I have had a Fairphone 2 for just over two years and I really want to love it but it’s always been sub-standard to my previous phones. I’m beginning to give up and go back to a Samsung
The battery has always been terrible, I’ve replaced it and it was the same. i now have to carry an external charger and even then I can’t get through a day. I’ve just become a mum and it stresses me that I’m then walking round with a completely dead phone.
My primary microphone has now gone again, I have replaced it three times already. It’s great that I can replace it but it takes a while to order one and replace it so I’m without a useable phone for over a week. I can use the loudspeaker but difficult to do in a busy area.
It’s generally slow to do everything, I spend a lot of time closing apps running in the background and even then it takes ages to open the camera, whatsapp and other apps. Often they crash and I get the error message to either wait or close it. This happens over and over again until I can eventually use the app.
I originally spent a lot of time trying to convert friends/family to an ethical and sustainable phone but now they will not even entertain the idea after seeing the problems I’ve had. This makes me sad as I’m not sure we can make a change anymore. I want to love you Fairphone but I can’t!
I don’t think that the battery has been terrible. I think it’s the Android 6
OS with it’s Wifi bug etc. You can find more details in the batteryguide. Battery life is much better with Android 7 on the Fairphone 2.
Yepp I had this problem with a Samsung (S3? don’t know) but I couldn’t replace anything at this phone. I used a headset to make phone calls.
Okay, I think it’s also a problem of Android 6. I think you should wait for Android 7 or you can put LineageOS on the phone.
The most ethical and sustainable phone is a used one which can be upgraded with LineageOS. A really fair, ethical and sustainable phone is something that has not happened before. That’s why the Fairphone is more than just a phone. It’s about the idea behind this product: a social mission. Technically it’s not like other smartphones for that amount of money. The Fairphone means a change in values. The Fairphone works according to the principles of transparency of the open source movement with transparent value chains and supply chains. This makes the Fairphone a matter of appreciation: What values hide behind the desire to own a very thin, a very beautiful or simply the best phone? The Fairphone stands for different values: for a movement and for change. It’s about the idea, not the phone.
There are apps available which cause massive problems and cause battery drain.
Again we had a case of outlook just now, but the facebook app is known to cause massive problems as well.
Generally google apps are well known to permanently phone home keeping the phone quite active and please follow @datenteiler advice for the wifi bug which should take heavy influence on your battery.
I agree with the original post … and indeed many of the replies. My FP2 processor regularly runs at 80 degrees celcius or more; the short battery life is a seriously bad joke; and yes I’ve done a full factory reset and keep apps to a minimum; the back camera has never worked consistently since new, and I’ve missed photos I’ve really wanted due to the dud camera.
FP give the same answer about the processor being known to run hot and plastic parts not distributing heat … and advise that if I don’t use the screen the battery will last longer - so if your car has really bad fuel efficiency and a small fuel tank, don’t drive it and it will be longer between trips to the fuel station. More insulting is FP’s suggestion that if I use the FP2 moderately the battery won’t last all day; whereas the reality is it won’t make it to lunch time. The 15% battery life message means maybe 5 minutes to get to a charger, and then either the charger doesn’t quite connect properly and the battery dies and/or a neck-and-neck race as to whether the battery charges faster than it drains.
So why don’t we be honest? I.e., FP is a fantastic concept, but the design and build quality are significantly flawed.
Thank-you for the suggestion. Like the originally poster I really want to like my FP2, but the cr&p battery life and camera that didn’t work fresh out of the box has been a real stress. And the responses from FP’s official customer service are insulting.
Btw, although the screenshot below says “Samsung” it is from the Phone Info app on my FP2. At least the FP2 will keep my hands warm for a few hours as the cold winter months approach.
Good idea to get a monitoring app, it may help you find out what app is keeping your CPU busy. I recently had a (non-FP) phone that drained the battery in 3 hours and made the phone run very hot. Downgraded one of the installed apps (in this case KDEconnect) to an older version - temperatures went to normal, battery life to more than a day without any other measures than installing a slightly older version of that one app. And this was an app that I hadn’t started when it caused havoc - a lot of apps run in the background whether you start them or not.
Further to my original post, I have been upgraded to android 7 beta version and the battery life has improved. I can now get through from morning to the evening which is an improvement. I would say that it’s still not up to the standard of other phones but at least it now makes my Fairphone usable!
Due to the improved battery life, I decided to pay out for another primary microphone so that is now solved.
Android 7 beta has also helped with the running the apps and they crash less often.
Overall the phone is more usable and so my Fairphone lives to see another day…Again, I want to love you Fairphone and you’re just about hanging in there.
Thanks for your love and open-mindedness.
It’s good to read that positve report. I refrained from installing that beta version; but now I am really looking forward to the update.
I also had the same experience when i bought the FP2 two years ago. I was so proud to show it to all my friends with such a nice transparent cover … which broke down 2 months later. Then i was already feeling awkward about it.
Battery drain and overheat was also a big issue for me on Android 6.
Since the beginning, the camera was unable to focus when recording videos … And the support didn’t even succeed to help me to fix it.
At that time, I was already regretting this purchase, knowing that I could have a better product from Huawei for 300€… My last motivation to keep it was the ethic, and the fact that we could replace the spare parts.
Installing LOS 14.1 with Android 7 helped me to improve the battery and fixed a lot of software issues. I was being happy again …
Until my spare parts have become defective one after the other. After contacting support for each time, i had to replace :
2 camera modules
2 back covers
1 microphone
1 screen
They were all in the warranty. And hopefully I could swith back to my 5 years old huawei (200€) which was still working, for my work in China. But you can imagine how boring it was for me to fetch the spare parts in Europe all the time !
Until recently, I had to replace again the microphone module and the support told me that my phone is more than 2 years old and so the parts are not under warranty any more. So i had to buy it.
This phone is supposed to be long lasting … Right ? Am I just crazily unlucky with this ? Otherwise we cannot call this a sustainable phone, that’s not fair at all … Sorry i don’t believe it any more.
I still believe in this fair market and love this community, but if it means so much trouble for me and my business overseas, I’m afraid i won’t stand it for too Long.
As I said, I really like this community and all the help i can find here, but the hardware itself seems not reliable at all.
