General Fairphone 3 discussion

There are a few discrepancies between the launch event video, the technical specifications and the coverage in the media…

Does the phone have Bluetooth 5? The specs say it does, the presentation shown in the launch video said it doesn’t (4.2), the media coverage is conflicted on this.

Does the phone come with a “5 year software guarantee” (i.e. updates)? The launch event video says it does, there’s no FAQ about it on the website, the media coverage says it doesn’t…?

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Rome wasn’t built in a day… Also, the community is remarkably creative if they desire. I’m sure there will be an OpenOS or LineageOS port in no time. As a first step, unlocking the phones bootloader is apparently still dead easy, as was mentioned by Tweakers:

Loosely translated, it’s a piece of cake to unlock the bootloader. In the “developers options” menu you can enable OEM unlocking, then reboot in fastboot mode and use the fastboot tool on a connected laptop/pc to unlock.

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That is unfortunately the downside of an easy to open smartphone, it is not stuck together with a strong glue - so it might be not soo waterproved as an unmodular competitor.

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I wonder when it will be released in shops? I live in
Japan but been waiting 4 years for this phone. I only discovered fairphone a few months after buying a new iphone 6s Plus. I still have my iphone and its 4 years old and still hanging on but not for long. Really needs replacing. Anyway my hubby visits Europe often and is visiting Finland soon, I wonder if it will be available there?

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The Bluetooth certification says is will have 5.0 support, so I believe that.

However the Wifi certification says doesn’t list Miracast support, but this is listed on the Fairphone website… I presume Fairphone added it after Wifi certification.

Also, USB is only 2.0, not 3.1 … really?! What year are we in?!

I’m disappointed about the IP not being higher, but 54 was expected.

Hi @Patrick1 yes you’re right, they’re not really modern those water resistant with removable battery phones I found.

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It says “USB 2.0 support”, which I would interpret as it having the ability to talk to USB 2.0 compatible devices, not necessarily that it only supports USB 2.0 (which, I think at least according to the 2.0 spec, would be impossible since USB 2.0 and USB-C (the connector) aren’t “compatible” in terms of specifications)

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Launching Fairphone 3: Dare to care

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Nice overview of the individual parts

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I’ve not found much about the FP3 on other websites yet. Android Authority has a short piece, Techcrunch/MSN has a longer piece which must have been written before the launch and embargoed.

In particular I was looking for info on the websites of partners which were listed in the press conference. Ifixit were there, but nothing on their website. Sky Mobile and the Phone Coop are the same.

I also looked up this VCX score which I wasn’t familiar with until today. The FP3’s score of 64 is pretty good, but not listed on their website yet.

@mheiber I thought that it was possible to have a device with USB-C port only support USB 2.0; I’m pretty sure this was the case with early USB-C devices, e.g. Nokia N1 tablet. However, I hope you’re right that it is at least USB 3.1

Cheers :slight_smile:

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Really nice to see this and meaning the company is growing.

I wonder if the FP3 is designed in a way that it will make it compatible with future cores. Not even know if that is possible. But what i mean is to be able to replace the core, i.e. better processor, 5G compatibility (this is around the corner), etc. And in that way avoid a FP4 and new models every 2 years.

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The technical warranty as stated on the website is 2 years.
I trust they intend to maintain software updates for 5 years…

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Me neither, I always read reviews of cameras on tech websites instead.

More info + their website:

VCX measurements remain 100% objective, open and transparent. VCX employs/use an independent imaging lab for testing and seeks continuous improvement

https://vcx-forum.org/score

They say ‘any phone that can be turned on’, but it’s not clear whether this is also true if you’re sending them a FP

https://www.fairphone.com/en/recycle-your-phone/

Thank you Fairphone for resisting the temptation to make the new phone much bigger than FP2! I am genuinely pleased :slight_smile:

I am a little surprised though to see that it doesn’t seem to be 5G compatible. Or am I misunderstanding?

Did anybody see info about the size (WxLxH) of the phone with its bumper case? From the looks of the phone and the reviews, it seems to me that without bumper it may actually be more fragile than an FP2. So if it is best to use it with a bumper 24/7 (presumably that’s why it’s included), then that’s the size I’d be interested in.

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They at least sold the FP2 via an online shop in Finland:
www.ecosto.fi
And I expect the resellers of the FP2 to offer the FP3 as well.

At the bottom of this page you will find a list of partners:

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I’ve been following Fairphone since the beginning. I’m excited by what it represents. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to use one since FF 1 & 2 were not compatible with the US carrier Verizon. Now that they’ve switched over from CDMA to LTE, I’m more hopeful. Looks like FF3 supports the right bands. But is there any way to verify if it would work? Verizon says they can’t check without an IMEI.

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Has anybody else made the same experience today?
I just ordered a FP3 and selected SEPA payment as payment mode (haven’t submitted the payment yet though). However, my order does not show up in the profile. Now I’m a little concerned. Shouldn’t it show up with “status pending”? Also I did not receive an order confirmation via mail, I only quickly saw my order number which was something like FP1700****. (FP17 at the beginning, so much I can remember). I received an invoice though.