It is that difficult to speak english ?
Anyway, i was going to put my review of it,i made it in english, but since i’m french, i will post it in JAPANESE just to be sure that you don’t understand it !
So, my review (in english because i don’t have a japanese keyboard):
I have received my Fairphone 2 2 days ago, and since i played with it for the last 48h
hours, i think it’s time for a « little review » :
1/Packaging
The packaging was minimal and the phone was well protected inside, only complain is that the whole « first use manual » could have been recorded numerically inside the FP2 instead of paper, but, it’s fine:)
2/Overall Construction
I have waited less the 30 hours before trying to completely disassemble it:)
I have read that users had problem to separate the screen for the first time, but i didn’t had any problem, for the simple reason that the screen wasn’t properly assembled in factory (it was working flawlessly, but the front facing camera wasn’t perfectly aligned with the hole in the screen).
So, very easy to disassemble, just some trouble with the jack plug that block a bit the removal of the upper
module, nothing terrible.
As an engineer, i love well engineered things, and i have to say that the FP2 is a perfect example of what i love, all modules are very well assembled, with metal threading for screws, dustproof, sealing for open areas like proximity sensor, annnnndddd POGO CONNECTORS ! Why i’m yelling it ? Because they are f****ing awesome ! Every
connectors have spring loaded pins, gold plating and sealing, they are wonderful pieces of engineering, durable, stainless and close to waterproof…except for the camera connector, where the rubber sealing can’t rest around, i was a bit disappointed by this little lack of……constancy :
So except that one connector, the insides are just super cool, and the visible vibration motor is awesome !
When using it, its maybe a bit too large/too thick, but nothing awful, I would have preferred a lower locking
button and a lower camera button, but its more personal felling
3/Chargers
I was also worried by all the persons that had trouble charging it, I tested around some chargers and monitored the charging current with Ampere:
- RAVPower 4 port 30W: 1 A port : 0,98A
2,1 A port : 1,1A
- RAVPower power bank130000: 1 A port: 0,73 A /2 A port:Can’t charge it
- OnePlusX charger (5V 2A): 1 A
- Motorola charger (5,1V 0,85A): 0,64A
- Clevo P150SM notebook: 1 A port: 0,87A/0,5 A port: 0,17A
- Chromecast charger (5,1V 0,85A): 0,65A
- RaspberryPi Charger from Vilros (5V 2A): 1,35A
So, basically all my chargers worked, only the RAVPower Power bank got me trouble, but
only for one port, thumbs up to the Raspberry charger that hold the
record
4/Screen
The screen is really nice the FHD is wonderfull, colors are good, backlight could have
been better, but I have seen worse.
5/Software
The first thing I noticed is the Google supremacy, it’s not the “full featured” package we have: Store, Gmail, Drive, Picture, Maps, Agenda, Music, Film, Camera.
It could have been worse, I got rid of almost all except the Store, my main problem was finding an app gallery that worked with OpenCamera, I found a beautiful app named Pikture (unfortunately not Open Source).
One thing bothered me that was Ifixit App was installed as a system app….
The overall system is very reactive and I didn’t came across bugs other than screen flickering or led, nothing new.
I didn’t really liked the Fairphone Launcher, and i’m left handed, I couldn’t find a way to used the edge swipe from the other side, so I use Nova Launcher.
I love the quick response system, I discovered it ages ago on CyanogenMod 7 (on an Optimus 2X), it’s great to have it again, but the problem is that we can’t see the message we are replying to, and if we go past the 170
character limit, It completely delete your whole message (and I hate when it does that !!!)
I almost immediately rooted my phone, messed around, made the phone almost unusable (don’t worry it happens all the time with me :)) so I had to completely reinstall it and re-root, but its part of the wonderful journey of doing what I want with my phone! After that, I noticed that the widget “i got my fairphone since xxxx” also got reset….so if every update the thing is reset, it’s completely useless, It should have been hardcoded from manufacturing date……
With the help of titanium backup, I made some cleaning around useless stuff, I also installed “Device Control”, an app to control precisely SoC behavior, and that can make automatic tasks to change CPU/GPU
strategy (governor) based if screen is ON or not: it automatically switch to powersave governor and reduce CPU speculative execution, I also changed I/O scheduler to cfq which should be a bit better.
AntutuV6 : 44700pts (nothing unexcepted, performances on pars of other 801AB equiped phones)
I played a bit with Deemo and Cytus, two awsome music game, I din’t noticed any lag,
But the game “unpossible” is a bit laggy when using “high” graphic settings.
No problem for Implosion So overall good performances, but the FHD screen is really heavy on GPU
As some says, even when doing nothing the CPU seems to be constantly busy, and report 50% of usage, that can be greatly lowered ( to 5-15%) by using interactive CPU governor, (instead of “ondemand”) no lag noticeable in everyday usage, but games are greatly affected ( Antutu: 33000 pts)
6/Audio
The Rear Speaker is crap, there is a lot of sibilance and past the 3/4 of volume, it start crackle and saturate…
Audio jack : the stereo is inversed, wich is not cool at all ^^, but the chanel separation is quitely good, the overall frequency response is not too bad IMO (i’m not an audiophile, but i like precision when i listen to classical).
in bluetooth : my MDR10 RBT from Sony is recognized, the commands are working great and the sound is what we can expect from a SBC codec, nothing terrible, but the AptX could have helped.
Microphone : not super good, we can hear my finger a sliding on the backcover, and the overall quality is not awesome, but i rarely use it (i’m using hand free earphone)
7/Wireless
Good GPS fix, good Cellular fix, good ping, good transfert rate, all good
So, to conclude, it’s a great phone ! sure, it lacks some things i liked, like NFC, fast charging, AptX, the battery is probably a bit light for a full day of use, it’s bulky, it cost a lot, but overall, it’s very good, it’s sturdy and robust, and made to last, and thats why i bought it