Is the Fairphone 5 still too buggy? I’m keen to support the Fairphone project, but think I’d get too frustrated with show stopping bugs- especially if there is a bottleneck every time a new Android version is launched
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Hello and welcome.
I think it’s hard to tell.
I for example spent quite a long time reading this forum, learning about all the things that went wrong, hearing people venting so I got a bit anxious.
But my FP5 works like a charm, no rebooting, no issues.
Still, there are some people here with different experience so I will not dare predicting your experience.
My suggestion will be to check with some FP users using the same carrier as you do, to learn about their experience.
Plus we are now on first Android for FP5, with five still to come;-)
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If you don’t use AoD then I suppose you’re good. Every smartphone has bugs. The FP5 is quite stable, especially compared to the FP4.
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Yeah, I can only second what the previous posts already said: For me it’s completely stable. The few bugs that I have notice are minor enough that I don’t care too much. I’d say it isn’t any worse than the phone of a Japanese brand that I have experience with in my family.
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All I can help you with, I bought one and use it all day long. And I must say, I’m happy with it. My big hands are happy because it doesn’t feel that fragile like all the others I had. I’m finding out how I want it to have it working. The 5 year warranty and 8 year on software made me deside to buy FP5. And with that this community forum is here with lots of answerds, this one I can take apart and repair, which you cann’t do with al the others. The money is worth the buy for me.
Reading al the ideas here and cleaning up stuff and installing new App’s is inspiring.
Which new phone does not have bugs, at the beginning or later?
Rob
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Rock solid for me, though I don’t use the AoD (always on display) until that bug is fixed.
However, there is also a 5G bug which is as yet unfixed that makes it impossible to use F5 for some people (carrier dependent, I believe, since for me 5G works fine). 4G works fine for those people though, so they’re still connected.
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Thanks to everyone who has responded, I think you’ve actually helped me articulate what my question should have been, which is- Are the FP5 bugs universal or are there people having a good, stable experience?
Forums always attract people discussing issues, but it’s reassuring to know users are having a (mostly) trouble free experience with Fairphones
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I have my FP5 a month now and I have a stable good experience, actually I am very happy with it.
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Very same for me - have it now for a bit over a month, and am really happy with it! Battery life is great (3-4 days with my usage), I like taking photos, and have not experienced any crashes or abnormal behaviour.
If anyone interested in FP5 is somewhat near the Stuttgart area, I am happy to meet you so you can test and feel it.
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Yes, me for one. I’ve nothing to complain about, I’m very happy with it as my new “daily driver” for two months now. 5G works fine (France, Free, but also roaming). Likewise Wi-Fi.
You’re right to remember that forums like this are very heavily biased towards the “problems” side ; few satisfied users write in just to say that they’re happy.
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i’m happy with FP5 (from half of September), is rock stable for me, not have problem with enabled 5G (i’m on T-Mobile CZ, some peoples on different operators/country have random crash problem’s until disable 5G), and not use Always-On-Display (i think all people have battery drain problem with it, but i don’t like it so ok for me without AoD 
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Thanks again for everyone sharing their experiences. I did buy a Fairphone 5 and have to say it’s been rock solid! It’s a bit heavier than I’d like, the speaker isn’t very good but these are compromises I’m quite happy to make. Generally loving my FP5
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You can also consider Murena (e/OS). I never actually used the stock OS, so I can’t tell you in comparison, but e/OS has been rock solid stable for me. I even use the multi-user capability. I can’t say enough good things about the FP5 (in general and) on e/OS.
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One more user here having a satisfying, stable experience. I’m coming from Apple, so not in a good position to say how it compares to other recent Android phones; what little frustrations I have seen, though, feel much more like ‘quirks’ than actual problems.
I’m running an extremely basic, straight-from-the-factory phone, and I expect that many of the problems I read about here may come up as a result of much more intensive use, and having very specific or more complicated software configurations.
An earlier post talked about the number of phones sold, and that raises an interesting question about sampling bias here on the forum. As I have almost no issues of my own to report, and not that much specific troubleshooting experience to share, it’s very easy to go a week or more before I remember to check back in again here. It seems at least plausible that the number of satisfied but quiet users out there may be significantly more than what’s represented here.
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I totally agree with you. I do run Nova launcher as my default but other than that my setup is pretty vanilla and I’ve not had any problems. Hoping that will remain the case when the migration to Android 14 happens eventually…
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My FP5 is running smooth, fast and stable as well - even with about 250 apps installed on it.
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