Yesterday I received my FP3, and I’ve been using it without any problems so far. Everything works great and snappy!
However, I’ve noticed that the FP3 charger which I ordered together with the phone makes a high pitched noise when charging. While it is only ever-so-slightly noticeable, the noise irregularly changes in pitch and intensity, which makes it somewhat annoying when the charger is plugged in next to your bed while you are trying to sleep.
Has anyone else noticed this as well with their charger? Or could it be that mine has some kind of defect?
I’d stop using the charger right now. If it’s making a noise, it may not be safe to use - it could break your phone, or worse. Get another charger or charge your phone from a USB port on a computer until you can get a replacement.
Contact FP3 and they’ll help you out - probably by replacing the charger.
While I can confirm the noise with my Fairphone 3 charger, I wouldn’t think it’s a safety issue.
To me it sounds like coil whine, which is pretty common in chargers, power supplies, even graphic cards …
I’ve personally experienced internal PC ATX power supplies do this, and I personally experienced external notebook power supplies do this, and apart from the noise, which is of course unwanted, it didn’t do any technical harm in my experience.
That’s a good point, with many people charging their phones at night beside their beds.
If this turns out to be a common feature of this charger, somebody responsible for getting these accessories for the Fairphone 3 to market certainly should have caught that, and it would not be a good sign for the quality assurance of Fairphone.
Let’s see what others have to say.
If I can find a noiseless and at least halfway quick charger for my Fairphone 3, I will consider just returning the charger.
Coil whine really shouldn’t occur with low-amp chargers like these unless there’s some defect, or the build quality is very low (like with cheap flimsy chargers). I’d worry about the quality of a 2A device that whines loud enough to keep me awake.
By the way … I just started a little testing concerning chargers and cables, and the original charger and cable just now charged my battery from 67% to 96% within 60 minutes.
I guess I will not have to charge this phone overnight.
Thanks for the replies. Coil whine seems like a likely candidate for the source of the noise. I also just tried whether charging causes static through the headphone port but that does not seem to be the case.
I guess I’ll contact Fairphone and see what they think.
Yes, and well no…
Good to know about this issue as I from my experience also agree to say it’s related to the chargers quality. They are very common these days (generally in a type of switching power converter) and I also have some for different purpose like notebook charger, internal desktop PSU, display PSU, powerbank charger etc.
All work fine, but none of them actually generate so much noise that I could recognize it without listening really close and concentrated.
But well, charging the phone right next to the bed is not so healthy anyway…
I also agree for Fairphone to again re-evaluate it’s charger quality as I know they can be made totally noiseless.
It’s called electrosmog, electric smog or electromagnetic pollution.
Some information on this (controversial discussed) topic:
Regarding this topic:
My guess would be, that many people simply can not hear the high pitched sound made by the charger (or other electrical devices). Usually the ability to hear high frequencies is decreasing with age.
So, not everyone having a “silent” charger, does in fact have one.
Although being 67 years of age now, I hear such a high-pitched noise from all the QC-chargers I have. They are all from a decent origin, and they all do the same. My chargers that don’t do QC also don’t do the noise.
We have had this noise with several other chargers (which we use for our Fairphone 2s). The noise is especially interesting once the phone is almost full. I do not mind so much, and at least we never had any safety issues with it.
Today I got my FP3 headphones, and my FP3 charger with its cable, and I can hear the high pitch noise when the phone is charging. I’m worry about that because I don’t know if the charger is defective.
What can I do?
P.S.: And I discovered the headphone jack isn’t working… I’m going to update the phone and see what happen.
same thing for me: the official USB charger from the FP3 makes this coil whine when charging, luckily the noise stops when battery is full.
Has someone got his charger replaced by FP client service ?
Update: After quite a long process, my charger has been replaced by Fairphone. The new charger I have received is unfortunately not 100% silent either, but it is much more quiet than the first one, so it is not really a problem for me anymore.
So, it is possible to have your charger replaced if Fairphone thinks the noise is sufficiently loud (I was requested to send a video in which the noise is audible), but you may not receive a totally silent replacement either.
Some weeks ago I got my charger, and I hear a high pitch noise when I connect it to my Fairphone 3. Check the next video:
Fairphone Support believes the problem is on the phone rather than in the charger. But, I would like to ask if someone has the Fairphone 3 charger, and hears any sound because when I charge it with another one or using my laptop, I don’t hear anything, so I think it could be something about the charger. Do you think could it be the phone? Another question is if this charger or another one (maybe an older Samsung charger to charge the phone faster or the official MacBook Pro charger from 2019), makes the Fairphone 3 a little bit hotter. Mine gets like this when the phone has been charging half an hour using the official charger or another one, not with the laptop. Thank you very much!
