First impressions Fairphone 2

I’ve been fiddeling around with my FP2 all day, installing and configuring stuff, and I really like it.

It charges with two different cargers, from the PC and from 2 different powerbanks. I tried 4 different cables and only one doesn’t work (a non-data cable from a powerbank). I had no problem to use my phone while charging, regardless of the cable or the power source and I’ve tried all combinations. Well, the charging LED only works when the phone is switched off and it won’t switch to green at 100%, but that’s a known bug and doesn’t bother me at all.

Since I still don’t have root access, I decided to get my stuff over from FP1 via the PC and My Phone Explorer. At the beginning, I had some trouble to connect the FP2 with my Windows 7 64bit PC via adb, but by rebooting the PC and installing the adb driver several times it finally worked. Don’t ask me how and why, but it worked and I could transfer contacts, calendar, notes and SMS. My Phone explorer can also backup apps (apks) and other data…

Another problem I experienced but somehow solved is the restricted writing access to the microSD card, where I wanted to save my fotos. To enable the brandnew SD card, I had to choose “erase SD” in the storage settings. Then it was available, but on the FP2 only read-only. Seems to be one of these new “features” of Android 5 :confounded:. Well, trying to create a new folder on the SD with ES Datei Explorer, this app gave me the necessary instructions how to enable writing on the external card. Afterwards my SD was shown in both camera apps (Open Camera and Camera ZOOM Fx) and these asked me for writing permissions and now my fotos are stored where I want them to be.

The phone paired directly with my Reikko Evolution bluetooth speaker and there was no problem with stuttering sound.

One thing I really don’t like is that the two SIMs don’t have different colours anymore. And in general, I liked the notification bar of FP1 (of Android 4) much more. This one is just ugly and I hope I’ll find a solution to change it. I also don’t like the software buttons, but I’m getting used to them.

The only thing that really annoys me is the bug that makes it impossible to use VR-glasses like Google Cardboard. I got one as a new year present and as the hardware of FP1 is too weak for most aplications, I had looked so much forward to my FP2 for virtual reality experience and now it doesn’t work at all :sob:! I know that this will be fixed in the next update, but neverthess…

The camera is much better then the one of FP1. It makes very clear photos of texts (so it might replace my scanner) and the flash is quite powerful. But I haven’t had the time to really take pictures.

Well in general, on this first day, I’m REALLY happy with my FP2 and in most things it’s a real improvement compared to FP1.