Fairphone 5 Review: Hopeful Innovation?
Fairphone 5 Review: Hopeful Innovation?
I reviewed the Fairphone 5: the sustainable, eco-friendly smartphone. Are its specifications and 8 years of Android updates worth the €700 price tag?
The review is a bit late, but it's fairly detailed and informative.
Was actually looking into getting one myself. But the lack of a headphone jack is a deal breaker for me.
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 :-(.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
I have the same exact usage as you. I thought I was typical. 😅 Do people typically play on their phones ? it doesn't seem like a very good experience but then again I've never tried
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wish I could get one in the US.
I really love the idea of the Fairphone, but I just can't bring myself to deal with the CPU downgrade for them generally.
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!
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.
Running FP4 myself, bought bit less than a year ago. If I can get it last significantly longer than phones usually do, I get another one. If not, I have to come up with something else.
No complaints so far but I do all the fancy stuff on PC so I don't need much from my phone. Remains to be seen if it's worth it.
Why is it so overpriced and expensive in Vietnam? Is it really worth spending money equal to a new iPhone on this?..
Tbh if you live in a non european country i'd recommend a good Pocophone
What is that? My budget is about 130usd.
Takes out battery to insert SIM and SDcard, is this 2012?
Permanently Deleted
Android has supported hotswapping SIM cards and microSD cards for over a decade
You don't have to remove those doesn't mean everyone else want. Beside, LG G3/4 already have the ability to hotswap sim/sd card and still offer a removable battery. This is just outdated design choice