Wishlist for the FP2

Jerome · February 13, 2015, 7:09pm

I’m happy with the overall size of the FP1U so I would like to keep it instead of swapping it for a Fairphone 2. I like the mainboard on the FP2 to be mechanically compatible with FP1, so that a FP1 user can change the mainboard and get the newer CPU and GPU, get more RAM, get LTE and NFC communications. A little bit the same idea as what Golden Delicious does for the OpenMoko phone. http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/

Keeping the same size and housing as the FP1 for the FP2 would mean a larger community of cases, holders as all the designs from the FP1 could be reused.

Personally I don’t care about oleophobic glass. I’m using a screen protector sheet and I’ve never got a greasy screen with it.

Please keep
Dual sim
SD card slot
Exchangeable battery
Size

Agno · February 15, 2015, 7:32am

[quote=“ben, post:1, topic:2510”]Display resolution: This affects battery live and i am ok with the current resolution. A increase might be still nice if FP2 features a larger screen, like to 720p? P: 3 Actually nobody here seems to really care for the resolution, execept me. Keep dpi roughly the same i would guess and not lower it.
[/quote]

Actually, I care about the resolution too. For me 720p would be fine.

Mauro_Ricambi_Origin · February 16, 2015, 9:41am

Hi,
I’d really like to have the FM radio. I use it a lot, and it’s really the one reason why I did not buy a fariphone yet.
thanks
mauro

ben · February 16, 2015, 9:58am

The current Fairphone already has a FM Radio Reciever. Is that what you
meant? Or do you require FM radio sender capabilities like some Nokia
models had?

Mauro_Ricambi_Origin · February 16, 2015, 10:42am

Yep, I’ve just noticed on the forum that someone pointed at it. However, it’s not advertised among the product features. Why exactly?

Stefan · February 16, 2015, 11:23am

See here why.

Mauro_Ricambi_Origin · February 16, 2015, 11:31am

Wow, I’ve should have done my homework
Anyway, I’ll wait for FP2, if it’s within reasonable time. At this moment my not-so-smart phone is still performing good, and the battery lasts 5 days in normal usage.
Actually, the battery is really what scares me.
Will FP2 upgrade the standards and have a very looooooong battery time?

Stefan · February 16, 2015, 11:35am

We don’t know much yet about the specifications of the FP2. We certainly would like to see a long battery time (as stated in the original post I think). Check Fairleaks for the FP2-information, which has been already leaked.

marvin24 · February 17, 2015, 1:53pm

Is there a “price poll” somewhere. Now that people start asking for features, it would be good to know how much they are willing to pay for it.

Stefan · February 17, 2015, 2:28pm

Not yet, but you can create one, if you like: How to create a poll.

However I doubt, that FP2 will be much more expensive than FP1 because this would reduce the crowd of potential buyers.

marvin24 · February 17, 2015, 2:49pm

It should be more expensive if you look at the wishlist. In fact, I think FP1 was a bit too cheep. You should offer a bit more than others (beside beeing fair) to customers. One example would be “openness”. In this case you can ask for a higher price, comparable to e.g. iPhones. Otherwise you would have an relative expensive phone (compared to competitors with similar specs) and only one prominent feature. Ok, there are is also other stuff (e.g. recycling), but somehow this wasn’t communicated well enough.

Stefan · February 17, 2015, 3:06pm

The wishlist is only our wishes and not what the final FP2 will feature.
My opinion: I don’t see the FP as a High-End phone, but a device to change something in the industry. I don’t really care about the internals as long as a browser and the calendar work fine. What’s more important to me is the use of conflict-free materials and the worker welfare fund in China, which both are paradigm changers. To me the Fairphone is a “Feel-Good-phone”. I would feel less good if owning an iPhone.

ben · February 17, 2015, 3:59pm

I recommend reading the latest blog on the development of the next Fairphone (Blog). There are several things in it that make me guess the next Fairphone will be as expensive as current or more expensive:

For the new phone, we want to move towards even greater transparency in
the supply chain to better enable us to extend our social and
environmental impact. In this way, designing the phone ourselves allows
us to create more visibility in our own supply chain.

I applaud that approch, but it will come at a cost: Developing a smartphone is not cheap. And keep in mind the current Fairphone was an upgrade model of a model produced in much larger volume for the chinese market. The next Fairphone will be more unique in design and hardware and that means probably a more complicated production.

We believe that our new phone should have 4G LTE to be a long-lasting
device, so this year’s phone will have these frequency bands.

I guess they want keep dual sim. It seems important for second markets and additionally, it is clear from our wishlist that LTE and dual sim are important for us. LTE chipsets alone are more expensive, now weight in dual sim and you do not have a wide selection of chipsets available. It might be possible to get a chipset roughly as expensive as the one for FP1 was. Certainly not cheaper I believe.

In our product design and engineering, we will put longevity at the
center of our work.[…] One of the choices that follows
from this thinking is that we are making a higher-end product. Doing so
allows a product to last longer and remain competitive in a fast-moving
sector. A high-quality product, which uses high-quality key components
will last longer because in principle, these components and platforms
will be supported for a longer time.

Reading the complaints in this forum and the whishlist, there is good reason for this thinking. So many of us are angry about the bad platform support by mediatek for our chipset. A lot of you have argued that this would not have happened with a higher quality/more expensive chipset. I personally do not see an alternative to that. Also even with a volume of 100.000 devices per year, this is not exactly a high volume product by industrie standards. A higher quality/ higher price device makes the project more attractive for the manufacturers actually building the FP2.

Weight in all the wishes about are more open source friendly approach. This has to be managed, controlled and executed. It does not come for free. For example support additional OSes like Firefox OS or Ubuntu OS or Sailfish OS will required resources that have to be paid for.

And finally, read the wishlist here and think about how to possibly keep the price point of the FP1. I don’t see that. But keep in mind, that is just me guessing!

Finally, in my opinion, with FP1 many of us bought a phone before we even knew the company could deliver. Not all worked out 100% but i think we and Fairphone learned a lot in that process. I have more confidence in the project now compared to may 2013 when i bought my FP1. I certainly would be willing to pay more (if Fairphone delivers on at least some of the crucial items from that wishlist) knowing it makes an impact. A higher quality phone will also keep second market prices more resonable up. Now, i am not speaking of iPhone prices here (insane 900€ depending on configuration) but well above the 340€ or so i paid for the FP1

chtfn · February 18, 2015, 11:59pm

I think that my main concern is the camera quality. I would love to have a better camera, not more pixels because the size of the photos at max resolution is already significant, but actual better-looking photos. I am no professional but I am often disappointed by the quality of the photos I take, depending on the conditions. The other thing is that it really struggles focusing if there isn’t heaps of light.
I’d love to have a phone that doesn’t make me consider getting a compact digital camera on the side! And I assume most people would too:)

Another concern, which is linked to the environmental concern that Fairphone give a lot of importance to, is battery life. Fairphone should push towards (1) more energy efficiency and (2) more battery capacity and durability. This is a massive challenge for the smartphone industry at the moment: I do not know of many smartphones that can last for more than a day. My previous phone (a Nokia C3) obviously did not have half the features of a smartphone, but I could keep it alive for a whole week without recharging (!). That should be what we strive for in the future: less electricity consumption and less dependance on a charger + power outlet.

matthiss · February 19, 2015, 8:18am

What about NFC ?

I read a lot that many in this forum don’t mind weather the FP2 has some nice hardware upgrades or not.
I really do think that “fairness” is the number one priority for the FP, but I’ve got the feeling, that many don’t relate better specs with longevity strong enough. Fairphones technology isn’t that bleeding edge, that it would mean much higher costs to upgrade hardware, neither should newer technology be a general threat to fair production.
In terms of energy and resource efficiency, as well as longevity modern chip sets usually beat older ones.

If you think about Ubuntu support and have a lot at highend phone specs these days, you could even consider replacing notebooks or even PCs with your phone. Have a lot at Ubuntus approach on convergence.

If you see any big flaws in my statement please tell me about it

Stefan · February 19, 2015, 11:59am

Nothing known about NFC yet (Personally I don’t see many use cases right now / I find it more usefully in credit cards: To clarify: I favor keeping uses apart. I don’t want to transfer money with my phone).

I would like it though, if I could replace my PC with my phone.

matthiss · February 19, 2015, 12:26pm

I think NFC will be a big thing. But we don’t have to discuss this here

Have you heard about the crazy sales of the “first Ubuntu phone”?
It’s specifications are pretty similar to the FP, though it costs half as much and isn’t “fair”.
http://www.bq.com/gb/ubuntu.html

btw: Also a MediaTek CPU, but a tiny bit stronger

Stefan · February 19, 2015, 6:36pm

Of course I have heard of it.

See

And

gogge · February 20, 2015, 12:46pm

Hi,

BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) support would be great.
Yorck

Rob_van_der_Does · February 20, 2015, 2:27pm

@Stefan:
I see quite a number of replies from you, stating that you don’t use much functionality of your phone. IIRC you said do be happy if you can actually make phone calls and use the calender.
Of course you’re completely free to use any device you own the way you want to, but I really hope you’ll understand that most people will buy a smartphone to use it as a smartphone. After all making phone calls and using (an easy to sync calendar) are functionalities my old dumbphone had for over 10 years. If I understand you correctly you would have been very happy with my 10 years old dumbphone…
Anyway: my message is that your repeated statements about the limited use you make of your phone are not very useful, and especially from a ‘community manager’ I really do expect an other view on the matter at hand.