FP1 2nd anniversary

I just realize that people who own first edition FP1’s are nearing the second anniversary with their phones. For a lot of non-FP owners this would usually be the moment where their mobile provider contract runs out and they are considering signing a new contract to get a new phone.

Not so for me, and probably a whole lot of other people too. I’ll stick to my SIM-only subscription and keep using my FP1 for as long as I can use it. I haven’t experienced any degradation in functionality or performance in the past two years, nor did I feel like missing out on anything due to relatively mid-range 2013 hardware or an old Android version.

Oddly enough, there are lots of people around me that complain about their 2 year old (or less) phone no longer being sufficient or even performing less than it used to. Is it planned obscolence or is it a psychological effect?

Anyway, I’m still happy with and proud of my first edition FairPhone and, honestly, for some reason now that my FP1 is (almost) two years old, I feel like it only starts to count for real from now on into the future.

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I feel like you, but I’ve a bad feeling about my power button.I really have to press strongly to activate the phone. Maybe I should send the phone to service for a longer life…

Dosc

Anyone want to top the FP1(U) Longevity Experiment??? :wink:

Not making any hard promises but I am going to try and use the phone for as long as possible. If I were to buy a new phone at some point, there’s a good chance I’m sticking to Fairphone’s offerings anyway.

I’ve had 5 different phones in my life. Two were Nokia “dumb” phones. One broke and the second was replaced by my first smartphone (a HTC Hero). That one broke as well a little less than two years into its life (touch screen failed to work properly making it hard to use) and was replaced by a HTC Sensation through a mobile provider contract. That phone worked OK-ish, but after 9 months or so, it started to just shut off at random moments for no apparent reason. After a search on the internet, it turned out more people had this problem and no one, not even HTC had a solution. I stuck with the phone until my contract ran out. I was then looking into getting a new phone with a new contract because I got really sick and tired of the phone just shutting off, even in the middle of phone calls. Then I stumbled upon Fairphone and the rest is history.

That’s a bit of a long story to say that so far, with the exception of the HTC Hero (which I guess is an understandable move), I haven’t ever had reason to switch phones other than defects. I haven’t experienced any defects with my Fairphone (yeah, the screen broke once after a fall but it was easily replaced) and while that stays true, I stick to my FP. My HTC Sensation didn’t feel slow, cumbersome or limiting in any way two years ago (other than the shutting down problem) and its hardware wasn’t all that less powerful than FP1’s, so I guess if I didn’t have the problem with the shutting down, I’d still use the HTC Sensation. Chances are I’d get seduced into buying a new, faster phone by all the marketing hype, but Fairphone made me much more resilient to that.

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Well… I’m still using mine… but desperately needing my FP2, because:

a) I’m now on my 2nd battery and this current one lasts less than a day on a full charge (and loses the last 20% in less than 20mins…)
b) The phone is really slow, despite having a factory reset (which sped it up great for a couple of days). I’m wondering if the hardware just can’t handle something that’s updated in one of the recent apps. Perhaps Swype?
c) The charging port is broken. To charge it, I have to prop something under the USB connector and weight the phone so the port is slightly bent in the case to make contact
d) It still periodically crashes. It’s done this since I got it, when it will sometimes completely crash during the first 10 secs of a call, or sometimes refuse to wake up from powersave. You can tell it crashes because is appears to lock up, and when the screen eventually comes back, the signal quality icons are showing that it can’t see any anything at all and then both come back.

Hang in there little FP1… it won’t be long before you can be laid to rest!

Maybe there’s some app that’s continually tasking the CPU with something? It could drain the battery and cause slowdowns.

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