Ideas for a range of FP4(+)

It would be great if we get wifi 6e,nfc,5g AND FM Radio /DAB Radio.
Being able to get news in case of emergency and for entertainment purposes makes it a lot cheaper on the data plan.
It is often part of the bluetooth and wifi chips but needs to be connected instead of grounded.
I hope fairphone doesn’t try to save a tiny percentage of a cent and allow classic radio on the phone.

For a phone it would always be nice if it gave access to the encryption algorithm that is used when we are connecting to the cellphone tower.
I really miss an indicator that shows a0-a5 besides the connection protocol (1-5g)

Whatever soc is used, a complete support in the linux upstream kernel by the manufacturer would be great for sustainability.
It is also faster if its not done by the community.

A bigger version is ok, but i wouldn’t vary a few inch -+, lets have 5,5 and 11/13 inch, aka a tablet and a phone.

Maybe you could get inspired by the librem5 and have hardware isolation for the modem, the camera and the microphone via switches to be completely safe from spying in certain situations

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RE FM/DAB radio
Yes a good point, where there is no network or wifi.

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Never heard or read of a Bluetooth/WiFi chip that is capable of receiving FM radio…

Year 2007

Year 2009

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That was more than ten years ago…

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The poco f1 with an sdm845 also covers FM Radio. So do 2021 phones.
I just can’t guarantee how they wired it.

Alright, but these phones have a dedicated FM radio chip built in, no FM/Bluetooth/WLAN hybrid one…

What kind of emergency are you thinking of where you only want to receive and never send?

If that sort of thing worries you, you can receive a cell broadcast as long as 2G is up.

You’d also want to contact your loved ones, so connectivity is preferred.

I wonder how many people are affected by that problem, how often, and their demography. I heard Germany has terrible 4G coverage.

Thinking back, one time there was a power cut in my neighborhood. The 4G of Vodafone was quickly RIP. 2G lasted a lot longer. But another provider, KPN, was still up, with 4G connectivity. Though it def. felt throughput was lower, possibly because half neighborhood was using the network (IIRC it was in the summer).

A DAB/FM radio on battery would’ve worked. As did my e-reader. But something like Starlink wouldn’t work, as it requires a satellite dish which requires power.

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An uninterruptible power supply would be helpful, depending on the duration of a blackout…

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Not a majority that’s for sure but I have no network where I reside and work, mostly 24/7 and wifi only works some few metres away from my workshop.

I may just get a dedicated mobile DAB and accept that such an emergency is so unlikely.

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Right, I had one (used it for a NAS back in the days), but not in use, as it was approx 8 years old. They don’t last very long. Not sure how good they’re for the environment.

For my NAS I went with ZFS on HDD and ZIL/L2ARC on NVMe. Therefore I had to buy a more expensive NVMe which can endure a lot of writes and has a capacitor to quickly write away the last data in cache.

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Of course you want to notify your family that you are safe, but if a storm cuts power or a flood destroys the cell tower you still can get warnings and information via radio which is a lot more robust than mobile cellphones.

Also being able to listen to news and music abroad for free is a cool feature not all phones have.
If that requires wiring and a chip that comes in very cheap, why not just do it?

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It does seem contrary to common sense not to have a radio :frowning:

A modern phone can replace quite a few devices, phone, mp3 player, computer and a fm radio.
The less you need to carry the better.

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Fairphone , please, do a phone in size like the 1 or max the 2. Keep it simple

Or like is suggested , two models, a big one and a small one.

Hi Peks and welcome to the forum

Your a bit late on ideas for the FP4 & I doubt the FP5 will be smaller, if so by very little. As for two models even more unlikely.

However I hope you are aware that this is a user forum and Fairphone are unlikely to see your post.

You can of course contact them with your ideas

support@fairphone|dot|com
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Fairphone 4 SE proposal directed more towards Antoines “smaller version”.

Important features:

  • ~ 400E
  • NO notch or holes, screen should be a simple rectangle
  • 3.5" jack audio port OR USB Y adapter which can also charge the phone while you are listening to music
  • SD card slot
  • front camera for video chat
  • screen should still have the best protection against damage
  • best possible GPS sensor

Price can be reduced by reducing to the following technical specifications:

  • 4GB RAM
  • 64 GB internal storage
  • 5" 720p screen BUT with great brightness/nits for outdoor use
  • back camera: only one lens, only 1080p video

Well, it looks like you describe the FP3(+) :wink:

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:slight_smile: good point, basically I would like to see the FP3(+) continued as an FP4 SE.
The barrier to buying an FP3 today is that it’s the previous model and I wouldn’t know for how long the support for spare parts and software is still available.

Also important here, not that it matters particularly much since in the end this a forum post :slight_smile: Phone should be forward-compatible, that is, 5G ready.

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