Hey everyone
I was interesting to hear which phone you had before changing to FP4. Any upgrades or downgrades? Why did you need a new phone?
Old phone: Google Pixel 2
It was a super fine phone and it could do, what I needed. But there where no more updates for Android or security. And I think that’s bad.
So a new phone was needed and FP4 is just perfect for me. I can fix it, it’s more fair for people and the earth and it can do what I need. I feel FP4 as a big upgrade on specs, when I come from a Pixel 2. Faster, better screen, 5G and other stuff.
The only thing I really miss is the pixel feature, where it automatically showed which song that was playing on the always on display. (Not what song your phone was playing, but the song just being played in the room the phone was in)
So even FP4 doesn’t have high-end tech specs, it has so much more instead and I see it as a big upgrade for me.
Compared to a Pixel 2 the SoC is mostly an upgrade. I come from the Pixel 3, the FP4 is just as fast or even faster. Only Google Maps is not as smooth.
But for sure you miss a true Pixel camera, right? And perhaps also an OLED screen? Persistent notifications perhaps as well?
Anyway, I wrote this review where I compare it with the Pixel 3, it’s in Dutch, but a translation engine will help out:
The Pixel camera is wonderful and one of the best, but do I really need to take some great photos, I normally bring my Canon. FP4 camera are okay for normal day use. Missing it, but I can totally live without.
Pixel 2 only had AMOLED screen. I just compared and the colours and brightness are much better on FP4.
Persistent notifications - I haven’t even noticed it’s gone…
Had an Asus ZenFone 8, so massive downgrade as far as I’m concerned.
Snapdragon 888, 120hz display, a great form factor.
I broke the screen, had it repaired for 200€, then broke the glass back and saw it would require a 300€ repair. That was the trigger for me. Thought f**ck it, I’m done with premium phones
Actually you did, because you don’t have the “now playing” feature anymore That’s displayed on your always-on-display. The colors are great on the FP4. But deep blacks are not possible on an LCD, also an AMOLED screen is more energy efficient. I really miss the always-on-display, as well as a camera that can shoot in low light environments. The best camera is the one you have always with you. So I do see this as a downside. It’s also more sustainable to have one device that can do all these things well. If you need a smartwatch for notifications and another dedicated camera for pictures, what’s the benefit then of a Fairphone in the sense of doing more with less for a longer time?
LCDs have come a long way but yes, contrast is their weakness. But at the same time, no screen burn to worry about and the arrangement of pixels means they’re a bit clearer. OLED screens tend to have some pixels larger than others to increase life of that colour.
Burnin hasn’t been an issue for quite some time. iPhones ship these screens now as well because they last 5+ years. The screen of my Pixel 3 is just as high res looking as my Fairphone.
But yes, Fairphone has a very good screen. It’s also better than an iPhone 8 screen. Maybe that was the last iPhone with an LCD? Dunno for sure. But I compared them. An LED notification light would’ve made the lack of an always-on-display a bit more bearable. But I don’t want to start that discussion again, that has been addressed a few times already in different threads.
It’s less of an issue because they addressed it with larger pixels for red and blue
But pentile and other arrangements don’t look as good. The Playstation VR headset looks better than an original Vive VR despite the Vive having higher resolution. PS VR uses LCD and Vive OLED.
But OLED burn-in is definitely still a problem on larger screens. Linus Tech Tips has a video on their issue with their OLED screens, which to be fair are TVs not dedicated monitors.
I had the Huawei P30. After one year of the battery manager killing my apps in the background (even when putting them on the exceptions list), I decided to get rid of it. I do much multi tasking so this is a no-go for me. The FP4 is a downgrade, especially camera and display, but it doesn’t bother me too much.
The USB port broke. First it was just iffy whether the phone would charge, then it wouldn’t charge at all. I had it fixed (for not cheap). That survived for less than a year before the same thing happened. Apparently it’s a known issue with the design of the phone. Anyway… now here I am, expecting my FF4 to arrive tomorrow! By the specs it should be a slight upgrade, though I’m hardly a power user so I’ll just be happy to have a phone that reliably charges.
Repaired countless times, the form factor is just perfect. It would still be my main phone (it’s even updated to Android 11) but sadly the end of 3G made it basically useless outside of wifi.
It’s used for bike routing, Twitter / RSS and other stuff too distracting for my main device now. That way I still get to use it daily
We’ve ordered 2 FP4 and looking forward to playing with them when they arrive.
They are replacing my phone, a Nokia 6.1, and my wifes phone is a Sony XA1.
Many moons ago we stepped out of the 2 year upgrade/contract cycle, mostly due to the cost involved, and discovered we didn’t need the latest shiny-shiny. We’ve stuck with various low-mid-range phones since and they’ve generally done well until ‘something’ would condemn them to the smartphone graveyard. I would always find it frustrating that some small defect would result in the rest of the phone becoming waste too. It was often the charging port.
That and an increasing desire to take responsibility for our personal carbon footprint and social impact of our purchases has lead us to the FP4.
We’ve never spent more than £200 on a phone and generally got 3-4 years out of them, so this is a big investment from us and should also be a very decent upgrade too.
It is still a really good device but I get no security-updates since more than one year. The battery is running low and there is no way to switch the battery. I tried to replace the batteries from my older Sony Z3 and Motorola E2, without look.
Motorola also broke its promise to update the Z3 Play to Android 10.
Luckily, I was able to install Lineage OS 8.1 on the Z3 Play, so my son can use the old phone. This was my second try. The version of the Z3 Play officially is not supported by Lineage OS. My first try was a failure.
How long do you have the FP4? It takes a few days for Android to learn the behavior of you and your apps. After that battery optimization will kick in.
I came from a Pixel 3a. FP4 is as fast and heavier. But i like the weight. FP4 bluetooth music streaming stutters on my carkit, but after a minute of so it streams continiously. Pixel3a used to do this too a few years ago, but Google has fixed this.
And… the well known fact:
The FP4 camera is disappointing. I’m not a photography enthousiast, but even for me - the point and click guy - it’s obviously lacking in image quality.
However, you should not expect too much from a Gcam port.
It will be able to tease out a bit more quality in one situation or another. But no Gcam can work miracles.
Ideally, even if it is the most time-consuming, you have both apps (original camera and Gcam port) installed and use them depending on the situation (which cam is better in which situation must of course be tested in a lengthy process ) the one or the other.
@FairphoneHulk
Nothing is easy, is it?
Is it possible to install the stock camera app later on a custom rom? If not, i can at least use open camera as an alternative to the gcam port.
Maybe over time you can share your experiences with us, when which app works best with which settings?