I am currently looking for a new phone and the idea of fairphone appears very nice to me.
However, one issue that has bothered me with previous fairphones is the slow update speed, meaning that after a new android version is released, it takes 2-3 month for it to be available for fairphones. This includes security updates, which in all other areas of IT is required to be installed within days if not hours of release. Looking at the pixel phones, this clearly is possible with Android too, even custome roms like Graphene get those updates on the first day and check every 6 hours for new releases.
Following the news about the new fairphone 6, I noticed some hopeful comments that may indicate a change to bring the same update speed to fairphones.
Is there any reliable and clear information available regarding this topic for the fiarphone 6?
Id be grateful for any specific details on this.
Notice something here?
Android is stewarded and mostly developed by Google.
Pixel phones are developed and distributed by Google.
GrapheneOS currently exclusively supports Pixel phones.
Google does the Android security updates, so it should not come as a surprise that they can provide them most swiftly for their own Android phones. And GrapheneOS for a large part only supports Pixel phones because of this.
Every other OS vendor will have some lag compared to Google (which should not serve as an excuse for excessive lag).
Your demands can only be met by Pixel phones .
Maybe you should consider driving your Fairphone with a CustomROM like iodéOS. I’m sure it will be available for the FP6 soon and the updates always come quite soon, within 2 or 3 weeks.
For StockROM I don’t expect Fairphone to deliver updates very fast for in the past they didn’t.
Samsung uses its own SOCs. Google uses its own SOCs. Apple uses its own SOCs.
Everyone else is at the mercy of Qualcomm or whoever supplies their processors. But even if Qualcomm releases an update fast, it then has to be baked into a ROM for the particular device.
That may be a valid reason for delays in firmware updates, but most of Android is independent of the hardware. I cant find any vendor who takes several month for Android Security updates in 2025 beside fairphone and I dont understand why this practice is even defended.
Those devices are critical to handle most of our lives, including finances. Its nice to have the ability to fix the phone when the hardware breaks down but if I have to wait three month for a fix to critical vulnerabilities that expose my entire life, then such a phone is broken before it is out of the package.
Is there any progress to address this or do I need to look elsewhere when I want updates in a timely manner?
And FYI there is a long topic discussing this in circles. Will close here, please head over if needed to not further duplicate the discussion.
Edit: the current roadmap is quite undefined
What is the software support roadmap for The Fairphone (Gen. 6)?
Packing a powerful Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, the Fairphone guarantees smooth, reliable performance for years to come. With eight years of software support (until 2033) and a five-year warranty, you know it is built to last. We are the only smartphone in our category to offer this number of Android upgrades, allowing you to keep your phone secure and up-to-date for as long as possible.
Then how can I just now have a Samsung Galaxy A16 5G in my hands (helping somebody), all available software updates installed right now, settings confirming so, and the security patch level is May 1?
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