Keeping your phone longer with a refresh on the inside and out

[BertG]

I sure do agree.
Yet I guess, it needs a stable version first, before any reliable information can be given.
With regard to the battery drain, that’s a known weak spot of Android 6 in general. Some enhancements in that department therefore could be expected.
Good to see, that the beta version already shows the improvement.

[Monica.Ciovica]

Hi Patrick, for now we don’t have any concrete information as the beta testing is still taking place. Once the final release is available, we will be able to pinpoint all the improvements.

[AnotherElk]

@Tonny_Hu

Could you tell me when can I buy the fairphone 3?

No, because it wasn’t even announced yet.
And even if it was announced, nobody could say whether availability would be perhaps delayed in the end or not.

The announcement in the blog post / first post in this topic currently still stands:
“So, we’re excited to announce that nearly three years after the introduction of the Fairphone 2, we’re not releasing a new model just yet.”

Feel free to discuss here …

Fairphone 3 - Interview of Bas from FrAndroid

Hi all , I stumbled across this (french) article about the Fairphone 3 : link I seems that FrAndroid was at a conference were Fairphone was a partner, about circular economy, and they asked Bas Van Habel a couple of questions about the FP3 For the non-french speaker, what is says : The Fairphone 3 is in development, scheduled to come in late 2018 It going to be much more “low end” : equipped with a 400 series SoC from Qualcomm (and thus much more affordable…but less future proof IMHO) The F…

[Martina_Zitnik]

Hi!

I’m so eager to buy a Fairphone 2, and my Samsung is slowly dying I’m waiting for the new version of Android. Any news? Do you maybe know is it a matter of one month or maybe three? Thanks!!

[AlbertJP]

It will be released as soon as it is ready and certified by Google. I’d expect it to be there in September, maybe October.

[AnotherElk]

@AlbertJP

I’d expect it to be there in September, maybe October.

Hmmm … by saying “this summer” there’s not much flexibility for choosing a year. But the hemisphere in which this summer should take place was not announced, so there’s still time … phew !

[Rasmus_Jensen]

Hi FP

Would it be possible that you realesed a new chipset? A new phone body, where I could use all the parts from my current FP2, in order to be able to support the newest Android?

Keeping in mind the idea of stretching the life of our electronics for as long as possible, I would be happy to see that option, when you realease a new FP3. Maybe the FP3 should be a FP2XL - a bigger and slimmer phone. But with the possiblity to just buy a new motherboard for the FP2 parts.

I’m really considering buying a new camera + battery to make the phone last longer! BUT I’m also hesitating becasue the “big news” is that the software soon will be a 2 generation old android, because the Q801 is too old for Oreo and Nougat.

It’s just a thought, a suggestion for making the parts lasting longer.

Green cheers from DK
Rasmus

[AnotherElk]

@Rasmus_Jensen

Hi FP

This is a community forum, not the company. Fairphone staff might post something and read along … or not.
Anyway …

@Rasmus_Jensen

Would it be possible that you realesed a new chipset? A new phone body, where I could use all the parts from my current FP2, in order to be able to support the newest Android?

Currently discussed here, feel free to join in …

Can you upgrade the ram/processor?

I have only seen the option to upgrade the camera, but can you upgrade other stuff too?

…

@Rasmus_Jensen

BUT I’m also hesitating becasue the “big news” is that the software soon will be a 2 generation old android, because the Q801 is too old for Oreo and Nougat.

Nougat is Android 7 and it’s coming up, supported by Fairphone … according to the first post of this topic. You can follow the process in the bug tracker.

Oreo was just released for the Fairphone 2 in the form of LineageOS 15.1 based on AOSP Android 8.1, supported by the community. Here’s the LineageOS category of the forum.

[Patrick1]

@Rasmus_Jensen

because the Q801 is too old for Oreo and Nougat.

Where is this from? Android 7 is just in the make by Fairphone for FP2 and it is Nougat.

@Rasmus_Jensen

will be a 2 generation old android

Is this now good or bad?
According to Android version market share distribution among smartphone owners as of in February 2018:

I would say, for a 3 year old device, we are still in a good position with Marshmallow.

[AnotherElk]

@Patrick1

According to Android version market share distribution among smartphone owners as of in February 2018:

[…]

I would say, for a 3 year old device, we are still in a good position with Marshmallow.

In my point of view …

Marshmallow (Android 6.0) would not be a good position to be in because it still has a certain market share, but because it is still well supported by Google concerning security updates (see Android Security Bulletins) … if those security updates reach your device.

Until April Fairphone delivered respective monthly security updates for their Marshmallow OSes, that was a good position to be in, indeed. But since then absolute priority seems to be the release of Nougat (Android 7) … which as of now still didn’t happen, though.
So the position of Fairphone 2 users running Fairphone OS or Fairphone Open OS worsens by the month.
I would bet April security updates are still better than the position of most other Marshmallow-based devices still in use today, but just saying …

OS-wise, Fairphone 2 users running LineageOS (based on Android 8.1 Oreo currently) are currently in a good position as long as the LineageOS community supports the Fairphone 2.
LineageOS gets weekly automatic, not beta tested, updates including Google’s security updates.
But LineageOS users still rely on the hardware firmware security fixes Fairphone gets from the hardware vendors (most importantly Qualcomm), last of which was seen in March. We’ll just have to see the future of that.

[Patrick1]

@AnotherElk

Fairphone OS or Fairphone Open OS worsens by the month.

Yep, I cannot do else than agree.

We FP users are a bit spoiled by receiving regular security updates on a monthly basis.

@AnotherElk

I would bet April security updates are still better than the position of most other Marshmallow-based devices still in use today, but just saying …

Yes, looking at it from the outside - as non FP user. Many may have a more recent OS, but we could read and realize (I have posted on these facts too) that many conventional phone users do not receive regular security updates or their security is only pretended by false update messages. Sometimes only once a year. So even though we did not receive them in the past few months I still think that we are positioned good.

As you say, future will show.

(reedit for a more clear statement)

[AlbertJP]

@AnotherElk

@AlbertJP

I’d expect it to be there in September, maybe October.

Hmmm … by saying “this summer” there’s not much flexibility for choosing a year. But the hemisphere in which this summer should take place was not announced, so there’s still time … phew !

The blog has been updated (Keeping your phone longer with a refresh on the inside and out - Fairphone): mid-September it says now. That’s a more trustworthy news source than my vague recollection of a conversation which I had at the FP office a week ago.

[MVdB]

It is mid-September…

[AlbertJP]

8 bugs were closed on the bugtracker yesterday, so there’s definitely progress.

[Singulus]

I’m missing fixes for the serious ones related to the new camera :-/. Encryption, Shutdown, Reboot to Recovery and so on… is there a new modem.zip / a new baseband in the Android 7 beta, can anybody who is in the beta give some insight?

[RSpliet]

Yep, judging by the number of regressions still open and the pace of development, I personally expect the deadline to shift by a few weeks (and another RC). That is, unless some of the open bugs have actually been fixed already .