Two appreciated improvements are
- The hands free speaker on the bottom, away fromn the left hand thumb base
- the volume buttons on the other side
How much is your current phone? As I was pointed somewhere up in this forum, try this math: divide your phone’s cost by the number of effective usage you can get out of it. For instance, a cheap phone, say 120 €, that lasts 2 years, would mean 5 €/month, for a device that can’t have its parts easily replaced, and neither is sustainable (environmentally and socially). If you can use that unfair device for a longer period of time, software will be outdated and pose a risk. I believe all these reasons are more than enough to choose FP 4.
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Engineering a watertight headphone jack in the concept of fairphone is really hard and bigger then you want at least. That was the dilemma Fairphone had.
Bluetooth is something what is delivered on the chip by Qualcomm so not Fairphone is pushing BT but Qualcomm does.
This is getting a bit patetic. We still talk about BT and the Jack? Yes, we know what are the facts, now get over it. Some of you prefer BT and some of you the Jack. FP4 will not change. If you like it and NEED it, then buy it. If not, don’t.
Now let’s get some user reviews to see how it works in the wild life…
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The whole discussion is just about the missing audio jack port (and I personally really don’t care about that).
what I’d like to know: Is there a notification led? 
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Currently there are no indications for this unfortunately. With the screen not being an OLED one (which might make sense due to the burn-in issues they may have) I would have liked to see this simple way to indicate that there are notifications without having to turn on the display.
Looking at my good old FP2 and its shortcomings I’d be interested in these points:
- Energy consumption: From the reviews that are available I read that - depending on the usage of course - it runs for about 1 to 2 days with a complete charge. That’s in the range that my FP2 can achieve, too, with 1 day being realistic and 2 days by almost not using it. The FP4, however, has a battery that is 1.6x as big as the one of the FP2. This question is mainly relevant when charging with a limited energy source (bicycle dynamo charger). And of course a more economical phone emits less heat.
- Received signal strength: Comparing my FP2 with other phones using the same operator my phone sooner switches to Edge or no reception at all where others still have 4G. From what I read the FP3 is already better than the FP2, so the FP4 should hopefully at least not be worse than the FP3. Last but not least this helps saving energy if apps don’t have to reconnect over and over again.
- VoLTE and VoWifi are included in the FP4, so I assume that this works without any issues while the FP2’s chipset supported at least one of them as far as I remember but the software just didn’t support it.
- The same goes for Qualcomm’s proprietary Bluetooth audio codec aptX which could be used for higher quality audio transfer. Here, also the FP3 doesn’t have it. However, this is more a nice-to-have feature.
@anon9989719
yep, that was my own interpretation btw 
but there’s no official statement from fairphone or any review that would show the notification led in action…
@Martin_Anderseck
you can see three darker areas besides the notch:
- 1x Proximity sensor (?)
- 1x Brightness sensor (?)
- 1x something else… (notification LED…?
)
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Pretty sure it’s not a grill, the screen looks solid, so what else could those things be ??
Will have to check some videos
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Isn’t that the speaker you hold near your ear whilst you’re phoning? There’s also a large horizontal line on the top, it has a different color than the rest of the area. Maybe that’s the speaker or a large LED.
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I suppose that’s the speaker…
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For reference: My car was built in the year 2008 and features a Bluetooth handsfree unit which I use with my FP2 flawlessly every single day. If I took a USB cable to plug in and out twice a day, the microUSB port of the FP2 would not last very long. No idea whether the USB-C ports would last longer or not…
Could be, then I suppose not the entire area is used while calling. Else your phone call gets distributed beyond your ear.
Magnetic cable would’ve avoided that. Although they tend to stick less well than wired, which in some situations is desired and in some not.
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Right, it is a different use case anyway, because many audio sources stlll need to be connected with a traditional cable. But a friend of mine already uses his TV with an external Bluetooth transceiver, sitting approximately five meters away and listening over Bluetooth headphones. However, although I am not a big fan of wireless (audio) connections, they absolutely make sense in a car…
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It makes sense for your friend as well, for example listening to radio or TV while cooking, cleaning house etc you can easily do with a BT headset. In such a case you’re not stationary. In a car, you sit stationary. That’s when I find BT less useful. More so because the sound would be at the car speakers via aux-in or USB.
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I neither listen to Bluetooth audio nor FM radio due to my old engine, trying to avoid a permanent damage, but it is possible to use Bluetooth audio with the car speakers, too. And if I am in a hurry, I just fasten my seatbelt and start the engine, no need to tinker with a cable…
The guy I usually drive with to work has the connector in his holder. I don’t know how common that is though.
I think it is pretty common nowadays due to browsing the Internet, but a) it is too much distraction while driving on the road, and b) that can be done on the phone after the car has been stopped, too. Safety first…
I have a phone from 2016 and that was under this price. It was 399 euros and im still using it. But that isnt a fair compare, because phones were more expensive in 2016. Thats a average of 6,66 eurors the month and because its 5 years old you can say thats climate friendly. But its too about that Im just dissapointed. I thought Fairphones would become cheaper each release, because of bigger production and their ideologies to give just the basic needs
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a) Well the specs are a major improvement
b) Phones are still generally going up in prices or at least not going down when higher specs are incorporated
c) Fairphone are still only selling the odd hundred thousand or two, not in the millions yet.
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