I ordered an FP2 in February. I finally received one in the middle of April. The screen of that model was unresponsive and then physically cracked the first time I removed the back cover, and was returned for replacement.
Two weeks later I received a second handset. This worked for 24 hours before one side of the screen became totally unresponsive. The back cover also cracked the first time I removed it, when preparing the phone for return.
Today I received my third handset. Here’s the list of what has happened so far, in just the first three or so hours of use:
During initial setup there was line flickering on the screen and at one point the touchscreen stopped responding so I had to put it to sleep and wake it up to continue. This was before logging on for the first time.
On inserting SIMs for the first time, the screen froze, and I got the message “Unfortunately process com.android.phone has stopped” and had to force a restart. This happened repeatedly until I took the battery out and started on single SIM. Once unlocked (and SIM pin turned off), successfully started with two SIMs.
Screen flickers (horizontal lines out of alignment) on swiping between home screens - sometimes. Highly visible when it happens, but not possible to replicate at will.
Google Maps app will not start, saying I have no Internet connection (connected to wifi / can load webpages in Chrome)
Repeated (every few mins) screen freezes, requiring screen sleep/wake to restore
After updating to OS 1.3.6 the screen freezes are happening every 30s
Five minutes ago, while sitting on the table untouched, phone made loud screeching beep noise, froze, and restarted itself.
I am incredibly close to returning this model and giving up on the whole Fairphone project.
I am going to see what the experience is over the next couple of days, but the screen unresponsiveness issue is enough to warrant a return unless I can find another solution in the forums (I’ve never spent so long in support forums, for anything, in my life).
With the experience I’ve had, I’m hugely worried that if I don’t return the phone, even if I fix the screen issue, something much worse will happen on Day 16, my warranty will be gone, and I will have paid a small fortune for nothing but three and a half months without a smartphone.
Does anyone have advice, or just a record of success, they want to share?
I understand your frustration. Apparently FP2’s DOA rate (phones which need to go back because of a technical issue within the first two weeks) is at about 1%. So you must have been very unlucky to get a faulty phone 3 times.
Statistically you should have a 99 in 100 chance to get a working phone if you return your 3rd FP2, but that’s just statistics.
Part of the problem is that given the number of problems (and returns) reported in the forum, I’m not sure I can believe that. Also that it’s very unclear which are software and which are hardware problems. Surely I don’t need to replace a whole phone because the screen is unresponsive sometimes? Would be good to have a diagnosis instead of / alongside a new phone, which would up my confidence somewhat…
I know it looks overwhelming but you have to consider this forum is the first place to go for 100.000 FP users if they have problems.
This is unfortunately true. Many of the issues described in the forum by “many” users are probably hardware issues that only a minority of FP2s have, but still that doesn’t mean that they can’t be fixed with a software update.
The number and nature of issues you describe give me the impression that there is - once again - a hardware issue with your phone, but to make sure you could first do the following:
Dis- and reassemble the phone. Make sure the screws are tight so there are no loose connections.
Perform a hard reset if problems persist. ( Erases all data)
Wow, impressive record of bad luck…
The first thing that came to my mind (similar to @paulakreuzer) was that statistically you should have earned the right to receive a perfect phone by now.
I received my FP2 in early January and had to have the display exchanged (due to partially unresponsive touchsreen), the repair worked very well and quite fast.
Besides that I didn’t have any issues with my device.
I can unfortunately not persuade you to not let your fair phone go. I have massive problems with my fair phone 2: the camera can not focus, the phone becomes overheated when I insert a memory card. In addition, the phone uses an incredible amount of power when the memory card is in. And finally, get snapchat app crashes throughout tiden.Support is not existing. This is very sad when I previously had a Fair Phone 1, was very pleased with it. Fair Phone 2, sad to say but it’s just scrap. It is far too poor to be called Fair Phone. The quality is poor and it is far too slow already to last five years (Fair Phone assertion). I think most will eventually give up this phone to buy a new one. it is really sad for the idea of a fair smartphone is good.
Did you already try diffent cards or just one? It might be the card…[quote=“Terje_Steiro1, post:12, topic:18311”]
the camera can not focus
[/quote]
You know that you can send you’re phone in and get the camera replaced/repaired? Se here
Well. There’s something wrong with my screen - it has light spots. Yet as I support FP and know they already have loads of stuff to do, I just don’t bother asking for a new screen. I think this goes in general: Fairphone buyers seem to accept a lot, shows also this very thread. They’re probably more tolerant than ‘regular’ costumers.
This rings true with me. I have had many problems, none of a terminal nature, but the ‘protective case’ is broken because so many times I have had to remove it to take the battery out because the screen freezes during phone calls. I haven’t sought to return the phone, but simply waited for updates. I can’t often use the phone when charging (which is a shame as I am a heavy phone user and so need to charge it a lot), but have accepted this as I support the project. I am unsure if this post will post as often any social media apps do not work when trying to post updates. The Fairphone concept is brilliant, but for me who needs a reliable phone for work and who isn’t overly technically minded (wouldn’t want to do fixes myself), the FP2 is not the solution. I am sticking with it though… For now!
To reset the phone, you don’t need to take the battery out! Just keep the power button pressed for around 15 seconds.
Or use the power button to end calls, that could be an even more convenient workaround for this issue (but I assume you already found this in the topic about the problem).
That doesn’t work. You press the power button for 15 seconds and you get a popup asking if you want to shut the phone down. But because the screen is frozen, you can’t press the “shut down” link. I, too, have had to remove the battery several times for this reason.
Erases all data)