First impressions Fairphone 2

Howdy first impressioneers

A terrible joke before : What is a VIP : Very Impressed Person :-))

I guess with only 120 minutes of starting my FP2 it is far too early for real or complete impressions, so I better call it Very First Impression, or VFI of a VFIP , Very First Impressed person . This joke is about impressions that don’t last e.g. like advertising and commercials.

1. Shipping/Package, Assembly and Go-Live

[+] Delivery as expected: Mail notification yesterday and arrival today. Perfect.
[+] One big bonus to me is FPs choice of DPD (“Deutscher Paket Dienst”) instead of DHL!
[+] The paper “README”: Getting-Started (GS) is pretty worth reading. I honoured that decently.

[0] The battery found already connected without a plastic seperation lug. Not sure if this might be risky ?
Notice the GS: It demands to pull battery out while inserting SIM cards . Did you ? I Don’t have microSIM yet.
[0] As described in GS it really was tricky to switch on the phone after assembling the rubber rims and lugs.
This hard going on/off button may become tedious in situations when fumbling blindly for quick access

Remark: irregular on my behalf is my (still) missing micro SIM card. Unfortunately I have still the big one.

[-] During step GS-8 suddenly screen locking happens first time but too quickly. I guess 20 seconds ?
Sorry, why must this be now ? I need the time here. My impression ? Someone pushes me around or urges me.
[-] After pressing shortly on/off button no reaction of touch sensor any more! Obviously I couldnot release locking!
Rebooting so early ?! what else should I do ? 2nd my impression : slightly panic and demanding early support.
Remark: This incident really didnot impress me and I felt not amused about it.

[0] After rebooting the initial setup procedure procceeded exactly where I left after rebooting, so what (happened) ?
[0] Skipping Google-Service (“yes, I can !”) and connecting my inhouse Wifi was seemless.
[-] Next to Edge-Swipe again it blocked me due to screen locking once more and releasing wasn’t possible somehow
Again, I was forced rebooting. I thought I should have better called FP support. However released locking somehow.

Remark: to see my panic here I removed the protecting thin sheet from the display at this moment hoping in vain that this was no software issue. But it was indeed. Or was it a feature to have screen locking on first setup ?

Interim Result: Starting FP2 became to me shocking. It was quite disillusioning. I was reading on the forum for
other incidents becoming quite grave for persons with starting troubles. This phone maybe tricky and even may has potential risks. Maybe this phone is not only new to me but maybe also still kind of new for it’s developers.

2. Hardware / Look & Feel/ haptic perception

[0] Display size not too big, compact design for later modular disassembling. Resolution, contrast checked.
Remark: Looks OK, no complains. Compared to my former 4" display now 5" before it seems to be a smaller enhancement than expected while I didnot have any 5" before.

[+] Speed of hardware, responsiveness
Remark: Yes , here is a positive remark of mine on the fast Qualcomm-801. Maybe only to me who never felt an expensive smartphone before in his hands for more than a few minutes but I like it now.

[-] Accu/Battery, First impression only: Power supply not from FP for charging, if battery may survive my chargers.
Remark: Charging time maybe no 1st impression. Nevertheless same day it went down to 60%. It lasts significantly shorter than my old LG65 that needs recharging (50%) after 1,5 days. FP2 needs charging every day 2x including longer charging times. This downgrade from my cheap LG65 was unexpected to me.

[0] Blue Cover has been an issue of some official FP-excuses because of postponed delivery for blue covers only
Remark: I am sure I wouldnot have been a much earlier receipient (order #7368). I don want to become unfair but I cannot help pointing out to the missing display replacement for FP1 that is acutally out of stock.

[0] Case-Frame: I remember other more solid, sturdy rubber rims. In fact the FP2 looks smarter without them.

Remark: To me there is another issue about the cover because I am missing better protection against display scrapes.
Yes, other smartphones also has no case, covers or transparent sheets for the display as part of the product.
But Pockets, cases and wrappers as accessories are wickedly expensive though they are cheap from production .

Interim Result: There seem to be not much to say about such a simple “case” or cover of a mobile devices. However the special offer of translucent covers became a symbol because FP covers reveal their modular principle. For all mobiles accessories like wrappers against glass scrapes of the display became a hype and a huge merchandising business of the phone industry. Maybe FP missed to make a point for their campaign for sustainability. Even it was only for 2 thin transparent leaf sheets for a few cents to be a gift for every fairphoner.

3. Software / next (first own) steps after GS

[-] Google apps on Lollipop Android (yawning, boring, what a drag)
Remark: I cannot hide my disappointment due to the lean equipment also for the software. Maybe I should remark that I avoid google services in general. In fact for the moment I transfered my apk apps and config files rather by bluetooth from my old phone than reusing googles play store. Also I prefer F-Droid as far as possible.

[-] Software problems waiting for fixing : The weird and wild jumping cursor while touching and flickering display.
Remark: This already known issues reminds me on the illness restless legs with human beeings. I am not sure if this is software or hardware issue. Because it concerns many of all 1st deliveries and it is also a smoking gun about the stage production (still kind of Beta). Cannot believe how this couldnot be fixed before delivery within 1/2 year.

Final Result: Ooohhh-kay! I bought this phone because I like to improve or replace android with better homebrew android as I did e.g. with Cyanogen (later by Sailfish-OS). FP promised to offer open hard - and software. And this promise was kept as far I could see. I bought it for it’s hardware modular system and at least for fair traded ressources and a pension fond for the chinese workers. I didnot buy it for feeling comfortable on 1st impression.

I have to keep that in mind when I compare my 1st impression with the money for FP2. Because otherwise I would send it back and would nobody recommend to buy this mobile phone that may have made sense in 2014 but not in 2016.
Before voting results in detail I have to conclude that the phones longvity doesnot include it’s battery between too many chargings.

4x [+] … mostly delivery points which is a remarkable compensation due to delivery issue of blue covers. In fact there is one [+] left that impresses me due to the fine processor. I hope it is not responsible for too fast discharging, which is the biggest subtraction to me. If so then effectively FP2 wouldnot have even one single + left.

6x [-] … the most sustaining issue to me comes from the battery usage and charging times.
7x [0] … pros and cons are unbalanced quite significantly. However here only concerning my very 1st impression.

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For those who got the phone already: Do you have to charge it first or is the battery already partly charged?

It came partly charged.

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It came partly charged (60%) and you may start the phone while charging. However charging took me several hours.
BTW was the battery for also already connected without seperation lug ?

regards

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Mine also arrived with almost 70%, so I was able to set it up and use it before even thinking about charging it. Then one of my other positive first impressions: super quick charging with the chargers from my old Samsung as well as Nokia phones (appr. an hour from some 20 to some 70 percent), and blasting speed with a 2.1 A Chinese no-name charger that earlier powered my Raspberry Pi.
I am not sure anymore, but I also think that the battery was already connected.

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Hi,

I received my phone 2 days ago. So far, I have no further comments (I have noticed the flickering, the misbehaving apps, the crazy scrolling). Just 3/ further comments/questions:
1 I am using the pre-installed app for emails, it looks like the last email I received keeps being re-marked as unread
2 the privacy impact setting keeps being deactivated.
3 one of the sim cards (drei, austria) does not seem to be recognized (it’s identified as card 1, in the previous phone, it was identified as drei), and I need to activate roaming to use the data, though I am using it in Austria. I guess I have to change the sim card, right?
4 finally, something weirder; after encrypting the phone, I had a problem with the sim cards and the process (sth like com.android.phone is not answering, or sth), the sim cards kept being reactivated. I rebooted twice, and did not even any further problem since (meaning I could not reproduce the behavior).

If anyone can confirm for (3) I should change the sim, I’d be be grateful.

Last word, @anon90052001, @Douwe, and colleagues, I’d just want to thank the fairphone team, for their work, and their patience.

Cheers,

Jeremie.

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I am not sure if your battery (akku) lives maximum time after beeing charged with more than 1 A chargers. Of course only if only use stronger chargers. I guess it works best to use only one and the same charger which should have 1 A.

Well, I think the phone itself decides how much power it pulls from the charger. So basically you cannot use a too powerful charger.

@anon9505190 and everybody else who posts their first impressions here including lots of problems:

Since this thread is A) in the community category and B) very active, it’s not the right place to help you with problems you are having. So please first search the forum for topics about your problems that already exist and for new issues create new threads in the FP2 help category.
Thanks.

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Dear Paul,
Because of first impressions, that I wanted to post, I dont mind you not helping me here, OK ?
never mind
Sorry

Ok… I just got my second FP2 to replace my first FP2 that had lots of reboot and battery problems… (that was fast! thanks support).

Same package, same everything… only the white box isn’t broken this time…

I launched my second FP2 … and it’s been stuck at launching for half an hour now!!!

I had time to launch the old one, wipe data/factory reset, turn on again… still stuck…

This is not going very well… let me try again… battery out and… we’re in!!!

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Good luck!!

I had also problems with FP2, because the display doesn’t shows anything anymore.
But after disassembling it and reassemble it, it works fine now again.

I’m very happy with the FP2, it’s fast enough (better than FP1) and has all (hardware-) features which I wanted.

If there will be an official manual to root the phone and still no update, I will see how to fix some software bugs (SIM-Card colours, different ringtones for each SIM, etc.).

I think the phone is really well done work, many thanks to the Fairphone team!!

One week with my new FP2:

  • the backup works fine with helium. Thanks to the forum
  • after deactivating the “privacy” thing, all apps are working
  • the gps signal is very fast (far better than on FP1U)
  • the phone signal is far better than FP1U. I ever get LTE or 4G speed sometimes and I got a good signal in the mountains, even with data soverage
  • Net Guard does the trick with blocking data with selected apps.
  • a few times I observed the screen flickering, but not really annoying
  • the phone is objectively heavier than FPU1, but subjectively it is not

Overall I am really happy with the new phone.

I am not sure about the battery. I just got max 1 day and a half. But I think, that’s because, it’s new and I am playing around a lot.

I definitely need root (or another way) to block the annoying ads. I didn’t know, there are so many ads, because FP1U was rooted and I installed adaway as one of the first apps.

Some minor bugs in the operating system. I am waiting for the next update.

Fairphone team: Good work so far.

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For rooting have a look at the How to root with superuser thread or the one on compiling FP OSOS + root.

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I’m also basically very happy with my 4-day-old FP2.

  • Flickering is occasionally noticeble but is a very minor annoyance (worst when trying to uninstall an app from homepage)

  • Compass doesn’t seem to work for 2-D map - only for the 3-D version, or is that normal?

  • Battery life is not great. Watch a couple of video clips, send an e-mail or 2 and after 20-30 minutes it’s down from 100% to 81%.

  • The extent to which Google is present is disturbing. Google is a nasty company and it’s sad that Fairphone chose to embrace that road, but I guess they have their reasons …
    But these gripes aside, the FP2 is a beautiful piece of design and a pleasure to use … Well done everybody!

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One more little grumble… my FP2 never charges to 100%. It gets to 97 or 98 and then a messages on the screen says something like 'Will be fully charged in 3 minutes", but the message never goes away and the phone never reaches 100% charge.

Maybe you can have a closer look to some comments about this topic:

Have you searched the forum for this? There are quite some threads about the battery. In particular, this could be caused by this Wifi issue

[quote=“joekafka, post:153, topic:11491”]
The extent to which Google is present is disturbing. Google is a nasty company and it’s sad that Fairphone chose to embrace that road, but I guess they have their reasons …
[/quote].
Do you want to get rid of all Google stuff? In that case, the FP team announced the release of an open-source version of the FPOS without any Google apps or services and it is rumored to be released in the first quarter of 2016. You could also consider compiling this yourself from source code, if you feel confident enough.

@joekafka, alternatively you could follow this thread:

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