I am looking into starting a list of cables/chargers we know are IF certified and work properly so customers can have reference.
We’ve had such lists for example with FP2 compatible headphones and it has proven beneficial for both forum users and our customer support to refer to.
Waiting on an initial list from the product team here.
8 Likes
I just ordered TOPK AM61 18W / QC3 magnetic USB-C. Will report once I figured out of it is going to work (I hope it will). Btw, it is much cheaper on AliExpress than Amazon or their website.
4 Likes
Hi, any update on this please?
When you get it I would appreciate information also on how it fits with the bumper case.
Received them Thursday 5th. Been trying them out the past days.
They fit perfectly well in the bumper case, and stick out just one mm or so (it looks far better than FP2 + magnetic cable). Minor thing perfect, but they’re reasonable in the middle as well. It is a bit tough to get it out because of lack of space (would not want to do it without nails), so if you swap a lot between magnetic and non-magnetic this might be a downside. I consider it an advantage.
However, when I plug it in the charger (official FP3 charger, TOPK cable) the FP3 does not say “charging fast”; it just says “charging”.
They’re far better than the round magnetic cables, and the LED can be put on the bottom or the top side. If it is on the bottom side, I don’t notice it before I go to bed. The LED is just useful to find the cable at night.
As an illustration, the FP3 is now at 65% and it says it takes 30 min till it is fully charged. Whether that is accurate or not, I don’t know.
[EDIT]It got to 93% in about 30 min[/EDIT]
I bought the new Samsung 45 watt charger, supporting Power Delivery 3 and Quick Charge 4 Plus.
These are the charging speed results from 0% to 100%, while the Fairphone 3 was shut off:
010 Min -> 10 %
020 Min -> 22 %
030 Min -> 32 %
040 Min -> 43 %
050 Min -> 57 %
060 Min -> 67 %
070 Min -> 80 %
080 Min -> 88 %
083 Min -> 90 %
085 Min -> 91 %
090 Min -> 92 %
095 Min -> 94 %
100 Min -> 95 %
105 Min -> 96 %
110 Min -> 96 %
115 Min -> 97 %
120 Min -> 98 %
130 Min -> 98 %
134 Min -> 99 %
140 Min -> 99 %
150 Min -> 100%
The so called Samsung “Super Quick Charger” does support the same 5 Volt with 3 Ampere 15 Watt charging like the official Fairphone 3 charger. There shouldn’t be a difference in real life charging speed.
If you look at the data, you’ll see, that at the end it takes a full hour to charge from 92 % to 100 %. -> That’s Fairphones “Eco Charging Mode” which can’t be deactivated.
The Snapdragon 652 supports Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0, but the Fairphone’s software doesn’t.
For comparision: My girlfriends Galaxy Note Edge (3000 mAh) in 2014 took exactly 83 minutes for a full load, with the old Samsung 15 Watt quick charger.
Even my Galaxy S5 (2800 mAh) with the 11 Watt charger reached 100 % after 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Please keep in mind, that charging is not just a speed challenge.
The slower charging at the end was introduced for a reason. Charging the battery always full at maximum speed, does - to my knowledge - reduce the lifetime of the battery essentially.
And a charge of 90 % after 83 minutes is just good to start with, as - again to my knowledge - the battery is lasting the longest when it’s kept between 20 (start recharging) and 80 % (stop charging). I myself never managed to keep that range, but I normally don’t charge above 90% and start recharging around 10 to 20%.
6 Likes
I’m not a Fairphone fanboy. I wanna have options.
Even with the Galaxy Note Edge in 2014 you could activate and deactivate the fast charging feature inside the menu.
The Fairphone 3 got a replaceable battery. You don’t have to buy special tools or bring it to a repair shop. The battery itself is cheap.
Fast charging is more of a problem for people, where the battery can’t be replaced anymore within a few seconds.
If you care about maximizing the numbers of charging cycles for the battery without the loss of capacity, than use an old 5 Watt charger (5 Volt/ 1 Ampere) and you’ll be happy.
I don’t need the “dictation” of the Fairphone company, if I wanna charge my cell phone fast or slow. I’m a grown up, able to deside myself, what to do or not.
By the way: Yes you are right, that 90% charge should be enough for most of the people.
For the other people a spare battery should solve the “problem”, especially with an external charging device.
Powerbanks are a compromise solution.
1 Like
My argument has absolutely nothing to do with being a fanboy.
You don’t seem to be a fan of sustainability either, if you consider a replacable battery an argument for wasting batteries more easily.
That is not, what the Fairphone concept is all about.
Their approach is about reducing waste and treating ressources responsible.
That’s why they are “dictating” the charging, as you call it. (I have no idea, if this really can not be turned of, if one so desires.)
And 150 minutes for a full charge - in my humble opinion - is still good enough, when you get 90% within less than 90 minutes (starting from 0).
3 Likes
I used my Galaxy S5 more than 5 1/2 years before I switched over to the Fairphone 3. -> Buying new batteries and using your smartphone longer is reducing your “ecological footprint”.
At the official presentation of the Fairphone 3, one journalist asked, how many people are still using their Fairphone 2. -> Well, it were less than 20% of the sold 2nd generation Fairphones.
This is the number of Fairphone 2 owners, that still downloaded the latest Android security updates from the Fairphone servers.
I wouldn’t call 80% inactive Fairphone 2 devices very impressive.
It’s much better to use a smartphone for 6 years and to replace the “quick charged”-battery two times, instead of buying 1 or 2 more new phones.
By the way: Even if the “old” Fairphone battery is down to 50% of the original capacity, I still can use it as a spare battery for longer travels.
It’s not “garbage”. That’s the big difference if you use a “modern” smartphone by manufacturers like Apple, Huawei or Samsung.
The replaced battery of those phones can’t be actively used anymore and needs to be recycled.
It’s a big task for the industry to develope new battery technologies, with much more charging cycles without the loss of capacity and also faster charging. #ElectroMobility
I wouldn’t call 80% no longer updating the phone inactive users or phones.
E.g. I am a quite happy user and still on Android 6, which is by now quite outdated for the FP2.
And the chance is, that there are lots of users like me out there, as the updates stopped at one point working automatically, unless you manually updated the updater app. That’s not exactly great of course and could be critizised. On the other hand, they advertised, that Android 7 is available. I still did not upgrade, because Android 7 in the beginning had quite a few bugs, that kept me away.
To cut it short. This percentage is really not giving.
And I was not referring to the advantages of a changeable battery, but to your statement,
That - to me - sounds like: Battery replaceable and cheap, so fast charging with wasting the battery is no problem.
And it still is wasting ressources unneccessarily, which is against the Fairphone basics.
Well, when it comes to cars etc., I agree. When it comes to phones, I am not so sure, that faster charging than 2 hours is really needed. I can’t remember the last time, when I was so long away from a plug, that the phone died, because I could not charge it for 2 hours. Of course I forgot charging ever once in a while, but then - on FP2 even without fast charging - it took just an hour for reaching a reasonable charging status.
But that’s of course all my personal attitude.
1 Like
Hi, I just wanted to charge my new FP3 and noticed a problem. When I plug it in the yellow light appears (charging, I suppose) and then the light goes off and a “P” appears in the top line of the screen (from left: mobile net, time, P). I don’t have a manual explaining FP3, don’t know if there is one out online perhaps? Anyway, I don’t know what the P means and the phone is not being charged. Tried it with two different cables, same result (first yellow light, then nothing). Can anybody help please? Thank you!
I have solved the problem, so just in case anyone is interested:
apparently, if you enable USB-Debugging mode, the phone does not charge. I deactivated it, charging went ahead.
1 Like
The phone is charging fine with USB debugging enabled for me.
OK. mine didn’t. The disabling of USB debugging was the only alteration between not charging and charging.
Some people ran custom OS such as LineageOS.
I bought the FP3 2 weeks ago together with the USB cable from FP and I noticed a couple of days ago that my phone didn’t charge over night like it used to but I didn’t pay more attention to it cause the next time I charged it everything was normal. Last night I plugged it in and noticed that the little battery sign didn’t show it was charging but the yellow light was on so I figured it’s gonna charge - noticed this morning that it didn’t charge at all. My debugging setting was deactivated the whole time, I didn’t mess with it at all since I got it.
This is extremely annoying cause I bought both the phone + charger from FP directly and it didn’t even last two weeks (there were already problems with the speaker too). What now?
1 Like
If the “P” looked like in this screenshot, it should stand for Android Pie (see Wikipedia link for logo). It only appeared briefly on the FP3 I’m holding here currently, right after the first reboot following the December update.
1 Like
Update: I tried another charger (not the original one from FP) and it worked now, so the phone doesn’t appear to be the problem at least. I’m wondering still why the FP3 reacts to the FP3-charging cable by showing the yellow light but not charging and why it broke down after only 2 weeks since I bought it together with my FP3…
yes, that is what the P looked like, thank you!
(Sag Hey Google??)