Support cannot tell me what they do to fix the ghost touch issue so I doubt there is any real fix. I am pretty sure there is only a software mitigation. If there is a fix and they are unwilling to tell their users what it is then they are acting antithetical to their ethos. So much for repairability.
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Finally someone replied in the live chat (after only 10 minutes wait, Fairphone Support no longer available - #124 by Native for original post). Unfortunately the only solution offered is sending in the phone, DIY repair is not possible 
The answer to my DIY request was that the display will be replaced and some padding will be added, which is not possible to do on your own (“success of a self repair is not guaranteed”) really annoying as this means a factory reset of the phone and (according to support) 14 days without the phone… This is especially unfortunate as e.g. my banking apps require device activations via PIN letters, so quite a lot of effort…
Hopefully the repair will at least really fix the issue…
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What you are describing fits very well to my situation:
- When the phone is lying flat on a surface (not in my hand), it often does not react to input at all. If it does react, it only reacts sporadically, i.e., to some input events but not to others.
- When the phone is lying flat on a surface, it shows more Ghost inputs than when it is in my hands.
- When holding the phone only a bit at the very bottom, ghost inputs seem to happen more often than when I cover more of the phone’s back with my hand.
- I have the impression that your humidity correlation is also true for me.
- I have the impression that your “works better when lying flat on metal surface than when lying flat on non-metal surface” correlation is also true for me.
- Your theory would match with users reporting that the problem became less bad when they tightened screws, or added tape or foam to the connector, as this would leave less space to wiggle.
(I’m using the Settings → System → Developer options → Show taps option to see what’s going on)
The software update did mitigate the issue for me, but not completely remove it. Kind of ass to do a halfway software fix of to safe some bucks for a proper design fault repair and taking responsibility for mistakes… But maybe it did remove it completely for others, don’t know.
So I recently sent it in anyway because on top it started to have GPS issues and the level of annoyance has surpassed my threshold of the annoyance of investing hours of temporarily migrating to a backup phone.
In the end they replaced the display and the motherboard and so far ( few weeks) it seems to be repaired now. So sending in does work. And you get a new shiny display, which is nice and kind of takes off the heat of the frustration a bit.
Offtopic: Unfortunately I forgot to mention the (also common) microphone in phone call issues, which they could have taken a look at also.. Damn. Well, but as I read FP usually is incapable of repairing this microphone issue, I’m not going to send it in for that an just accept that I have a phone which is not very good at phone calls. LOL (And incapable to allow users to limit charge to 80% in order to extend battery lifespan which is kind if ridiculous for a company claiming to do sustainable designs aaaaaaaahh insert sad cat meme here.)
What does that mean for your future decision which brand of phone you will buy?
I think for this kind of decision you have to see the whole picture.
Albeit the rather questionable policies in that regard, the fundamental idea is still great and hopefully they are improving and learning with their future phones.
However, if there are other companies who also take care of manufacturing rights and sustainability, I would consider it. So far afaik Apple does take some care and there’s one other android competitor.
Nevertheless, we do have to communicate our protest about this. I mean, also consumers will punish this by less likely buying again or recommending it to friends (which I will only do with a lot of caveats, telling them about these rather bad practices). I think both will have an impact, even if not seen directly.
Thank you for sharing your opinion on this. Pretty much what I think about that.
Has anybody here recently updated to Android 15? If so, did it have any impact on the ghost inputs, at least as far as you could tell?
Have the 15 update. Input feels better now. Even on non conducting surfaces it works right now.
But since there are other 15 issues, you should wait for the update
I had these ghost inputs and shaking screen, too. My solution was to replace the display by a new one. Now the phone works fine without that problems.
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We have two FP4 in our household with one having huge ghost input problems. The update did not fix it.
Furthermore, both phones are really laggy sometimes now and suffer from the apps beeing killed more aggressively (which causes camera pictures to get broken if you close the app to fast)
kindly dont discuss this here and there is a FP4 topic
I suggest you search this topic for “connector” as this has been found by many to be at the origin of their problems.
I posted a while ago in this thread if you want a little more background.
Ghost touch issues, no. So at least the software fix still works.
Unresponsive screen, unfortunately yes. Especially now that the winter introduces much drier air, I seems to have even more problems with unresponsive screen, sometimes even when holding the phone in my hand… It’s making it harder to hit small UI elementts and the pinch zoom also has been sporadically on strike.
To reiterate my thought from my previous message and the sentiment uttered by other users as well. I can’t really recommend Fairphone to friends and family.
I did however give more thought to my own purchase behavior and might buy an FP6 or its follower when my FP4 stops working (bad enough that I can’t fix it) or stops receiving security updates, whichever comes first.
Why do I still want to give Fairphone an opportunity?… I don’t know honestly, protectionism for the EU market? National pride that the Dutch want to compete against the other handset makers?… I’ve had too many issues with my FP4 for this to be a rational decision but I’ll try another Fairphone nonetheless. The one thing the NEEDS to be better in my next Fairphone is the microphone! If I can’t be understood while on a call perhaps the brand’s name should be Fairtablet rather than Fairphone…
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I have a FP 4 that for the past several days has nearly been unusable. I believe I am experience both ghost inputs and lack of responsiveness as well. I did notice a very slight crack in the screen, really just a scratch, arcing across the edge of the camera so maybe that is exacerbating the middle-of-the-screen down from the camera sketchiness of the display/touch mechanism that others have mentioned. It is rather cold and dry where I am now the past few days. The heaters are on so the air is more dry in my office than in my house. I was about to take the display out and examine things when I tried the developer option of showing touches and I see no issues as of now. Thanks for everyone’s input/discussion.