Disclaimer, it’s all just conjecture, but here is my analysis:
- There was clearly a general problem with Fairphone’s A15 implementation, since all 3 models (FP4, FP5, FP6) had issues after updating to A15, and some of those issues were similar if not identical between models, which points to a similar if not identical cause – Fairphone’s A15 implementation.
- Additionally, for some reason phones on Orange require some special treatment (whatever that is). I don’t know how long you’ve had your FP4, but you might remember we already had at least one case where Orange users had to wait for a while before they could get an update everyone else was already using.
Now for us Orange users this was the perfect storm: Fairphone is still fighting to get a grip on issue #1, and issue #2 won’t be tackled before issue #1 is fixed to a “good enough” point.
Of course it’s annoying to be the red-headed stepchild (Orange-headed stepchild?), but obviously Fairphone needs to employ their limited resources to fix issue #1. Because it affects more users, and also because before it is solved (or at least alleviated) there is no point working on a Orange users version of the upgrade. They know by now their A15 is broken, so there is no point building an Orange version on that.
Yes, the pompous A15 announcement was posted November 5th, 2025, and 3 months and a week later we’re still on A13, but that’s Fairphone for you. At least they know they’re perfect… 