Goodbye Fairphone? :-(

It might soon be goodbye Fairphone :frowning:
My FP1 was 4 years when it suddenly died, that was kind of acceptable.
My FP2 turned 2 years this month.
Year 1 everything worked fine, but last spring problems started, and the they seem to be endless.
No charging. New bottom module. Everyting worked well again.
A few months later, no external speaker. New bottom module, but this didn’t solve the problem.
Shipped to France (!) for a new mainboard. Returning from repair everything seemed to work but the phone got very hot. Measuring the surface temperature with a infrared thermometer showed a temperature of 40 drg C. All this heat energy of course drained the battery in 5 to 6 hours.
A few days later I’m again not able to charge this hot phone at all.
Right now I’m waiting for an answer from the support department.
I love the Fairphone-dea, but I also need a reliable phone, are there any alternatives?

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A Fairphone 3(+) :grinning:?

I can really feel with you, as I like the ideals of Fairphone very much, but are not completely satisfied with the products and the customer service they provide.

What is a genuine alternative? Depends on what you are focussing on. There are a lot of powerful, reliable, affordable phones on the market. But their manufacturers don’t care about fair conditions for workers or resources.

There are some products, at least assembled in Europe, Gigaset for example. Or you can have a look on Shiftphone a company that also tries to produce a ‘fair’ and modular phone.

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A hot phone often means that the device is running hard. In my case this was always due to a badly programmed app and uninstalling it always helped, for me. Maybe you are lucky it is also only due to an app?

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I also suffered of a lot of troubles with my FP2, but thanks to an extensive use of the warranty I succeeded to make it work almost 4 years, until I gave it to my father. It’s still working but there are annoying bug and random reboots from time to time, not to mention the too-short battery daily life.

So I crossed my fingers and switched to the FP3 when it was released and I can honestly tell you I have no problem with it. They’ve learned from their mistakes. I had a few falling letter from the backcover, but now solved under warranty, and a few small bugs, all corrected with updated, and they weren’t holding me from using my device at all.

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The apps and the setup is exactly the same with the new mainboard as when I had the old board.
Untill I had the new board the phone was useable all though I couldn’t hear incoming calls and alarms. The battery easily lasted 14-16 hours. Now it’s bricked.

tir. 2. feb. 2021 19.28 skrev Dietmar via Fairphone Community Forum <forum@fairphone.com>:

Although the setup seems unchanged I still agree with @DietmarP that it sounds like some app or the system using unusually high CPU power…
If you have a little bit of technical experience you can enable adb debugging in developer options and then use “adb shell top” in an adb connection to a PC to check the most active process.
If this seems too complicated you could start the phone in #dic:safemode and check temperature and power consumption then. If there’s no problem then it must be caused by some installed app…

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Get fp3 if you prefer android, it just has better engineering in it than fp2, or iphone SE if android does not matter to you. Same price, long support. iphone is a better phone but far less green. I had fp3 for more than a year now and have no issues whatsoever, I even dropped it from a 3m height(in a rubber case).
Since I’m a bit biased I have to mention that a few people have issues with fp3 and the customer support is understaffed the way I see it.
If you do buy the phone make sure to test it thoroughly.

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What do you mean by “test thoroughly”?
Which tests would you particularly recommend?
I’m a burned child with my FP2, which I’ve had for a little over 3 years now.

I meant you got 14 days to change your mind if you find the quality does not meet your standards. Call quality, earpiece as well as loud speaker, video calls, battery, overheating, etc. etc. etc. It’s just smart thing to do.

Thank you very much.
Unfortunately, the errors on my FP2 (multiple up and down in a short time, sudden shutdown of WIFI, failure of the front camera, etc.) occurred only after the 14 days.
I feel very unsure about my decision.
Do you know how many FP3+ have been sold in the meantime and do you know the complaint rate?

I feel the same, and i’m disappointed fairphone is releasing news models and no way to fix FP2 with upgrading modules… So then… still planned obsolescence system…

I don’t know whether your judgement is fair. That doesn’t mean that I can prove you wrong, but maybe Fairphone isn’t already where it wants to be. Maybe the past versions just weren’t ready for “the future” so to say. Maybe they have to reach a certain point, where they release a model that can achieve this everlasting and user specifically upgradable status.

Maybe they won’t and the current situation becomes permanent.

I really think that it’s more or less a bet. If you don’t want to participate in this bet you are free to do so and choose a phone manufacturer that obviously doesn’t want to produce an upgradeable phone. Not to mention the usually unfair production chain.

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No response from Fairphone-support. I gave up. Found a used Motorola G8 power at around 120 eur. An amazing phone. Selling my old FP2 if anybody is interested.

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I really feel your pain - mix it in with this thread End of sales FP2 bottom module - #12 by Alexis_M and you have some very unhappy customers!

My FP2 has turned 5 and a half, but now it has a lot of problems.
No phone before today has lasted this long for me. I will be switching to FP3 or FP3 + soon. I am looking for information and advice on these devices, as I’m not sure it will last as long as my FP2.

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