Note: This topic consists of a potpourri of posts moved from other topics at different times and therefore the posts here are not always in a chronological order.
@kgha, don’t overestimate the error rate of Fairphone 2. What you see in the forum are the people who do have problems and come here to solve them. Most of the people that don’t have problems never come here. This is true for all product forums (e.g., I’ve only ever been to the Lenovo forum when I’ve had a problem with my ThinkPad).
Yes, there are Fairphone 2 owners that encounter issues and there might be even a little more issues than for other phones (could also be the opposite, we don’t know) but there doesn’t seem to be a big problem in any case. Plus, many of the issues already have known solutions and/or will be fixed in upcoming software updates.
I’m with you, I will stay with my Fairphone 1. But certainly not for the reason of a lack of quality of Fairphone 2
Yes, I’m well aware of this. Not least since my FP1 has been working perfectly for two years, without any of the issues that many other users have reported here (only exception is the GPS fix delay caused by the chosen Mediatek chipset).
But I still believe that some of the problems that quite a few users encounter could have been avoided/fixed. If, as FP does, you deliver a phone without a designated charger, hinting that any old charger can be used, the customer shouldn’t have to try a vaste range of chargers till s/he finds one that works. Charger problems are not uncommon (the Galaxy SIII is a well-known example), and therefore one expects them to be avoidable.
And I cannot really accept excuses along the line that FP is crowdfunded or a social enterprise (as seen in other threads). Crowdfunding does not exclude quality control, and being a social enterprise does not presuppose amateurishness or lack of experience. The FP project has been running for at least three years, the first FP1 phones were delivered two years ago. That means experience that can be taken advantage of. And while FP can be seen as a social enterprise it operates at the same time on the market and has chosen to do so in order to make an impact, not just in order to show what is theoretically possible.
It’s a common phenomenon that people come to a forum to post about problems they are having and not to write that everything works as it should. That’s why it may seem like “everybody” has these problems.
You can find all bugs here.
The only ones that (nearly) everybody has are:
Jumping Wi-Fi Symbol. (which is a minor design flaw.)
Some Apps misbehave if you disable Privacy Impact. (Simple workaround: reenable Privacy Impact).
Also common are:
Screen flickers at low brightness. (Workaround: Don’t set phone to low(est) or adjusted brightness)
Notification LED is only red.
I think none of those are hard to live with until the next update(s) will fix them.
For those who are worried: just take a look at the counter on the FP homepage. And then take a look at the forum. How many individual users are there who did report problems? And then compare these two…
Of course, what @paulakreuzer said is the reason why you’re reading so many worrying stories.
Personally, I’m still waiting for my FP2 without worrying
On my part I am glad we were able to give feedback to Fairphone about software issues (though I’d like more transparency about sharing my own ROMs with others, yes I know I am annoying on this subject). Involving the customer in the phone’s life cycle is one crucial component of fighting planned obsolescence, saves Fairphone from spending a ton of money (which to me looks like it’s needed given the current price of the FP2) and gives meaning to “Yours to open, yours to keep” by adding “yours to tinker with” (in a certain way). On top of that it’s fun and allowed us to get our phones earlier !
I don’t expect my phones to be perfect in every way, but I expect to be able (both legally and technically) to solve the problems I encounter with them, and to share my solutions.
(FP please give us updates on the ROM sharing issue please)
While I can understand your reasoning, one things has to be taken into consideration: The FP2 is their first self developed phone. So in many aspects it is still their first time, especially if your are pointing to failing phones.
What I’m wondering about are not so much the bugs mentioned by paulakreuzer; something like that I guess is to be expected and should be fixed with an update.
I’m more worried about the inconsistencies which several people describe: Very different reports about the battery life (yes it is dependent on usage, still), that some people have problems removing their screens, the weird behavior about rebooting etc… to me that reads as if there is quite a range in the qualitiy of the used parts. That I don’t understand because the quality should be same overall, shouldn’t it?
I think it’s better to send the Phones out earlier, and solve the problems together with the many many early adopter users who preordered.
Moreover the problems which are occuring right now seem to be easily fixable by software update. If they would have spend much more time beta testing, they might had to spend also more money in the development.
All the Problems which are occuring right now don’t bother me, and even the oversensitivity went away afte I fully rechargend and emtied the battery down to 5% once.
right now I only have “cosmetic” problems like gps icon or notification led color…
everyone who is disappointed with the current product ist because one is naive. If one expects to get a bugfree product wait like everyone else at everyother phone brand. and buy the product after it is released and after there has been alot of reviews of customers
edit: I agree the should sell a standard charger seperately in the shop. but not include it, because everything that is included pushed up the pricetag. (shipping, creditcardfees, unneeded equipment like charger or cases)
There are about 10,000 phones delivered. Only a few people have reported that their phone is faulty and replaced by Fairphone. That’s well below 1%, which seems to me a very good percentage for a brand new phone.
I well remember having non-workaround bugs in my Samsung S3. My Fairphone2 has a few little annoyances with workarounds that will go away. In short, as a Fairphone2 owner, I am happy so far.
I’d like to agree and I think it has many advantages, but it might have some disadvantages, too. IMHO one problem with doing it this way is the group of people who detect (major) bugs (e.g. the privacy impact bug), but who cannot even imagine that there might be the possibility to solve this easily and hence don’t visit the forum (they even might not be aware of the forum’s existence at all). This could lead to a return in some cases and I hope that at least by getting in contact with the support then, the issue gets clear and solved at this moment …
After reading quite a few threads reporting of charging/screen/rebooting troubles I must say that I’m glad that I’ve decided to keep my FP1 and not jumping on the FP2 train (yet). OK, I know that threads appear when trouble arises, and the majority might be perfectly content with their FP2s and therefore never post here - but still.
Personally I would be seriously p*ssed off if I had paid €500+ for a phone just to realise that it doesn’t charge properly or that the screen goes black. And even more so if support suggested that I should start dissembling/reassembling my brand new phone (I guess that the guarantee would be null and void if I accidently broke some connector during that process).
Maybe the modular build is the culprit? Relying on glue and soldering tin is different from relying on modular snap-on connectors that must fit.
I can’t help getting the impression that the FP2 was launched prematurely and that it should have undergone more tests.
My personal experience and assumption is that this phrase is correct. Probably majority is perfectly content and threads appear only when trouble arises. I see some bugs on my FW2 which are already documented in bug list but all those bugs are minor for my kind of using and I’m very satisfied.
I agree, I would also be anything but happy if a new device fails, no matter if it cost 50, 500, or even more Euro.
But I don’t think the release was premature. Also with electronics from big and well known vendors you will always have a few devices that fail. So far there were appr. 12.000 Fairphones shipped, my estimate is that about 30-50 people here complained about having problems (excl. bugs); so that’s what, about half a percent? I don’t think it is unsafe to buy a Fairphone. Especially since for those who experienced problems it seemed that it wasn’t a big problem at all to get a replacement. So worst case is, you have to wait 2 weeks longer to have your new FP2.
I for once had no problems yet my FP2. Since it is rooted I am quite happy with it!
So far the FP2 has an excellent track record. You seem to be overreacting to some posts on the forum, but I can assure you that problems like these were encountered with many other phones…
This might be true. But if so, it is true for every phone. Even the glorious iPhones always come with some issues when launched. It is virtually impossible to find all problems before launching. It is just a matter of probability: When testing maybe a couple of hundred people try to find bugs. But when in the hand of users suddenly thousands or millions of people use the phone and many more bugs are unearthed.
On the other hand: People have already be waiting impatiently. Even more thorough checks would have taken a very long time. People would not have liked to wait that time, I guess.
So far all problems seem to be software side. And these kind of issues can easily be fixed with over-the-air updates after the phone has been shipped to the customer. That way customers get the best of both ways: Get the hands on the phone as early as possible and get fixes as soon as they are available.
I agree, there don’t seem to be any show-stoppers.
My FP2 tells me that I had it for
1 Week
5 Days
18 Hours now.
And I have to say that I’m absolutely loving it! My WIFI logo always has an explanation mark (not limiting WIFI functionality in any way) and all the notifications come with a red LED and not any other colour, but that’s about it. Just for the record I wanted to state that I have absolutely no issues, that it was certainly worth the wait and that I was actually very positively surprised by its great haptic!
Currently, I don’t think the FP2 has a lot of software bugs. For me the worst one would be unstable WiFi. Oh, and the charging issues sound odd as well.
But what’s more important (software bugs can be fixed) is the time that was invested in researching management processes.
How to better track down problems, to ensure good communication with proprietary upstream maintainers and to track hardware issues at the ODM level? I guess we will just have top hope and see how well this works in the future.
I have my FP2 for a week and sadly I encountered a few bugs.
I have some daily random reboots, I now have noticed the flicker on lowest brightness and most of my bluetooth devices have terrible soundquality with (and only with) the FP 2.
And most of my chargers are not working properly.
I am a little bit disappointed.
However I really like the look and feel of the FP 2 and most of the time it works well.
I am prepared to give the Fairphone team some time to come up with software solutions, I don’t think you can find every fault with just a few devices for quality control. But maybe they could have found some…
I had the Fairphone 1 and gave it to my husband a few days ago and I really hope I will not have to take it back.
So I have been with Fairphone since the crowdfunding period for the FP1…
What I am not happy with is that most of the time whenever Fairphone sets a timeline it will get pushed back at least two times from past experience.
But I also do not like if no dates are set alt all!
I would like to know when a software update will be released to address some of the issues of the FP 2.
What about all those phones which are affected by those bugs? If no resolution is found I think many people would like to send their phone back. But at the moment, nobody knows if there is an easy solution for some of those bugs and it would be a disaster for Fairphone if all those affected would send their phone back even though the problem could be solved in a few weeks.
I know Fairphone is an ambitious startup with a great idea and I want to keep supporting it.
But that does not mean I have to be happy about everything.
