About two years ago my old smartphone became unusable because of old age.
It was the first smartphone I owned and I loved it.
It was an LG G4 and by having a detachable battery it was already a dying breed at the time it came out.
Now at this time, the Fairphone was the only smartphone that fitted at least some of my requirements. But looking at reviews I had some doubts. Lacking alternatives, I chose the Fairphone 4. And I decided to wait before I made a review to see how it compares with my old G4 so I would not let nostalgia cloud my judgement.
Now, the biggest advantage of the Fairphone 4 over the LG G4 is the speed. Naturally. So many years have gone by, of course it had to have become faster. Since I have no comparison to other smartphones I consider it decent. So a plus on that side.
The camera was a disappointment. It was faster, yes, but at the same time I liked the old camera app better. It allowed me better manual adjustments and reuse it. I was not able to reuse the manual settings in the new app. I had to purchase a separate app to make up for the disadvantage. That being said: The recent Fairphone upgrade made a huge difference! There are still some problems, but the good now outweights the bad by far. It should have come earlier however.
At that point the advantages end.
Now for the disadvantages.
The missing audio jack is a big step back. Now, I know that having one is not industry standard anymore, but I donāt think you should follow a bad standard! At least I thought maybe target customers who (among others) would buy a phone for its exchangable battery would be more conservative than the usual customer. I guess not. In practice, I had to purchase two dongles. (one for work, one for home) At least one of whom already seems to fail, disconnecting at random times. I am still testing if the same happens to the second one, so I donāt know what is at fault here. Besides that: USB-C at the bottom was never robust to begin with and I canāt fit it anywhere when Iām walking, only when Iām stationary.
Then there is a minor problem: GPS signals are less reliable than with my old phone. It was really a problem when I used it in my car, but I have since purchased a mount that keeps it close enough to the window that it works. Again something I had to buy to make it work. But at least it works now.
My biggest grief with the Fairphone 4 is the lack of a status LED. Now, for the audio plug I can at least understand a little bit why it was removed for space (even though the F4 is much bulkier than the G4 was) but why the status LED? To this day, this lack is getting on my nerves daily. Before, I simply had a look at my phone and knew if I had something to do. Now, every time after I let it out of my sight I have to pick it up and activate it to see if something needed my attention. It got so annoying that I now carry it with me even if I have to get tea or go to the bathroom. It feels like I have now finally become a slave to my smartphone. I have read that there are apps that emulate it on the screen, but that is only viable on an OLED display, and the F4 doesnāt have one.
My old G4 had two SIM slots. The F4 has only one. But thereās the ESIM you might say. And that is true. I now use it. It drains the power now twice as fast but I have read that that may be the case for all Android phones. I donāt know. My problem was that it took a full month until I found a provider who actually sold ESIMs that would work on a Fairphone. That one was not someone I would have chosen, really not! But I donāt have little choice it seems. With a normal SIM I could have chosen anybody I wanted. A downgrade if you ask me.
And finally, the form factor. I consider it awful. Why? I picked it up, tried to type something and it tipped over. I was able to use the G4 (which had 16:9) with one hand without problems. Now I have to use two hands. What I donāt get is what advantage there is by making them narrower. I talked to people at work about that. I wondered if I was the only one who considered it a bad thing. Not at all. Some thought it was for being able to watch widescreen movies. But then they had to admit that for movies they use their tablets, which, ironically, are still mostly 16:9.
Now I realize that this new aspect ratio seems to have become industry standard. And I now have a work phone that is much smaller than the Fairphone and that one really fits well into my hand. But for the larger Fairphone, I think it was a bad choice. Again: If an industry standard is bad, donāt follow it!
Bottom line: I will continue to use the Fairphone 4. I considered upgrading to a Fairphone 5 in order to get the OLED screen but that would cost me a lot of money and would defeat the original purpose of a repairable, long term use phone to begin with.
I consider it usable, but its drawbacks still get on my nerves every day and I still wish I could have kept my old one longer. Some things got better over time (the camera for example) but others didnāt.