FP5 proximity sensor

Help Fairphone 5
1

Has anyone experienced the FP5 actually responding to the proximity sensor?

Is this proximity sensor supposed to be active outside of making calls, to prevent input when the phone is in a pocket?

According to the Internet, the fairphone 5 has a proximity sensor. I’ve been using the phone for almost 3 weeks now, and I assumed from the experience of using it that it does not have a proximity sensor.

I have never seen it display any kind of notice about ignoring touch input due to proximity detection like I saw frequently on my Galaxy S9+. If I hover my finger over the 3 little rectangles near the speaker while the screen is unlocked, I’d expect it to give me a warning. I am constantly being bothered by the phone screen waking in my pocket and detecting my thigh as a finger. Sometimes, I accidentally touch the fingerprint sensor when I put the phone in my pocket, and then it is unlocked in there and taking input from my thigh. It has been frustrating to say the least.

I think I may be experiencing some of this:

And I’m also having the tap to wake setting turn off when I restart the phone.
Also, letting specific Messages conversations through scheduled do-not-disturb doesn’t work. The do not disturb settings appear to be such that I could fully automate my silent mode by using calendar events, but the feature is broken!

All these issues along with the screen brightness problem are ruining the experience of using this phone! I feel like I signed up for the level of functionality and bugginess Android had in 2012!

2

Thats adressed here

And overall yes, the phone has a proximity sensor

Dont think thats a FP feature, you might contact support and ask for it.

Contact support and be more detailed what is broken.

What are you referring to?

3

Do you know if the proximity sensor is supposed to block touch input other than while holding the phone up to your face for a phone call?

The other things I mentioned are very well documented here and on Reddit.

4

Well Im not reading reddit so no idea what is documented there and I’m not aware of any screen brightness issue on the FP5 so please exlplain what you mean and/or link the forum topic.

No I dont think so that it should block in general.

5

I was wrong, what I read about the screen dimming was actually about the FairPhone 4. I tried out DC dimming, and with that setting on, I would randomly experience the screen being about half as bright as it should be at every slider position. It would be as if 100% was switched to 50%. The problem would require a restart to resolve, but after turning DC dimming off, it went away. Before the update which enabled DC dimming though, I was finding the brightness control to be buggy. The brightness would momentarily turn up too high as the screen was dimming in response to ambient light decreasing. With the update installed and DC dimming off, the brightness isn’t too buggy.

The do-not-disturb issue is regarding making exceptions in the do not disturb setting for a custom schedule. You can set these exceptions based on conversations in Messages or Whatsapp, and probably other apps. I don’t know if these exceptions work during the normal sleep schedule, but I have tried to get them to work with a custom schedule, and they did not.

This may not be a FairPhone issue, but before I installed all the apps I normally use, my Android Messages app had the message organization feature where it gives you 3 tabs: All, Personal, Business. That feature was present when I first set up the phone, and gone after I went to the google play store and installed the apps I usually use. I never installed Tik Tok.

To prevent the phone from accepting contact with my thigh as touch input, I’ve installed WaveUp and set it to lock the phone when the proximity sensor is covered. It’s certainly not the most elegant solution, but it helps. I also now keep the setting to wake the phone screen in response to notifications turned off. And, I’m not turning double tap to wake on, as I think that was causing problems too. But, those things are both ways that I want to use my phone! It feels like I’m making changes in my life to accommodate for my phone, and that doesn’t sit well with me when the code that can make a phone accommodate being in a pocket was on a phone that I bought in 2018.

I’m going to keep this fairphone 5, but I have come to the conclusion that this phone is both the most repairable phone I’ve ever owned, and it is also the phone that I’m most justified in wanting to replace. So, it’s a paradox really. “Buy it and be glad you can fix it, and at the same time learn why other people are so happy with their ‘disposable’ phones.” I purchased a Nothing Phone(2), and I can’t wait to have notification lights back, and the other lights on the back are going to be useful on a daily basis. I’ve also already confirmed that this phone does block touch input, and display a warning when the proximity sensor is blocked. It also doesn’t force a Google search bar on your home screen home page!

6

I just activated DnD and set WA as exception, and WA notifications are coming through. So no idea about your settings.

Yes there are a few reports that adaptive brightness is not always perfect for all user, however is also very subjective and so difficult to reproduce. without information from the user it will hardly change.

Thats already reported as issue, so will surely be fixed some time. However also for this, to reproduce it helps to have all reports and information from different people.

7

I believe the do not disturb settings are working for entire apps. I specifically meant conversations, and during a custom schedule.

8

And by “they’re working on the issue”, regarding thigh touch screen input, do you mean that they’re working on a feature like every other phone has, where it would block touch input and eventually lock when the proximity sensor is covered? That sounds less like an issue being worked on and more like a feature being added.

9

As far as I can see that setting does not exist for apps like WA…

So well if you really are seeking help, contact support, else good luck with the Nothing Phone what has a different focus, although sustainability is at least some part.

10

Yeah, I think their focus is profits. How else would they end up launching a phone with the software in this state.

What is the point of easily repairable hardware if the phone makes you wish for an excuse to replace it?

11

You signed up for a raw Android?
(“… And it comes with zero bloatware, as clean as Android gets. …”)

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