Thinking about a new Fairphone 5

About a year ago I brought a new Fairphone 4, love the concept that it’s sustainable and no slavery for kids or grownups. I think the phone works well for me, except people complain about the quality off my phone calls. Sometimes I use my wifes old Samsung phone when I want to call someone :slightly_frowning_face: Support can’t find the issue and told me I could send it to Fairphone, but then I’m without a phone for weeks :grimacing:
So I was thinking about buying two Fairphone 5’s. I’m wondering if the Fairphone 5 has the same issues when calling. So can you give me some review about it’s pro’s and con’s?

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Don’t get a fairphone 5 right now, the fairphone 6 is just around the corner and as you already said the support for the phone is really bad. (including warranty cases)

Hi, FP5 is a reliable phone and I did not have any serious issues.
However, there were people who did. I guess you will also find users with no issues with FP4.

I would still try to have your FP4 diagnosed properly, perhaps with the help of the forum, support, the FP Angels or internal diagnostics?

Or perhaps I did not quite get the idea, but why would you get two FP5s and repair FP4?

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Thank you, I mean selling my FP4 and buying two FP5s, one for me and one for my wife

Hartelijk groet,

Homme de Jong

Just looking at the forum, no the FP5 does not have the same issues reg. call quality as the FP4 and I’m not confident it could be repaired, the issues are quite different for those affected, I personally am not affected.

Overall reading a bit in the forum you should get an idea about the FP5 issues and how important those would be for you.

Reg. the FP6 I would like to add: we assume it will come this year, however there is no official hint yet.

No problem for my calls, as far as my friends haven’t tell me :grinning:
I have a FP5 since last august, and I complain about a quick level battery decreasing, since few weeks. I don’t really mind, I’ve to check, search… Don’t have much time. Anyway, I had an old Xiaomi that gave me fully satisfaction and don’t regret it ! Long life to FP !

And you have a reliable source for the info on the FP6 being “just around the corner” as you said?

Fairphone release schedule, new phone each 2 year and release at end of summer/September

That’s absolutely not a source as such. That’s just a guesstimate based on certain things that happened in the past.

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Which we call a rumor, I never said I work at fairphone or anything.

No you didn’t. But you presented it in a way that it looked like reliable info, which it wasn’t.

Well you are reading a user forum about a phone that was not even announced. Why would you think it is more than a user opinion on a public forum?

Ehm, I’m not interested in a virtual phone that perhaps will be launched some day. :sunglasses: The more I’m interested in the pro’s and con’s of the existing FP5. Some replies gave me hope the FP5 will be a beter phone than the old one FP4 i’ve got. Maybe some more reviews will help me to decide to buy the FP5.

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The fairphone 3 camera was not good enough for me and it become a bit laggy 2024 on the default OS.
The fairphone 5 is a very usuable phone; a bit too much energy consumption if mobile network is enabled.

i think i would have sent the phone for reapar if i hade a FP4 withe the same issue.

Never hade a FP4 so i can’t compare.
Is the FP5 a improvement coming from the FP4 from wat i hear and read yes it is.

my opinion about the FP5:

I can’t say that the FP5 does not have issues, defenetly its not a perfect phone…

…it will still depend on how you use your phone if you will get bothered by one or more of those issues… …I am.

i personally get mostly ignored by the:

GPS speedometer issue.
and poorly adjustable ear speaker, just to loud.
Automatic screen brightness issue.
And randomly lagging of wat ever proces on the phone.

i remember the battery issue (post above by @AxelFFF) is often talked about on this form, not a issue i noticed. when i use my phone heavenly, the battery life is shorter than i used to on different smartphones. les than one day. when the phone is not used, just sitting in my pocket or on a table, the battery life is much longer than i used to at different smartphones. multiple days no issues.
i do not turn of the network.

i never heard that it was difficult to understand me du to the sound quality, or the other way around.

i think if you read this form a lot you (we all) will get a bit overwhelmed by all the issues how are shared, That will not mean that all those isues will be pressed on your phone.
everything that go wrong will get more attention than the things that are working well.

i dont think its more commen that a Fairphone have a serious faut and neet to be sent to a repair center. than smartphones from different manufacturers, but yes that is only my feeling.

if you gonna buy a Fairphone 5 i strongly recommend to not buy one from Fairphone directly. buy from a reseller. they will offer much better suport.
the seport from Fairphone is way to slow.

will i consider changing my FP5 to a different phone: No, i don’t.

will i do my best to repair or get my FP5 repaired if it breaks:
Yes, absolutely.

Will i buy a new FP5 if mine is gone:
No.

I really like my FP5 which I have had since November last year. Call quality is good, the camera is good (for me - coming from a Samsung S9), and I don’t have any battery issues. FYI, I am running E/OS.

What is not great is that the Always On Display does not work and probably never will. This means that there is no way of knowing whether you have a notification waiting if you missed it when it first flashed on screen.

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For what it’s worth, I’ve never had call quality problems with my Fairphone 4, so if you can get it fixed it’ll probably be fine. Or if it’s still under warranty Fairphone might send you a new one.

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My main problem with fairphone warranty is the fact that it is almost worthelss right now with 2+ month of response time. While waiting for my phone to be fixed I would simply just buy a new phone because it is really hard to live without one for over two month!

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Hmmm that’s a good point. It’s really sad if the waiting times are that long…

In my experience the FP5 is a somewhat ok phone, I use it for over a year now as a daily driver. My main-issues are:

  • some minor bugs that were never fixed, like the reported location from GPS jumping 5 meters back and forward all the time (some apps filter those jumps, some don’t)
  • video encoders cost tons of battery and heat up the FP5 excessively (I use the phone as dashcam so this is a big issue, FP3 didn’t suffer from this.)
  • some 1440p60 videos are too much and they stutter intensely for some reason (again, no problem with the FP3)
  • The touchsensor of the screen occasionally detects taps with a slight offset, was worse on the FP3
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