone and The Phone Co-op in the UK I was asked to fill out the online form, which I have done. All I get is a resounding silence . Please someone at Fairphone help me sort this out.
I don’t exactely understand what you were trying to do, but power + vol. down brings you into fastboot mode, which unless you have it connected to your computer, doesn’t get you anywhere but to a black screen with fairphone logo (which is how he fastboot mode looks).
@freibadschwimmer Perhaps I did the wrong thing, although I read this suggestion on this forum before and it has worked for me in the past - I got android menu, allowing me to reboot. The fact is it crashed yet again requiring removal of battery to get it started again. The lack of response is totally unacceptable, especially if you believe Fairphone when they say that problems only occur in a small number of cases. They are simply not being “Fair” to me.
If you meant you wanted to go into the recovery menu, then you need to press vol. up + power. there you can make a hard reset, or all sort of other kind of things.
I don’t see the point in dramatic topics like these.
Is the FP2 perfect? No, of course not, but no (smart)phone is.
Either you like the phone with all its good, neutral, and bad sides and you keep it, or the negatives outweigh the positives and you send it back.
If you keep your device, and you have issues, you need work with CS or with unofficial channels (like this one) on getting those fixed. But there are already topics existing for many if not all the issues you mentioned.
Of your list, I can say:
[quote]_screen is flickering[/quote]Fixed with software update for me.
[quote]_bluetooth audio with interruptions with most of my headsets[/quote]Fixed with software update for me.
[quote]_phone not usable during charging with some chargers/cables[/quote]Works perfectly fine with my chargers. I tried about 4.
[quote]_battery drains quickly, phone is getting hot[/quote]Use 2G and 4G, WiFi, and yes when you are writing a lot of data (e.g. software updates) the battery is drained a lot. There is also some software like OS Monitor which you can use to check what software is running on the background. I for example use a smartwatch, and this costs me hands down 10%+ of my phone battery. On my old phone the problem improved when updating from Androind 5.0 to Android 6.0, but the FP2 runs on Android 5.1 and this version does not have the battery issues Android 5.0 has.
[quote]_handsfree speaker was not usable (ok since 1.2.8)[/quote]Yeah, its OK since 1.2.8. Look if something is fixed in the latest software update, don’t bother mentioning it. Every phone gets reliability and security fixes, every Windows version needs them as well. Its rather nonconstructive to keep mentioning problems which are fixed. You should run the latest version.
@JeroenH I’m not sure to whose post you are replying. I don’t see the point in posts suggesting that people return their phones if they don’t like them. I would like to have a functioning Fairphone which doesn’t keep freezing, rebooting, dropping calls etc. Just now though, I have spent so much effort in trying to get mine to work that I think I would prefer a full refund so that I can go away and buy myself a phone that works. Instead I have to send it to Fairphone for them to repair and will be left without a phone. This Forum is supposed to be for help with the Fairphone 2. I can’t see that you are helping one little bit.
