📊 POLL: How satisfied or unsatisfied are you with your FP4?

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I want to believe in the sustainability and repairability mantra… But is FP actually achieveing this with their devices? Has anybody actually been satisfied by their FP4 purchase from a non-idealistic point of view?

I’ve stuck with my FP4 since day one. Nearly (but not quite) 3 years and it feels like it’s already time to throw in the towel for something that actually works.

For a point of comparison, my OnePlus 3 (non T) survived exceptionally well for 4 years until the glue holding the screen in failed and I got some OLED burn-in, which was entirely my own fault - I somehow accidentally had the screen on full-brightness without turning off whilst being charged under a pillow… Not great conditions for a phone.
It is still more than usable today, nearly 8 years later. I use it as an Android development device regularly, and I would actually consider switching back, because I think it’s still just about comparable to my FP4.

Unlike my OP3, which was rock-solid for those 4 years, My FP4 has been plagued by hardware and software bugs virtually since day one, and I stuck with it because I want to believe and support the cause for a repairable and sustainable phone.

Almost all of the frustrations with my FP4 have been unacknowledged software regressions either completely ignored or extremely slow to fix, and it makes using the phone miserable.
The Android 13 update causing two of the more recent problems. I thought we were finally over the worst of it with the insanely disruptive ghost input bug, which eventually got acknowledged and finally fixed.

  1. The recent GPS fix bug has been frustrating me almost every week when I need to navigate.
  2. Battery drain means I have to consiously mind my screen brightness and general usage to make my phone last a full day. I don’t WANT to carry a spare battery around with me, even if it’s possible. The phone is physically big enough that it should be capable of lasting a day.
  3. Slow unlock/home screen/app drawer. My phone sometimes needs 10+ seconds to become usable after being locked for a while… WTF is it doing!?

I really want to believe in the mission. Both repairability and a sustainable long-term device. I put a lot of value into those attributes. However, when that device does not work properly day-to-day, ultimately this device is going to end up being disposed of and replaced with something that actually works and has better support.

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