this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Android

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The review is a bit late, but it's fairly detailed and informative.

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[–] b0ttas 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Was actually looking into getting one myself. But the lack of a headphone jack is a deal breaker for me.

[–] Chee_Koala 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I feel yah, but I was completely fed up looking for the golden pony boy with a 3.5mm jack. I'm team dongle now :-(.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I am reluctantly Team dongle now aswell.

I'd have liked to get something like a Sony that would fit a lot of my needs hardware wise (headphone jack, SD card reader, side mounted fingerprint scanner, and so on). But the shit software update policy and higher price made me just get a pixel 6a and make some compromises.

[–] b0ttas 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The only ones I've seen have 180Β° degree USB-C ports, I haven't really been thorough searching tbf..

I feel like they could pose damage to the charging port, if I were to use them with the phone on my pocket.

Probably just overthinking it but still πŸ˜‚

[–] Chee_Koala 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just get the apple usb-c to 3.5mm dongle, it's cheap and relatively powerful. They are 10 euro rond here and I have like 3 laying around (dongles suck and get lost ) or permanently coupled with the cable I use it with. 180 degree ports are probably not great in pocket, maybe if it rests on the port? port downwards?

[–] b0ttas 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, they're cheap enough Thanks for the suggestion!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was also outraged when the audio jack disappeared from phones but now that they have quality wireless earbuds I really can't imagine going back to a wired headphone. The very last time I used a wired headphone I got it snagged on a cabinet pull and they painfully ripped from my ears. Never again. And even if you wanted wired, usb-c dongles are dirt cheap.

I can no longer understand the argument for an audio jack at this stage.

[–] b0ttas 1 points 1 year ago

Primarily, wired headphones tend to be less disposable. Don't require batteries too.

I had to get wireless earbuds too, since my company requires me to use a device of their choosing, but we're talking personal preference here.

Sure, wireless BT has come a long way, no argument there, and it's not like I listen to FLACs on the go.

The thing with dongles is that they look fragile AF.

And I find it hard to justify the unnecessary use of batteries, it's just something else for me to forget, and also somewhat raises some environmental concerns.. idk

But that's only my POV on the matter, not a hard stance or anything

[–] Acamon 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I really want to like this and keep trying to convince myself that the little problems would be manageable... I'm not too fussed about bezels, the camera or the screen not being that bright. The processor and "sluggishness" seem like the main issue - is it noticeable during day to day use? I don't play games but I do flick between apps a lot, is it noticeable?

And the charging seems frustratingly slow, even my midrange phone for a few years back had 65w charging. Is there an external battery charger? That way I could always be using my phone and just have a couple of spare batteries that can be charged externally.

[–] Neon 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also flick between a lot of apps and am writing this from my FP5

Honestly: no, not really. I haven't noticed any sluggishness whatsoever.

Now that I'm looking for it, i did notice that apps aren't kept open in the background but are instead restarted when you switch. But the load time is so abysmal (0.2 - 0.5s), i literally never noticed until i started looking for you.

I like it a lot. It's a really great phone for me. But i am also not your typical user. I don't game, except maybe a sudoku once in a while. I use my phone exclusively for: lemmy, music, texting, calling and watching videos.

I do wish it was iphone-mini-sized, but that's not a Problem with FairPhone but rather a Problem with the industry as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I have the same exact usage as you. I thought I was typical. πŸ˜… Do people typically play on their phones ? it doesn't seem like a very good experience but then again I've never tried

[–] Carighan 10 points 1 year ago

I have a Fairphone 4 since release and honestly I don't have a clue what sluggishness people complain about.

My biggest gripe is lack of AR core (most board gaming apps require it) and lack of a notification LED. The rest is a fantastic phone where I can trivially repair broken parts. Which I've really been missing. In return it's a bit pricey, granted.

[–] DrStrange 4 points 1 year ago

Received my Fairphone5 yesterday. Literally no issues so far with performance or battery. Dint notice any sort of sluggishness. Also, it's built like a tank compared to my iPhone 12 mini.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It should not be. Heck, I have a ton of apps & games, and multitask like crazy. On my A22 5g with its dimensity 700 and 6GB of ram(+6GB virtual). It's not really an issue. I only see things slow down when it's thermal throttling. The author mentioned 0 throttling issues, so it should be fine for the fairphone with its SoC. The previous fairphones had even lower performance, but they have existed and are fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Back when Samsung and Motorola had swappable batteries, I bought a universal battery charger. It had repositionable pins that you guide to touch the right connectors on the battery, and a spring-adjustable battery height. I bet those are still sold somewhere.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, i am using the OnePlus Nord N200 now and was using the Motorola One 5G Ace. I find no issues in day-to-day use of the phone. It switches apps fine and performs quite well. Now i do notice app installs take a bit. Not god awful long, but not almost instant like on snapdragon 8 series chips. I think you should be fine as long as

  • you arent a mobile gamer
  • you arent constantly installing new apps.

App updates can take a little bit so either set aside time to do them or maybe google play !if you use that crap) will do it for you.

NOTE: I run my phones on totally degoogled LineageOS. When i used stock this thing lagged like dial-up because of all the google play crap. It was horrible. If you are going to get it i seriously suggest the degoogled life. Maybe it would have been better after everything settled down, updated, etc, but that first boot with play services on stock was horrible in the extreme and i installed Lineage as fast as possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

App updates can take a little bit so either set aside time to do them or maybe google play !if you use that crap) will do it for you.

I have a smartphone with dimensity 700. If it can apply updates(multiple apps) in a few mins tops. The fairphone with its SoC should be fine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

By "some time" i meant like 10-15 seconds per app. A snapdragon 8 series is nearly instant.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really love the idea of the Fairphone, but I just can't bring myself to deal with the CPU downgrade for them generally.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unless you are a mobile gamer there is no reason for such overpowered CPUs, in most cases they are just there because higher numbers sell better!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This has not been my experience. I can usually tell when my phone bogs down loading an intense website or switching between 3 apps after a couple years. If I want my phone to last a long time and I want to enjoy using it I've found that it's best to start with a device that is as powerful as possible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's usually a combination of planned obsolesence and bad software, Smasung flagships for example start to significantly slow down after roughly a year of usage. These CPUs are more than enough for daily tasks like web browsing and as soon as you have a manufacturer with good software support or load something like LineageOS on the device it usually works very well again, in some cases you also need a new battery because many clock down once that looses capacity.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why is it so overpriced and expensive in Vietnam? Is it really worth spending money equal to a new iPhone on this?..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tbh if you live in a non european country i'd recommend a good Pocophone

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

What is that? My budget is about 130usd.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, I see. Was wondering what all the fuss is about. Originally I assumed it was a budget (but maybe quality) Android alternative to something like Samsung, so the price surprised me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's going to be a continuation of their previous products. It's just greenwashing through and through. Their update guarantees are worthless, because they don't invest in fixing any of their annoying bugs. I have a FP4 and Android Auto is still broken as fuck. Within the 2 years I had it, they didn't release a single fix in that area.

The fingerprint sensor is a piece of garbage that fails constantly and gets stuck in "clean sensor" faults until you reboot the phone. Also not fixed in its entire life time so far.

It's great that you can replace parts, but even with all parts new it's a garbage phone. Maybe they can't even fix these things, because they used inferior hardware where they don't even have control over the problematic behavior.

They continue to release new garbage to the market and they really do not give a single fuck about the quality of the products they already released to market. They just don't have any good products. Sure there are people who claim "it works for me", but the bugs are real and so is the poor customer care of this company. Stay away as far as possible. You're being scammed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thank you for sharing your real thoughts and being straightforward. Very educational. Appreciated. Not many people here have the balls to say the hard truth, for whatever reason.