See this:
Decent specs, maybe, but no 4G/LTE? That’s a serious oversight, because by the time we get down to the second-hand market, 4G will be old and there will be something new.
Also not having all frequencies to make it a true world phone was another oversight IMO. I moved to Canada and am really sad that I’m stuck with Edge, which can only occasionally load a Google map/directions after waiting about 5minutes.
So I know from experience what the people will feel when stuck with 3G as the world moves on to 5G or whatever!
Just my 2¢ on that 
I’m enjoying this discussion, though. Both sides have excellent points! Keep it going
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I think a ‘phablet’ is the most fair 
One device that does nearly everything! No need to buy many devices and eventually throw them away. I am one of those people who went from desktop to laptop to tablet. And went from camera, mp3 player, and mobile phone to smartphone to fairphone. Following this logic, I would rather consolidate my tablet and phone when it comes time to replace them. And in doing so, would love it to be fair!
There is a dell tablet and one by Lenovo that run full windows 8.1 on a 7 or 8 inch. Windows ‘apps’ are terrible, but it’s able to run regular windows software, like full MS Office. Don’t think it’s able to run another OS, though. And it is already tough to use on the 7-8 inch size. I can’t imagine it on a phone. Phablet maybe? Hehe
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I second this. I’d have had another Fairphone offered to a Canadian son would more frequencies be supported. I do hope at least this will be part of next specification. Your argument as to 4G old when hitting second market is strong, too.
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I’m not too familiar with which parts of source code are open and which are not. However, as far as I understand https://github.com/keesj/alps-fairphone-gpl provides a working kernel source code. Some drivers are still provided as executables (not as source code, see also http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2636257 ), but in principle you could integrate that into another operating system, or am I wrong? It’s probably so much work as to make in improbable for somebody to do…
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Scary huh, this “progress” thing. Being sceptical about things is healthy, but coming up with your own la-la-land fantasy doomsday scenario and preaching it like it’s real doesn’t help anybody.
Would you really decline a FairPhone OS update if it came as an Android update to Android 4.4 or 5?
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Maybe we should all try not to keep the (Mediatek) chip on our shoulders?
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This is just your personal opinion and not a fact. I bet it is the other way around. Smartphones are still coming strong, there is no need to focus Android Development for Tablets. We are both only doing only more or less educated guesses, but i see no tendency whatsoever of Google focusing on Tablets. Actually, i am pretty sure for both iOS and Android, the phone is the number one target. This aligns with sale figures and estimations by agencies.
My opinion: No, not at all.Mobile technology ist advancing fast, but not nearly as fast as you seem to expect.
This is a valid point. If it is possible, fair phones in the future should support more frequencies. I doubt nobody would argue against that. Then, on the other hand… you never know in this internet-forums.
Whoa. Next time, insults?
I describe what I see happening in front of me. You don’t see the same. We have an equal right to express it here, mind you.
Sure. I definitely don’t need it, and I consider it would endanger the proper working of dozens of apps I spent a long time to set up.
Is it really so difficult to understand “I dont’ need”?
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The thing is, it all seems founded in baseless speculation. Do you have concrete evidence to support your fears of Android updates breaking things and making things worse? I mean, for starters, your whole tablet theory doesn’t hold ground based on the fact that there’s a multitude of Android phones in this world compared to Android tablets. Why would Google change things in Android to support some tablet functionality, which in turn would make the phone experience worse? It doesn’t make sense.
What is real is things like better Bluetooth support (Bluetooth LE) in Android 4.3, improved performance in Android 4.4, better memory usage and improved battery life in Android 5 and a myriad of security fixes that have never reached Android 4.2
Do you need a newer Android version? Well, probably not, in the same way that you don’t really need a smartphone at all, but does a newer Android version bring many improvements to your phone? Yes, it certainly does.
Now, I can’t of course argue against your personal preference. You’re free to stick to Android 4.2, no matter how much I disagree with the reasons. But I don’t want to see FairPhone adopting this line of thought and deciding against putting effort into bringing newer versions of Android to the FairPhone.
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After which we ought to be able to agree on the fact that we disagree and turn our hobby horses out in a field to play?
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We’re all still friends here. Thanks for the ideas.
Play nice!
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I do disagree. Why wantin to d a long-term relationship with an closed-source manufacturer? If FP wants to be known as assertive company, they need to
a) demand free drivers (and a contract for a long-term supplier relationship as a reward)
b) use another manufactures if possible
or c:
if MediaThek agreed to give free drivers in a agreement, just reverse-engineer them. there is no break of contract.
I think this was not clear to Fairphone at the beginning of their campaign. They did not realize, that the drivers make up such a big part of a long-lasting device.
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The argument went that Fairphone wanted a long-term relationship to be able to have a leverage within the company. And our discussion is now obsolete: from the latest blogposts, we know that a) Fairphone (reluctantly) will move to a new partner, and b) we will not get Lollipop 
, not even KitKat 
.
MediaTek. :trollface:
'nuff zed. 
Also, I think we can safely assume that Fairphone searched for some qualified legal advice considering reverse-engineering the drivers, and the software-blogpost seems to indicate (to me, at least) that it can’t be done without at least a large risk. Just by the way, it would be really nice to hear from @anon90052001 and @anon12454812 some insider stories on what they considered, what advice the searched and how decisions considering ongoing software support etc. are made in the Fairphone team. I’m just curious, but it might also add some more transparency to the matter.
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Thanks, sounds interesting. Where did you hear they’re getting a new partner? and why no KitKat?
Kitkat is not officially possible because of Mediatek (the chipset vendor) not releasing the kernel sources. Please read the software-blogpost for more information on this.
I think @humorkritik referred to the fact, that there is no other option for FP than changing their chipset partner, if they want to stick to their goals.