last year I bought the Fairphone 4 with the proprietary charger and charging cable. After the use of less than one year the USB-A-charging-end bend so much that it no more delivers power to my phone.
I find this half ironic. The complete focus on not destroying the cable coating (it did not tear), Fairphone introduced a new vulnerability. Because the cable coat is so thick, it puts a lot of strain on the port, which does not let the cable last longer than standard cheap ones. I hope Fairphone rethinks their cable design.
First of all wow, I didnāt think this thing could be destroyed by anything less than a nuclear blastā¦
Seriously now, youāre right, Iāve noticed that too, and this is indeed an issue, the cable itself is so rigid it puts a strain on the connector(s).
Which is why I fell back to a normal cable for everyday charging, to avoid my FP4ās USB port getting damaged over time. I keep the Fairphone cable for trips and such, where it has the undeniable advantage that a) you canāt overlook and forget it, and b) there is no question about who this cable belong to. And you can use it to tow your car if it breaks downā¦
That been said, I donāt think Fairphone designed it. They probably bought the design of-the-shelf and just branded it. There are lots of different extra-strong, Kevlar-clad, bulletproof USB-C cables out there (I have 2), and they all have the same rigidity problem.
On pulling out the USB-A plug from an iPhone charger, it ripped right off. A close inspection reveals that extremely little solder had been applied there and that the outer āfringesā that were soldered to the adapter body have been designed very short. Not much mechanical resilience here; given the long lever of the usb-C-plug-cum-C2A-adapter, this would have required a more sturdy construction.
My FP4 has seen very light use; I arrived in mid-April 2022 and not use for 1/2 year before I started using it occasionally (until I finally found the time now to ditch the iPhone for good).
I have contacted support for a replacement today and hope for a replacement.
Support has sent me a replacement, I should have mentioned here long ago.
As a general remark, this design with long plug plus adapter makes a long lever that translates every tug at the cable into higher momentum than with the usual short plugs. The solder suffers more strain and will come loose eventually. I fear there are many failures of this kind coming.
Yes, judging from the pictures above itās clearly a very cheap & cheerful construction: The plugās metallic part should be much longer, cover all the internal connectivity (shielding) and ideally be crimped to the cable in the back. In Fairphoneās cable itās clearly only a small add-on part, only held in place (temporarily) by those two little āearsā on the side.
(Here is an article illustrating quality differences in USB-C cables (Ars Technica).)
