I graduated from a Fairphone to a Fairphone 2 as soon as I was able, coincidentally as my battery was dying and my screen had just cracked on the Fairphone.
August of last year I noticed the same problems which began with my original Fairphone towards the end of the life of its battery - very long charge times, only charging with the cord in unusual positions and so forth. Got quite a fright when it refused to charge from nil battery and I’d begun a relationship with someone I didn’t have many contact methods for. I bought a new battery and that resolved nothing, so got a new charging module too and that reinvigorated the phone, though the microphone didn’t work so I couldn’t call anyone.
August of this year, the familiar cycle begins, I notice long charge times and do the gamut of getting another bottom module and a battery (just in case), around 26th of August. These arrive and things are certainly smoother, though perhaps charge times are longer than I expected with an entirely new battery. Within a week when doing an operating system update, the operating system is wiped with no backup. Looking at the instructions online I try to manually download and install the operating system, but the phone isn’t recognised as a valid USB device. I send a ticket regarding this on the 7th of September. It takes until the 19th of October for the person handling my issue to acknowledge that this problem can’t be resolved remotely and for RMA labels to be generated, including my sending pictures of the intact device, with working display. I was told my device would be “flashed” and that I may be liable for out of warranty costs.
Yesterday I received a repair quote of €324 for repairing the phone, €124 more than the cost of buying each individual module from the site, 2 months after purchasing a battery and bottom module for it. The other options were to send it back as found for €15 or so as found or for them to destroy it. I chose the former. The rationale listed was that the reported issue is that it would not switch on - which is not true, it woud switch on to Team Blue recovery mode and display a lack of operating system. It stated that this was due to oxidation due to the presence of liquid - again, it’d never fallen into a body of water. I used a dehumidifier in my flat. Other possibilities include food damage or excessive heat, neither of which seem plausible to me. The oxidised component was not referred to.
So far I have spent approximately £577 on the phone. Until about 2 months ago I earned £8.70 an hour, so that represented roughly 66 hours of labour for me. There are 5 platforms I used the number for 2 factor authentication on and neither of the other 2 phones I own take a full size SIM which I had been using. I couldn’t find an insurer for the phone while I was using it. I was considering purchasing a Fairphone 3, but I’m not sure how I could justify doing so given my experience thus far with the Fairphones preceding it. I genuinely agree with the attempt to introduce ethics into production as well as consumption, but such a product at minimum needs to function. I’m currently using a Nokia which probably wreaked havoc in every stage of its production, but serves its purpose. If the phone cannot be used in countries where the temperature exceeds 30C in summer, I don’t think it’ll survive predicted climactic changes.