First impressions Fairphone 2

How about a wiki with known software issues? So if I (or another FP2 owner) encounters such a problem, I don’t need to disturb support because the Fairphone team is already informed and works on an update.

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Isn’t that what the Bug Reports category is for?

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Oh. There is already a thread with known bugs.

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Quick comment on NFC - I use NFC to access my Yubikey Neo. However, this should also work via USB-OTG. But this will be more than just a little inconvenience…sigh… :slight_smile:

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I guess NFC is useful for some users. But why would you buy a phone without NFC and then complain about its lack thereof?

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Lucky FP2 Owners,
would you share some nice pictures?! :smile:

I got my FP2 today. Fast check…!

looks: awseome
size: big
feelings: fairphone
waiting: root access

Shot by FP2

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Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I crawled into my cave and was grumpy for a while and then in the end, regardless what I listed above, still took the FP2 into action.

I never wanted to give it back anyway, I’m a true fan and supporter of FP and I’m happy to have the alternative.

I guess my main shock was that my 128GB disk was destroyed - I know, this has nothing to do with the phone itself, but it really upset me. I now got a new one and that works well (and I had everything backed up).

Also I admit that I know that there is no NFC in the phone when I ordered it (I would even have ordered it without screen) and could have checked the camera beforehand, but that was not my point. I do not want to give the phone back, I wanted to indicate how I experience the phone and what I miss compared to the (quite old) Samsung Galaxy S5.

So yes, NFC and camera are more of personal views. That I cannot get rid of the navigation bar is nevertheless annoying (though I’m already used to it after two days and I do not like to be so easily brainwashed by software :smile:). Booting time - agreed, does not matter and the phone itself is quite fast when working with it.

On the rooting issue - I don’t want to get drawn into a discussion about this. It’s my personal view that it should have come rooted - it’s absolutely fine if other people see it differently, but I guess there are many people reading these threads and trying to get a impression of what the FP2 is and what it is not.

So finally I’ve ordered the third FP2 now, when it arrives the whole family will be equipped with it. If my daughter starts nagging about something missing I will send her here :wink:.

Cheers & Thanks
Georg

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So the other FP2 owner seems to be happy with her/his FP2?

Having recently had to insert and then remove an SD card a few times, I would definitely concede it isn’t very well designed. You have to lift the end up over the two knobs and then slide it out. Not something that is easy to do while holding the phone.

yes, she is very happy. And as I said, I’m using it also now, from which you can deduce that I nag about what I don’t like but still I’m happy. Hope I made nobody unhappy.

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Hi,

After one week using my new FP2 I will share my first impressions:

Delivery:
unexpected fast (30.12.2015). I was surprised to receive the phone before new years eve in Vienna/Austria :smile:

Packaging:
The paperfoam box looks nice, the box was a little bit shifted, but protected the content very well.

Manual:
Basic intro to the phone. A larger manual to download would be helpful (e.g. did not know what the WiFi Icon with “!” stands for)

The phone:

  • calls: much better call quality, than FP1U
  • speed: the phone start takes some seconds but when it is started it runs smooth and fast :smile:
  • display: good resolution, clear and bright
  • touchscreen: much better than FP1U, sensitive, easy to type
  • weight: 174g, it feels lighter than the FP1U
  • Back cover: (in my case black mate) fits very well, it was a bit tricky to fold it over all the edges :wink:
  • Dual (Micro) SIM - I had to get a Microsim from my provider first to use my new phone.
  • MicroSD Card slot - it feels a bit loose and I was not sure if the card is in the right position. But it worked and the card (64GB) is accessible.
  • Battery duration - currently with normal use: 10-12h - maybe I’m using my new FP2 too much and the battery has to calibrate or I have to change some settings (GPS, Brightness)
  • Camera - outside with bright light the pictures are OK, inside with motion there are blurred parts and I hope that there will be a better camera module available soon.

OS:

  • Android 5.1 - I must admit I have to get used to it. It’s a new design and some functions have to be “explored”. Personally I liked Android “Jelly Bean” 4.2.2 a lot, but I think I will get used to “Lollipop” :wink:
  • Apps: some apps (WhatsApp, Evernote) were not running perfectly and had some issues (see other posts) EDIT: I had to uncheck “Privacy Impact”!
  • root: I hope there will be an easy instruction available soon

Summary:
For me it was a bit a challenge to replace my FP1U by the new FP2 (maybe I like my " old" FP1U too much) and to get used to the Android 5.1 look.
The improvement of the call quality is a big plus, also the better processor and the sensitive touchscreen.
I expected a better performance of the camera and the battery. But these are parts that can be replaced easily, so I hope that there will be a solution to improve this soon.

Greetings from Vienna!
Werner

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There is now a topic on this: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/wifi-reconnection-problem/11753

Hi all!

I am writing in the “first impressions” thread, because it was really the very first impression I got from the FP2, before even using it.
I am referring to the postcard that says “My Fairphone will outlast my boyfriend (among other things)” - IIRC that was even somewhere on the phone startup.

That can mean one of two things:

  1. My relationship with my boyfriend is expected to last for a few more years at best - in this case, I’d feel outside the target group at best, offended at worst.
  2. The Fairphone will keep working for decades over decades - in this case, it would have been much funnier to state it as “my Fairphone will outlast my building”.

To the Fairphone team: If you read me, could you replace the word “boyfriend” with something that will make more people want to identify with it (like, “my sofa” or “my car”) rather than going wtf?

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Welcome back! Great to hear.

Quite understandable. Can you elaborate how that happened to help other users preventing such thing to happen? I know 128GB cards are still quite expensive!

I think that is quite funny.

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I agree :slight_smile:

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9 posts were split to a new topic: Cutting out a Micro SIM: Do providers charge for a new SIM?

Got mine today…! it took a bit of time for it to travel across the atlantic :wink:
First reaction, It looks really nice! My son was very curious about the transparent cover.
I’m very happy it feels smaller than what I had envisionned (and feared!)!
So… I leave in the US. While I was cutting the “regular size” sim card to make it a micro sim card I had a doubt… will it actually work (frequencywise)?
Good news: I’m using AT&T and had no problem for it to catch signal (in theory it was suppose to work… but the info about frequencies are sometimes contradictory). It gets HSPA+ signal for data. I’m very happy!
I’m new to android … so i’m still exploring (just found out how to add the french keyboard! yay!).

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As much as I am glad that I finally received my FP2 a couple of days ago, I have to admit that my first impressions where actually disappointing, which mainly refers to the software side of the phone.

First of all, getting my FP2 came as a nice and pleasant surprise. With having an order no. of some 300 and knowing that “my” back-cover color was already in stock, I was wondering where my notification email was to tell me the phone is shipped, after I saw that already over 1000 devices have left the packaging facilities. Then, on Dec. 31st - I was still in bed - the door bell rang, and unexpectedly the post man handed me over a package from the Netherlands. Finally it was here!
I was really very glad to receive it: I already was a happy owner of an FP1, but when in summer my girlfriend’s phone started to look like it won’t do it much longer, we decided that I’d buy me a new phone and give her my FP1. Unfortunately her old phone seemed to have been aware of the originally planned shipping dates of FP2, as it died some time at the end of October. Since I still had my work phone somewhere in a drawer, it was possible for me to use that and already give her the FP1. But then I was stuck again with a Nokia - Windows Phone (which I really really strongly dislike; and I mean not the hardware, which is great!) that only allowed me to use one of my SIM cards. But worse: Lot’s of apps I like to use and having control over my phone was also not an option with that device.

But anyhow, despite waiting for the FP2 for a couple of weeks longer than expected, I finally had my FP2 in my hands!

Alright, so I take it out of the box and turn it on. When I bought the phone I wasn’t yet aware that the FP2 would come unrooted and with Google apps installed, and while I already got to know that before the phone finally arrived, it was pretty much annoying when finally holding the phone in my hands. One of the things I loved about the FP1 was that you had a simple choice of running the phone with or without Google apps. However, when I first turned on my FP2 I realized that it was full with bloatware. So the first thing I did with the phone was browsing several times through the installed apps to be able to deactivate all the bloatware it got shipped with. The next thing I wanted to do was rotting the device, as in my opinion only if you have admin rights to a computer you get the chance to be in control of it. I expected that with the Fairphone there wold be an easy way how to do that. But so far I haven’t really figured how to, although I spent a whole day trying different tutorials from the net, installed the whole SDK to get ADB running etc. Also here in the forum I couldn’t find an easy way how to do it, not even to mention that I didn’t find anything on this issue on the website. Since I was a happy owner of the FP1 and considering the philosophy behind Fairphone that you only own what you can open, I was really disappointed that the phone came as such a closed up device. I would have appreciated if instead of adding bloatware to the pone, the software team would have rather put time and effort into making it easier to open it.

Well, I know this sounds now pretty much like just moaning around. I am still glad that I choose a Fairphone as a new phone, as there are so many other values behind its philosophy I appreciate. However, and thus only referring to the title of this thread, my first impression was simply disappointment.

I really really hope that soon there will be a tutorial available for how to open the software of the phone, so that I can finally get access to what I bought. So far I still cannot use apps and functions that are important to me and to increase privacy etc. on the device. I guess my disappointment originates from higher expectations, after having owned an FP1. But after a week of having the phone in the hand, I still don’t feel that I own my phone.

I know, this is a rather negative first impression I got, but it just honestly reflects my first impressions and feelings. There are of course many great aspects as well, regarding the hardware, so maybe I come up with more positive impressions on that side in the next days :slight_smile:

Let me end this post that I really appreciate the effort the whole team put into this project with a second Fairphone now on the market, and that despite my disappointing first impressions, I would anytime again by a Fairphone if I needed a new phone. I am also looking forward that we will soon also get to know how we can own our Fairphones on the software side.

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Your phone is not biodegradable!

… sorry, couldn’t resist … :smile:

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