Wishlist for the FP2

Though I also think the screen ppi don’t need much improvement, FP2 could certainly use a better panel for the screen, like IPS. An OLED screen would be great though.

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You can already modify the notification LED’s colour with an app:

I strongly approve most of the items on F. Barrenbach list, among others the longer-duration battery…

2 things to get me super-interested in next fairphones:
Modularity (PhoneBloks)
Open Source solution (OS included)

For the rest, yes a slightly bigger screen and less heavy phone would be a plus. But that is not a priority for me.

You do that, I start wearing Fairphone logos all the time :wink:

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  • The lack of support for an OS other than Android is a huge
    disappointment.
  • I would like to see a 720p screen. Not so much that I think this screen is bad, but rather because most content on the internet is either 480p or 720p, never 540p.
  • 5GHz wifi please, not a necessity to me, but just a really sweet bonus if it is there.
  • Light behind the buttons! I use my phone a lot in bed and in the beginning it took a lot of time getting used to finding them blind.
  • On the side of music both a speaker upgrade and better positioning of power button/headphone jack would be lovely.
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Don’t know if it’s been mentioned already, but my Fairphone often switches itself off when it’s in a pocket, I think when the power button gets held down for more than about ten seconds. This is even though it is locked and sleeping. It then switches itself back on and makes an annoying “tick” noise.

I’d like to see this behaviour fixed. It’s the most annoying thing about my phone, which I’m otherwise very happy with. If there’s a need to have a shutdown option when the phone is locked, it could rely on holding down both the power button and a volume button, for example.

Or the power button could be recessed so it’s harder to press accidentally, but this might affect usability when it’s used to activate the screen.

Thanks!

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I understand this is annoying, your phone turning off and on in your pocket. If have never heard that before in this forum. And I don’t know the “tick” sound. Maybe you open another discussion in Fairphone Help or Café to find out if other had the same problem.

But the power button working even in lock screen is standard behavior in all android devices I know. The long press gives you a way to turn off your or someone other’s phone fast if necessary. This also worked in my Nokia N8 and all other phones I know, even really old dumb phones. It is probably coded deep into the system and even if it was not, I am strongly against changing that behavior!

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:waving_frantically: Here, happens to me a lot. That’s why I no longer carry my FP in the pockets of my trousers. Going to be very annoying in the summer, when I don’t wear a jacket. :-/

Also:

Happens when you encrypt your phone: phone waits for passphrase entry after booting, and ticks annoyingly. Breaks also the wake-on-alarm feature. We discussed this in other threads.

This is, by the way, a reason why do not have my phone encrypted at the moment.

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Interesting! My phone is encrypted and i never noticed that! :slight_smile:

I thought an aluminium cover was pretty clever.
It’s hard to make a robust cover as thin with plastic (especially for the pin holding it).
Aluminium is also good to dissipate heat from the battery.

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the radio works pretty well for me, as long as I do plug a (wired) earphone, to get an antenna.
And may I add, I find it really honest on the part of Fairpone to have suppressed any allusion to the FM receiver in the product description, just because they don’t control it. They seem to consider it’s a free extra on which they cannot commit…

Well I’m new here but since everybody seems entitled to their say here goes for what’s important to me, bearing in mind that
1/ I don’t own a FP1 and am not planning to get one.
2/ I WILL get this Fairphone 2 no matter what. Like I said in my first post elsewhere, I need a new smartphone —previous dead— and am ready to use a used dumbphone for as long as it’ll take for FP2 to come out. This project is fantastic and deserves waiting.

Size, weight and battery life : please not too large. I don’t mind the thickness and the weight, especially if that warrants good battery life, but like someone said, people who want a tablet know what to buy – not a phone. All 3 parameters dealt with together because they have to : battery cells just need their rightful space people, don’t come and complain about battery life if you’ve been granted someting light, thin with a large bright screen. These things may be nice, comfortable and cool, but battery life is crucial.

Replaceable battery : yes, of course

Ample internal memory and have Micro-SD slot : ditto. Gerco mentions memory space juggling, that’s one of my main grievances of the phone I’m replacing. In 2015 this is meaningless, like an engine hand-crank would be.

Screen brightness : Progressive with a very dim low and a good bright high is a good idea I think, it’s always good to adapt accordingly to light conditions and battery state.

LTE - 4G : a sine qua non for me to buy it. I live in a city, my provider lets me access it at no extra cost, I’ve seen how fast it can be on friends’ devices. True, I don’t need it. But it’s simply too good not to. Like an elevator if you live on the 10th floor. Without it you stay in shape, but it plain sucks. Plus, man, you do want to make this FP2 to be a technological step-up over FP1, right ?

Designed to be open : yes, yes, yes. Ideally I’d want it shipped with Firefox OS even. I’d understand if Android were the wiser choice (the project is worth nothing if it dies because too few feel like buying it, that’s just maths), but it would bug me if I couldn’t at least install Firefox OS on my own, as easily as possible.
I see a smartphone as essentially a tiny PC I bring about everywhere and lets me phone and email and voIP and surf. Most phones feel to me as if they’re Macs of sorts : you buy the machine with its software ecosystem, better be happy with it cos you’re not supposed to stray from the path chosen for you at the beginning. I like my Linux system, but even more I like that if another project is born and I like it better, I can choose to use it. And that’s because the hardware on my pc is NOT system biased (anymore…). That’s the way smartphones should be.

Ruggedness : I don’t know how FP1 performs on that ground, but I suppose we’ll all agree that even better than extracting resources fairly is to extract less, and the more chances the device has to last, the better we’ll achieve that. I could sacrifice anything in style for something always stronger. Not that the two have to be incompatible mind you ; I’ve read talk about rubber, that could be alright.

Availability : before the end of 2015 would be nice…

What I don’t mention here I don’t care or know about enough.

Cheers :sunny:

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I disagree. The FP2 should be a social and ecological step-up, meaning more materials sourced sustainably and better working conditions for the people involved.

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Sorry, I haven’t read everything about this project yet, I wasn’t aware that the team’s aim for FP2 was rather more fair than more phone.

It’s true that up to 60hrs of labour per week is still not cool (I don’t know where things are at atm, just referring to sth I’ve read today), I just figured we’d reached what we could here in 2015, but if improvements can still be attained on the short term, then I’m of course all for it, and ready to compromise on the technology. To be honest, from what I gather on a day to day basis I could be content even with a ZTE open C tech-wise.

Not to say that I would mind hardware advances though, it’s just that this thread is mostly tech-oriented… I’ll take what there is :wink:

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True, this thread is mostly tech-based! If you are concerned in the working conditions of the factory where the FP is produced, you should have a look at the blog. The blog generally is quite an interesting read. :slight_smile:

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@humorkritik thank you very much. Yes, a solution to the FP switching itself off in trouser pockets would be great! For me, the power button gets pressed most frequently when I’m cycling or sitting. Maybe I should not have bothered to encrypt my phone - I’d prefer if it just waited for the passphrase rather than ticking.

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As a fellow previous Desire Z user, i agree with you on every point. I love the heavy weight, makes it easier to use with one hand without it “floating away” in the air :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t know if someone has mentioned it yet, the list has grown rather long :smile: , but a charger plug of the new USB Typ-C would be very nice. Not really a must but would definitely convey a future oriented design-language.

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All fine with at top:

  • better GPS
  • better camera
    which are the worst components of FP1

Ettore

Another thing would be high end audio processing components.