The latest blog post about longevity sounds like a joke to me. The last Fairphone 2s were sold in March 2019 and got security updates until December same year, i. e. for 10 month! How is that sustainable?
Spare parts are still being sold and Android 9 for FP2 is currently in beta.
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Android 7 is no longer supported by Google. Thus no security updates will be available for Nougat. Fairphone is developing an Android 9 update that will allow for more years of security updates. Since Android 8 is still supported we can expect Android 9 to be for some time. But upgrading to Android 9 without the soc vendor involvement is hard for Fairphone, because Qualcomm dropped support for FP2’s soc years ago, still Fairphone is spending time and money on it to keep his promise of software support.
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In addition to what already was said I think any hardware lifespan is shorter when you buy just before EOS. And you also have to have in mind that first FP2 devices were shipped in 12/15.
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It’s great they work on Android 9 and if it comes I’ll take my critique back, but the Android 7 end-of-support date probably was no secret and I think it’s not too harsh to say that despite the (previously known) problems an update should already have come. Sure, other manufacturers may be even worst, but those also don’t claim to be very sustainable.
If you’re tech-savvy enough you can join the beta group and already use Android on a FP2 now.
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If I understand correctly, they only have a beta version of Fairphone OS, but I’m running Fairphone Open.
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That’s correct. Instead of FP open you could consider to use LineageOS or /e/OS. They’re available in Android major version 9 or 10.
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Fairphone Open should join at a later stage IIRC. Their priority is Fairphone OS.
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What’s the difference between LinageOS, /e/ and Fairphone Open and what makes it easier for them to support newer Android versions on the same hardware?
Have a look here about what makes it easier for custom ROMs to upgrade to major android versions:
About the difference between /e/ and LineageOS, please do a quick search on the forum to find similar topics (e.g Advices changing OS). Fairphone Open is Fairphone OS without the google services, and that’s about it.
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LineageOS still runs great with security updates on my FP2.
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Do you know a good way to export apps with their data and restore them after switching from Fairphone Open to /e/ or LinageOS? Up to now I only have experience with NANDroid backups but not with backing up individual apps. I think, I only need the data from very few apps and for most I know how to export and restore them, but for example I’m not really sure how to export and restore my COVID-19 exposure database from microG.
You might have a look at this topic (post #9 and following):
But I’m not very optimistic that an easy solution will be found.
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Then, I have to wait for the Fairphone Open update. But thank you very much for the link.
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You might even build your Fairphone open version 9 yourself now:
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