Wanted:
- large screen
- good battery life
- great camera
- long device lifetime, i.e. repairability, software and security updates, swappable battery, …
- enough RAM (8GB) and built-in storage (256GB)
- SD card slot and 3.5mm won’t hurt (but we use wireless headphones all the time)
The competition are (from my POV):
- Samsung S23+ (or similar)
- Motorola Edge 40 Pro (or similar)
- Google Pixel 8 Pro
I ruled out all other vendors due to disappointing update promises. Motorola with 4 years security updates promised (out of which the first year has already passed if the model is not brand new) is the minimum.
All phones are stretching the budget; must be really good to justify the expense. Benchmark for “great” is better than the previous generation (S10).
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In my book the only comparable device is the Pixel. It’s got a 7-year support life, it’s got parts via iFixit for the same period, it can be used with alternative OSes and the software support lifespan transfers to those too since they use the same AOSP base and hardware binary blobs. It’s harder and more expensive to repair than the Fairphone so from repairability it’s definitely behind it. For example a screen replacement for a Pixel 8 seems to be in the $300 territory.
It looks pretty good for if I were buying a new phone. It is expensive, but I really appreciate an open phone with a long lifetime. The only thing I have an issue with is that they chose to kill the jack and sell wireless earbuds instead.
The only thing I have an issue with is the jack
What issue?
You managed to reply before I finished my edit. It should be clearer now.
Got it.
The FP5 is the best in terms of repairability. The device just opens up without any insane glue, just clips and screws, the parts are there and are reasonably priced. And it’s manufactured with sustainable source material according to the company. The workers are treated well also according to them. The company directly sells the FP4 with the deGoogled /e/os which shows that they care about privacy. I could also see them selling this one with built in /e/os sometime in the future. It also does everything you expect from a phone reasonably well.
However, as a phone in that $750 price range, the features and polish are lacking. For some reason, the phone just feels sluggish to use. I have a Pixel 6 and compared to it the difference is night and day. The screen says that it’s 90Hz but it feels like 25Hz when scrolling sometimes. So I recorded scrolling on a chromium browser on both the FP5 and the P6P. I think you can see the difference. Keep in mind that the videos are both 60Hz so I’m probably not inaccurate when I say 25Hz.
I think the phone is overall positive since it gets you from point A to point B and the philosophy behind it is great. I myself am gonna be regularly using it since the sluggishness is something I kinda gotten used to.
Edit: I should have mentioned this from the get-go. But I have installed /e/os which is in beta. This could contribute to the slowness so take my experience with a grain of salt.
I am on an FP4 and there is nothing sluggish about it.
Damn I was also thinking of taking the FP5, but your report of it being sluggish really make me reconsider.
It’s really a shames they do a home run on everything else and then fails just on the UX at the end…
Edit: ans reading below, slow and irregular security update is even worse…
@spookedbyroaches @_edge @android
Genau,lieber ein Pixel mit GrapheneOS. Die meisten reparieren ihr Smartphone eh nicht, wenn es kaputt ist, sondern kaufen gleich ein neues! Und nach 3-4 Jahren ist das Ding eh durch🤷♀️Wobei das der Akku im Fairphone so einfach auf die Schnelle entfernt werden kann - hat schon was!
Ich bin anderer Meinung, ich habe den Bildschirm meines P6P kaputt gemacht und ihn repariert. Ich denke, das Hauptproblem sind die Praktiken der Unternehmen, die eine Reparatur so schwierig machen. Ich denke, wenn man sich Jeffry Hughes anschaut, der auf YouTube Telefonreparaturen durchführt, erkennt man, dass dort ein übler Blödsinn vor sich geht, der nur dadurch erklärt werden kann, dass die Unternehmen nicht wollen, dass irgendjemand die Telefone repariert. Außerdem glaube ich nicht, dass es neue Dinge gibt, die neue Telefone mit sich bringen, solange es scrollt und eine Verbindung zum Internet herstellt, ist alles in Ordnung. Der einzige Grund, warum ich mein Note 10+ nicht habe, ist, dass der Bildschirm fast so teuer ist wie ein gebrauchtes P6P.
Und am wichtigsten: Hören Sie auf, sich der Hegemonie der englischen Sprache zu widersetzen!!!
Overall, the Fairphone 5 is a low-to-mid tier phone with a top-tier price tag. If you support what they claim to do and if you have no issues with not buying the best phone in that price range, get one.
Overall, the Fairphone 5 is a low-to-mid tier phone
Really? Is it that bad? I can see, it’s behind flagship phones, but low-to-mid, really? How do you justify this?
I can sort-of understand your point looking a the benchmarks, e.g. https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=12540&idPhone2=12083&idPhone3=12070
Not that great
Mid-tier or any tier loosely defines a few components. Perhaps the most important being CPU performance, GPU performance, camera performance and screen quality.
There’s probably 1% of use cases that I subjectively encounter in my daily life that hit a CPU bottleneck on my old Pixel 6. If you’re like me, then CPU performance has stopped being important a few years ago. CPU power efficiency on the other hand is important because it’s reflected in battery life.
If you’re like me and don’t play 3D games on your phone, then GPU performance isn’t important either.
Camera performance on the other hand is a big one for me and the Fairphone is definitely not top-tier there.
Personally I don’t care much about the screen so long as its color calibration is decent. I use my Pixel in 1080p, 60Hz to save on power and I don’t see the difference in pixel density between 1080p and 1440p or larger resolution screens in the 6" size band.
I was comparing the Fairphone 5 to the Pixel 8 prior to buying a phone this year and went with a Pixel 8 specifically because of its camera performance advantage. If I didn’t care that much about that, I’d have bought an FP5. Both of these devices are going to be used for 5-7 years and the FP5’s maintenance cost is significantly lower.
Personally I don’t care much about the screen so long as its color calibration is decent. I use my Pixel in 1080p, 60Hz to save on power and I don’t see the difference in pixel density between 1080p and 1440p or larger resolution screens in the 6" size band.
I have a Pixel 7 Pro and I absolutely see a difference. Maybe I’m just used to it, but setting it from 1440x3120 with 120 hz to 1080x2340 with 60 all animations feel like they “stutter” and the text quality is noticeably worse.
On a TV screen a few meters away from me I couldn’t care less. But the phone screen is less than an an arm’s length away from my eyes.
Oh I can see the refresh rate difference too. I can’t see the pixel density difference.
Yeah, the individual pixels are just too small to count, but for me the overall look is worse when setting the reduced resolution.
I agree it’s a low-to-mid tier phone but as I’m only using my FP4 for calls, discord, email, browsing, youtube etc it’s perfectly fine. Most people don’t need a top tier phone these days.
How do you justify this?
Based on the specs, the build quality (according to data sheets stating its plastic), and some of the features (especially the low-res screen) and the software and components (e.g. the outdated UFS, no WiFi 7, the old BT standard, the small battery, etc.)
We live in different universe. You are not wrong, their are mid-tier phones that match the Fairphone specs, but low-res?
1224 x 2700 pixels (~459 ppi density)
Sounds pretty high-res to me and on-par with high-end phones. Wasn’t the first Retina display 200-something ppi? And that was good.
I read something about 1080p on the Fairphone. Mmmh, so the resolution is better, but still not for me.
I don’t say the device is bad, I just don’t consider it as a modern phone. If you want to support their idea, go for it. But for that price tag you can get better hardware.
460ppi low-res? You got some proper eagle eyes, dang
Edit: Just saw your other comment, didn’t know you could bump down the resolution on a Pixel 7. But scaling down to 1080 on a 1440 display won’t look as good as native 1080, I reckon
Anybody here in the US who got their hands on the FP5? It’s awful that they didn’t release it here
I admire their commitment to repairability, but they are too expensive, and their software update support is meh. See this and this. Their security is…something. FP3 had no Qualcomm secure boot . FP4 trusts test keys, rendering verified boot moot.
