Together with our partners, we test the software before its release, and in some instances where a software update might result in some problems for users on a specific network or in a specific country, we prefer to delay the software release for that specific customer base and fix all the potential issues before making the software available to everyone.
That means that depending on your network provider, some Fairphone 4 users may receive this update later. Once the update is available you’ll receive a push notification to automatically update.
Sounds like you’re a bit frustrated and take it out on the forum and FP. Please don’t. The forum is by the way very flexible and does show updated topics in latest, but you can also configure alerts for e.g. #osupdates or any other tags or categories (check the bell icon). Fairphone is always about a month late, it sucks, but every phone has pros and cons.
There have been several cases of people bricking their FP4s when locking the bootloader and inadvertently triggering Anti Rollback Protection, because those images are ages behind what the custom ROMs ship at the moment.
Maybe, it should be less thick in vertical mode as well. Also, in horizontal mode, the battery icon is now cut off due to the excessive rounded corners of the FP4. I don’t think it was cut off before, because in YouTube videos it looked normal before. Is it now actually broken? That would disappointing, I don’t think the statusbar was on anyone’s list for improvements, but now it seems to be worse. At least, sure, it should be smaller, but the front camera cut out and excessive rounded corners do not allow that.
Can someone check how the notification bar looks like in landscape mode that still runs the older version? Then we can confirm this. Taking a screenshot doesn’t work. It doesn’t take into account the rounded corners of the phone. I hope it was broken in the previous update as well, otherwise the QA testing of updates needs some improvement.
To be honest, I liked the thicker taskbar. The new, thin version just seems stuffed, too small and doesn’t fit the overall theme of the taskbar. The battery icon isn’t cut off for me. I’d prefer having the old-style taskbar back.
I wouldn’t say it’s broken, but yeah, the battery indicator (or the % sign) is partially hidden. I agree that the status bar was previously extremely thick in landscape mode, but now it’s the opposite extreme. Somewhere in the middle would be fine. Jeez, truly first world problems they are currently trying to solve. Meanwhile, the camera API is still intact, as well as many other, more pressing issues.
In my opinion the narrower bar in horizontal mode is a fine improvement. Any pixel that can help fit more relevant content from applications into my screen is a win in my book. I don’t use horizontal mode very often, so it won’t make a huge difference in my life, but I think it ends up being a personal preference and probably one that just takes a little bit of getting used to.
I don’t think anything changed to the bar in portrait mode. The battery indicator and the time was always awkwardly positioned to lose some pixels behind the curves. At least on my screen, with my font/size preferences.
If you don’t use the percentage indicator for the battery then the icon is basically gone. I don’t get why this got passed their QA. And like you mention, there are more important things to fix, that might be fixed with the same time effort. Like this one: WiFi/mobile traffic arrows in status bar
But hopefully a batch of improvements are coming soon. By now I expect them to work on these improvements for Android 12. Let’s hope their QA is more on top of things for that release.
You’re right. I actually have the Display size set to Large, so even in landscape I can see the majority of the icon. But when it’s set to default, it’s almost completely covered.
Actually, this is how the status bar was before vendors started to mess around with notches and things like that. The notification bar doesn’t take up much space. That’s why I also never got how the notch and things like that supposedly gave more screen space. Because neto screen space is the same, while there is less room for proper front facing speakers and dual cameras…
Meanwhile, the camera API is still intact, as well as many other, more pressing issues.
