I posted in a comment elsewhere in this thread that I'm planning on transitioning soon from a Fairphone 4 to a Pixel 6 Pro + GrapheneOS.
This announcement makes me even more sure of my choice, because it seems Fairphone are starting to lose their way.
One of the reasons I really liked the company in the past was their commitment to extend the longevity of their flagships. They released a "plus upgrade" kit for both the FP2 and the FP3.
To see them release a whole new flagship only a year or so after the FP4 release is ... a shame.
Flatly put, their products aren't very good when you compare them to the "big" vendors like Samsung/Apple/Google. What differentiates them is their commitment to environmental sustainability, un-sucking the rare-metals supply chain, etc. If they're going to release a new flagship every year, how does that make them any better (from a sustainbility POV) to the morally and ethically bankrupt companies they're competing with?
Are they discontinuing support for their previous phones any sooner? Are they cutting the warranty for them or stopping holding parts for them?
Does the existence of a Fairphone 5 make any practical difference to an owner of an FP4? Or is it just the concern that some people will think, "Wah, this isn't the company's latest phone any more!" and upgrade sooner than they might otherwise?
> Are they discontinuing support for their previous phones any sooner? Are they cutting the warranty for them or stopping holding parts for them?
Well obviously they can't back down on their promise to support FP4 for 5 years. But for example back in the FP2 era they went above and beyond and released Android 10 6 years after the release of the FP2. With more and more product lines to support, it seems less likely that such a thing would be feasible in future (limited resources and all that).
> Does the existence of a Fairphone 5 make any practical difference to an owner of an FP4? Or is it just the concern that some people will think, "Wah, this isn't the company's latest phone any more!" and upgrade sooner than they might otherwise?
A bit of both, I think.
The reality is a lot of consumers are still in the mindset that there's no problem with their individual behavior ("it's the fault of Exxon that our planet is doomed, not little ol' me buying a new phone every year!"). So Fairphone is enabling that bad behaviour, here.
Also, by matching the release cadence of the other companies, they're sending a signal that such a thing is okay (I think it isn't). Releasing "upgrade kits" that encourage consumers to extend the life of their handset by another couple of years, is a very different signal.
> The reality is a lot of consumers are still in the mindset that there's no problem with their individual behavior ("it's the fault of Exxon that our planet is doomed, not little ol' me buying a new phone every year!"). So Fairphone is enabling that bad behaviour, here.
So it is the individual's fault, except it's not the individual's fault?
Is there a company that provides upgrade kit? At all? Afaik it's impossible due to complexity, even google had something similar in mind but dropped the idea bc it's too hard
Also a different form factor, but look at what Framework laptops are doing. You can upgrade every part, including the mainboare, individually. If it's possible for an ultrabook form factor, it should be possible for a slate handset form factor (IMO)
Laptops were always upgradable, I'm interested more in upgradable phones, since tech stack is quite different due to Qualcomm
Didn't knew fp3+ exists, thanks
Individual consumer behaviour has never achieved anything. It did not create the minimum wage, 5 day week, end slavery, stop workers being locked in factories, stop toxic pollution in US waterways, etc. That was all done by unions and democratic institutions.
Imo it's the other way. You can still use fp3/4. Fp5 and future models are targetet at new customers: if someone wants to transition from another brand, how happy they'll be if current fp offering is outdated?
As long as they keep supporting old devices, they can totally release new ones and it'll be ethically correct. If they drop fp3/4 at all too early, then yes, it's an end, but till then, I'm happy for them
> If they're going to release a new flagship every year, how does that make them any better (from a sustainbility POV) to the morally and ethically bankrupt companies they're competing with?
By removing many reasons for you to buy a new smartphone every 3 years:
- when your screen breaks, you won't have to pay the price of a new smartphone to replace it
- your apps won't stop working because they want the shiniest OS you don't have (because you'll have it)
- when you're out of storage because apps will have inflated 5 times again, you'll be able to extend storage
- they give you financial incentive to keeping your device (see their subscription model) -- and they give themselves the incentive to make the longest-living product!
- when your battery gets lower charges (which I believe they already efforts to make slower)
Even if you want to buy a new fairphone in 3 years for a shinier camera, your previous fairphone will still be perfectly usable, and still be repairable for a long time.
I agree that it's a bit sad they don't have "plus upgrades", but reducing their work to just the plus upgrades is very extreme.
Also I agree that releasing a new device every year doesn't exactly sound right, but at work we work a huge lot on sustainability (for money reasons), and the conclusion remains that we need a new device every year. Basically the reasoning is that we can't foresee 10 years ahead what will make current devices obsolete. Maybe RAM price will plunge and all devices will have ten times the amount of RAM (and apps will eat ten times more RAM). Maybe some stupid instruction-set will become mandatory. Maybe apps will no longer be usable on sRGB screen. Maybe /that/ Vulkan extension that requires specific hardware will be used by Unity and thus breaking all new games. So one way to reduce the risk (as in total cost of obsolescence), is to make new products regularly, so the amount of devices in production with obsolete hardware is reduced.
If they're not very good then they need rapidly iterate until they do get good. They probably sell so few in comparison to the big guys in the short term it's not a big deal.
My Pixel 6 Pro is starting to break down with the same symptoms it was repaired for about a year ago (screen starts flickering and at some point it will just stay dark). The phone is about 2 years old. Hardware wise it's the most unreliable phone I've ever owned.
I'm currently leasing my Fairphone 4 from Commown, so I'm fairly sure it will go on to live a healthy and productive life elsewhere. I also purchased a used Pixel 6 Pro from eBay.
As per my comment elsewhere in this post, I'm switching away from Fairphone because I care more about the security and software-level ownership of my device. If GrapheneOS had support for Fairphone, I would have stuck with my FP4 for many years to come.
I recently bought a second hand Pixel 6 and installed GrapheneOS on it.
Couldn't be happier. Surprisingly it's one of the most straightforward ROMs I've used, and I've used many over the years.
Glad to hear it! Mine still hasn't arrived yet but I'm very eager to give GrapheneOS a try. Tried LineageOS a few times over the years but when paired with microG it's barely usable, and with Play services I might as well just stick with stock.
This announcement makes me even more sure of my choice, because it seems Fairphone are starting to lose their way.
One of the reasons I really liked the company in the past was their commitment to extend the longevity of their flagships. They released a "plus upgrade" kit for both the FP2 and the FP3.
To see them release a whole new flagship only a year or so after the FP4 release is ... a shame.
Flatly put, their products aren't very good when you compare them to the "big" vendors like Samsung/Apple/Google. What differentiates them is their commitment to environmental sustainability, un-sucking the rare-metals supply chain, etc. If they're going to release a new flagship every year, how does that make them any better (from a sustainbility POV) to the morally and ethically bankrupt companies they're competing with?