Fairphone

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My opinion about Fairphone 3+

Discuss Fairphone 3
#24

The FP3 has less than a year and, in one year, they have design two new modules and developed android 10 for FP.

I am sorry, but lately I have being thinking about the goodness of this company…

When I bought the FP3 a year ago I wanted to be fair with environment and people. Also, I thought the company was to have an alternative to a “google-deep-inside” Android OS. I mean that is also fair to have control of our data, but ok.

My screen continues blinking, its minimum brightness let me blind in darkness but hey, we have two new modules! in less than a year! very necessary yes :clap: … :clap: … :clap:

And the communication? They don’t advance any information to costumers, they don’t have to as any company of course, but the thing it’s the name is FAIRphone… If I had known something about it maybe I had waited to try Android 10 before install the /e/ foundation’s OS (I am very happy with this OS, is just the way they communicate things).

Other companies are taking advantadge on their production processes, being fairer with time (I don’t name them, but we all know) and maybe this is not so much fair at it was before… I am very disspointed with the product, maybe is just me, but there are phones that get complete OS updates several years after its launch, lasting their phones for many years and I think Fairphone is understimating the importance of have a relationship with the customers.

And another thing…

The people who knows a little about photography know that the sensors of smarthone’s cameras are very tiny. We obtain such good photos because all smartphones has integrated algorithms that reduce noise and do something near magic. Hardware is important also, yes, but if the CPU can obtain better photographs with new camera modules, why in less than a year they have updated modules? How many cameras has been broken since then? Why don’t have them since the beggining? I know the answer: bussiness.

Of course, Fairphone is a company, has to make money, but I don’t have very clear what is its market, their customers. Maybe I am wrong, I am talking about my opinion, but when I go to a company named FAIRphone, that says they care about people and environment, I can’t look away from this kind of decisitions…

2 Likes
#25

Well, I kinda agree with you. I like Fairphone, what they do, why they do it and the products they sell, that is why I bought one. But when you enter a community and a company like this, in fact you are more critic with everything because you hope to receive fairness, transparency, long-lasting products… you don’t buy a Fairphone due to its specs or its design, you buy it to have a decent smartphone for some years, you buy it to be fair with those who make it possible to get it to you, etc. Do they do it? yes… and no. From my perspective if you want a phone to survive over time (I said this already), it needs a good SoC and consistent security and system updates. I know we can be happy if our smartphone isn’t the fastest or if we can’t play all the games we want, that’s not the point.

For example, the company with the fruit as its logo made a phone for 500€ that isn’t the best, but they put on it the top CPU they have for it to last, see what I mean? I know they aim also for people with less resources who don’t care about games, updates or multimedia content because they’re phone is just a tool for them, but as sad as it may sound, in this world if you are a smartphone company (even one like this) and you want to spread a message like Fairphone does, you need to get to people, a lot of people, and for that you need what I said.

Again, I am happy with my Fairphone besides some problems I have with it and besides considering myself an Android “power user”, but this is my opinion, if I explained myself as intended.

Opinions on this @Antoine , @Ingo , @alex21 and @urs_lesse? I’m quite new here so I am glad to hear opinions from more experienced people of this comunnity. Maybe I sould open another thread for this.

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#26

That company is a global player and in the top list, when it comes to company market value.
It’s absolutely easy for them to cross finance one gadget or the other, even selling it below production price just to get people hooked to the fruit.

That’s in no way comparable to a small company producing ONE phone model and only one; and aiming to sell per year the amount of phones the fruity-company sells in a few hours every day of the year.

As I see it:
Fairphones ambition is, to show to companies like the one with the fruit, that things can be done differently.
And that’s why the continue producing the same phone, but enhancing it ecologically and making a press event not about the latest phone with 4 cameras, foldability or whatnot, but about the same phone, that they made just upgradeable with new modules and that now comes with 40% recyled plastics instead of 9% as before.
That are really environmental friendly developments and that’s a different path than the one the fruity manufacturer is going.

Of course, there always will be some people, that are dissatisfied; that had other expectations, that are not met. But someone simply can not please everyone at the same time.
In my opionion, Fairphone really is trying and they are more transparent about it, than every other company I have checked on so far (that’s of course just a subjective evaluation).

5 Likes
#27

I’ve just replied to another long thread and I haven’t read this one fully, so I’ll be answering and giving my thoughts on this particular line of thinking:

One of the reasons this is necessary is that it has to happen at some point. This is one of the goals of Fairphone, to release a product that is modular. Would you rather have them wait another year sitting on this technology and do nothing with it? (I’m mentioning this because other users complained the FP3 was released not too long ago).

This is an important milestone. They are doing something that has not been done before, not even by Google itself. They are showing you that the money you paid is being put to good use. Please understand, just because you are not getting a new flashy screen or a more powerful processor does not mean you are not gaining anything out of this.

2 Likes
#28

It can be true. It can also be false. I own a Fairphone for these well known ethics about people and environment. Though I consider they already do quite much, and they manage to do things nobody else does. I perhaps have lower expectations for Fairphone than you. Never mind, that is very personal and I don’t criticise anything about having high expectations.

Why exactly a good SoC? To be able to receive recent updates? Or for it to run smoothly?
If it’s the former, as example, the FP2 has a Snapdragon 801 and is going to receive a major android update. I am sure the FP3 will have at least the same when it will be 5 years old.
If it’s the latter, a phone doesn’t necessarily need a high performance processor to run smoothly after 5 years. RAM is important, and the FP3 has 4 GB RAM, and it should be sufficient for it to last. Of course, you won’t have the last features, you won’t have the last quickcharge technology, etc. But that you said it right.

Comparing Apple to Fairphone is a bad idea in my opinion. First, they design/produce their own SoC (please correct me if I’m mistaken about this), second they run a completely different operating system, third they don’t have the same ethics, and fourth they have tons of money. They can do nearly what they like (and I also agree with @BertG about what he said).

In my opinion:

  1. Fairphone does already quite good about entering on the market. And having a better SoC would mean a more expensive phone, and I personally am not buying a 800€ phone, as many others would agree.
  2. Fairphone’s goal is proving to others that it is possible. It is raising awareness as Eva Gouwens rightfully said. With the upgraded modules, and more importantly the more recycled plastics, they did it.

Which means I totally agree with @BertG.

Strange to see that you consider I am a more experienced member of this community knowing I joined about at the same time as you :wink:

1 Like
#29

That’s exactly what I used to say. But they might not had smooth sailing all along. Since there’s no alternative I wish them at least not to sink. With that said it does not mean you should let down your guard, there were enough altruistic startups who took advantage of their supporters, the world is full of psychopaths. But as the saying goes if you will not trust people the people will become untrustworthy.

1 Like
#31

Thanks to call me a “more experienced people of this community” but mine is quite low if you ask me to write about SoCs :sweat_smile:

However I’ll try my best to answer: if I agree with the fact a good SoC will allow the phone to last longer, the best SoCs are very expensive considering what they give on top of what mid-range SoCs do. The extra value-for-money simply is not worth it for most people. If you’re always willing to have the latest tech gadgets and best graphically challenging games, you will want to change your phone often anyway, which is contradictory with Fairphone’s goal.

Fairphone is aiming to take a mid-range SoC out of a compromise: because it’ll be good enough to last years for the tasks of most users and be cheap enough not to rise the price by an extra 200€, which not a lot of potential customers could afford. A lot of people tell me they love the project but already can’t afford a 450€ naked phone (without the expensive accessories), knowing they are technically better ones for half the price, even if they’re ready to pay more for the sustainability part…
Like with organic products, if it’s 10-30% more, they’re ready to make an effort, but if it’s 2-3 times the price, especially when it’s about hundreds of €uros, it’s too much for them… Of course, I tell them it’s the price for fairness, durability and sustainability, but…
We also know the higher price is because Fairphone is such a tiny company they don’t have the scale savings bigger brands have.

So if the SoC was more expensive it would mean less customers, so even less scale savings. Do you see the vicious circle?

A solution to this would be to develop different ranges of Fairphones, which is what they initiate with FP3 and FP3+. At this moment I don’t think Fairphone would be able to fully do this, and releasing a completely new and better phone juste a year after a brand new modular one would’ve been misunderstood by a lot of FP3 owners, not to mention sending a completely contradictory signal regarding its mission.

But when FP4 comes out in the next years (maybe even next year), they will probably offer a slightly higher range (now the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700’s are in the place) and definitely more recent and powerful processor to make the FP4 more future-proof than the FP3 (or at least as future-proof, but 2 years or more after its big brother release), while still selling FP3 as lower-range phone like what the :apple: brand does, which is not such a bad idea, as it maintains the same product assembly lines so doesn’t require extra R&D costs.

They couldn’t do it with FP2 because it was badly designed on several aspects, which is why they had to fully change FP3’s design compared to its older brother they had to stop selling, so if such a strategy already existed in their mind before, it was probably delayed.

They’re still providing spare parts for FP2 for a very affordable price (they’ve lowered the prices of the battery, screen and camera modules) of course, which is proof for you @existentionaut that they’re trustworthy. They even dug up the old cameras spare parts to keep the FP2 repairable after the production stop of its “new” modules!

Is it and will it be their strategy? I’d love to see this, but I don’t know if they’ll be able to do it.

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#32

Yea both Apple and Samsung. Nokia, Microsoft, HTC and many others fought against these geezers and lost.

On another note Apple will manufacture their own electric cars like Tesla… yea not in the same league.

1 Like
#33

Its practically the same as a Fairphone 3, but with better cameras, better recycled plastic, a newer Android version, and a better speaker. Its just a slightly upgraded version. If you expected something huge, then you might have been disappointed, but I had low expectations myself as I don’t see them release another smartphone a year later (nor a smartwatch or anything like that).

People who have a strong opinion about Fairphone 3+, are basically having a strong opinion about Fairphone 3, as they are practically almost the same. If for you the Fairphone 3+ is irrelevant and Fairphone 3 is still adequate (mind you it also gets Android 10), then you can either keep the Fairphone 3 you got or now buy Fairphone 3 with discounted price compared to release price (IIRC 420 vs 450 EUR).

Also, if you look at Tony Chocolonely, they are more than 10-30% expensive compared to other chocolate. But they’re also far more tasting, IMO (tell me something which beats their red bar; I love chocolate and I have never tasted better chocolate than that).

3 Likes
#34

Taste is a quite subjective thing.
Have you ever given Zotter a try?
They have such a broad variety of tastes, that there should be one for everyone.

And they are expensive as well, of course.

1 Like
#35

A good camera sensor ist very important for me. The old sensor was not good enough.

#36

There are series/families of processors, which are pin compatible to each other. You don’t have to change the SOC when using a better processor, which was much more expensive just a few years ago. Same is true for internal storage and RAM.

#37

Thanks, never heard of it. I looked around on their website and I actually like it that you can personalize the chocolate bar. So it might be something I order at some point, just a bit worried on the transport.

My comparison is with brands I got access to offline (so the grocery stores I go to [Deen & Albert Heijn] or chocolatery in Purmerend or maybe Amsterdam Centre). Think of brands like Milka. This is because Tony’s is sold at Wereldwinkel but also these grocery stores.

Come to think of it, when I was in Berlin in 2014, I had an excellent Häagen-Dazs icecream, which included chocolate.

1 Like
#38

That’s just the way I came to know Zotter; they are sold in lots of shops in Germany.

For the Netherlands, you can shop them (and other brands) online at “The High Five Company”

And you can look for a local dealer on this page:
https://www.zotter.at/en/about-zotter/shops/looking-for-a-dealer
(though they ask for name and mail-adress).

And if you want to even up the experience, I once had a degustation of “Wine and Chocolate”. It was fantastic and a great experience (if one does like wine, that is). So you might try some good wine with some good chocolate.
(For all, that are interested: We had this experience at an open-winery event here at Zwölberich)

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#39

Isn’t this going slightly off-topic? :wink:

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#40

Quite a bit, I might open a thread to write about what we have wrote about here, I have read the answers to my posts here about this topic and I might answer and condens the info in one post.

PD: what means to be a “Fairphone Angel” by the way?

#41

I was talking about the discussion about chocolate, what you are saying still stays in the topic IMO.

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#42

Take a look here: #fairphoneangels
In short: They are the community heroes, that help Fairphone users in trouble hands on in their vicinity. Well, just angels. :smiley:

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#43

Thanks @alex21 and @BertG . I was talking about the topic of Fairphone, the community and the smartphone industry, the original topic was the Fairphone 3+.

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#44

Sie leben hinterm Sonnenschein, getrennt von uns unendlich weit, sie müssen sich an Sterne krallen, damit sie nicht vom Himmel fallen.