Here is my short review and it is unfortunately not positive. I compare it with the S5, which I use now since nearly 2 years.
Plus:
• it’s fair
• it’s modular (that is really really cool, the greates + of all)
• two SIM cards
• packaging is really nice, delivery is quick
• crowdfounded
Minus:
• boots much slower than S5
• SDcard slot is a traumatic experience - already killed a 128GB disk completely (no reformat possible anymore, hardware damaged). The two little plastic bumps practically make it impossible to remove the SDcard without breaking a fingernail (or the card) or using a piece of paper to make it slide over.
• the navigation bar (back/home/active apps) uses part of of the screen in all applications - in the S5 this is below the screen - in most other modern phones you can at least hide the navigation bar, not in the FP2 - so this makes the screen much smaller. I’m using the phone several hours a day for practically everything - as most of the people. Why does it reduce the screen size when other phones don’t?
• the camera is bad - i already did not use the FP1 because of the camera quality, many people complained it and now the FP2 again has a bad camera.I will not carry a separate camera with me to make pictures - that camera is not produced fair and I don’t want another device. So in order to make good pictures I will carry the S5 instead of the FP2.
• it’s not rooted - why? why? why? - and: why? - this defies the whole idea of the user taking ownership and control of her/his device and data. The FP1 came rooted and that to me was a extremly cool and positive signal. Why was this signal not re-inforced? This is a huge step back, honestly. Any fumbling around with later rooting manually is something that most of the users will not be able to do. For me the FP-concept was important to support for two reasons: fair & open - but in reality now only fair is left.
• no NFC - also leaves me a bit speechless. Yes, it will come as a later module, etc - but my NFC lock is working already now (with the S5) and I also pay with the phone. Guys, NFC is not a cool nice-to-have toy, it is state of the art and it is missing in FP2!
In summary - this would be an ok first try. But it is the second version. It did not get the needed upgrades (camera), it did not follow the normal development (NFC) and it made deliberate steps back from FP1 (not rooted, SDcard slot). The modularity is just great and I really hope it will allow me to replace the not so good modules (cam, screen) with better ones soon. That it comes not rooted is a political statement which I find hard to digest.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of the FP, I’m all enthusiastic about it (the idea), but the real phone loses when compared to other phones of the same category.
I will not use the FP2 for now, I will keep it as a backup if my S5 ever breaks or if things will get better.
Cheers,
Georg