this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] 51 points 6 days ago (8 children)

I am writing right now from my degoogled Fairphone 4 running /e/OS.

I would buy again in a heartbeat.

It's definitely not the most bang for your bucks. But it's good enough for any use, it already outlived my last 3 phones, and it shows no sign of giving up (even when I was using the Google infested OS a few months back).

I'd recommend it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I'm writing from F4 as well. The longer I own it, the more I'm impressed. Fixability has saved me replacing the phone twice now (I dropped it on the screen, and got cement in the usb charger).

If you're just considering spec, its fairly pricey, but the repairability easily makes up for it. Have a pair of their bluetooth headphones too which I love.

Question for OP: how did you find installing /e/OS? I have android still but am thinking about trying to install.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I agree that nobody should trust any corpo, including Apple, but there's nuance to that story that never gets mentioned in these discussions.

Apple used to slow down devices whose batteries were starting to fail, in order to reduce the likelihood that your device suddenly turns off before the battery reads as empty. Simply put, if the battery couldn't guarantee a certain power output down until empty, they'd throttle the CPU.

The notably scummy part here is that they didn't tell users, and it wasn't an option you could change. To make up for it, they had a cheap battery replacement program for several years and informed users about the issue, and I believe it's optional now?

This was also several years before other manufacturers started offering OS support timelines comparable to Apple's. Apple still let you update a 6 year old iPhone when others were doing 3 years for flagships. Fairphone of course was an exception.

You should still get a Fairphone if it meets your actual needs or a Pixel if you need GrapheneOS, but if you're a non technical user who actually can make the most of a flagship, I'd recommend an iPhone over Samsung (just as expensive as Apple and these are the guys who put ads in TV UI nowadays) or Google (questionable stability with the Tensor chips in some iterations) at least. 5 years ago I'd recommend OnePlus, but those days are over. The stock ROM is now ass. I keep my old 7 pro around to play Real Racing 3 and with a custom rom I'm like 3 android versions beyond OEM support and it's actually super smooth. But I won't recommend it to a non techy user.

PS: I'm an Apple user, but not a diehard fan boy. I make comments explaining or defending them often because I feel Apple gets way more flak than their competitors who are usually equally scummy.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Additional note: they also did it with some Macbooks and I can tell you it had nothing to do with battery AGE. Machines that shower either a faulty or significantly worn battery would be slow. Apple considered 80% of nominal capacity to be the limit where a battery should be replaced under warranty on those, but the slowdowns started at like 50 or 60 percent if I recall correctly. By faulty I mean devices where the system scan in AST legally said "internal fault" or something. I used to refurb Macbooks.

It was noticeable in the 2012 macbook air because that model, a weird unicorn year with components that differed from both the 2010-2011 and 2013-2017 models, would significantly slow down with a bad battery even when it was connected to AC power. Literally removing the battery made it usable again. In other model years it was never really noticeable.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yup. I had an iPhone 6S that was affected by this. When the battery was starting to get older, things like opening the camera would sometimes just cause the phone to die. I got the battery replaced for free, but flipping it to throttle instead of randomly shut itself down was an improvement, and likely extended the usable lives of the affected phones, not artificially shorten them. It shouldn't have been done secretly but it wasn't a conspiracy to sell more iPhones.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, I have a FP3+...

I'm actually feeling guilty about considering a FP5 because my current phone works absolutely fine, had recent updates and I have a good spare battery ready to swap out on long days... so... I'll probably stay with this one even though I want the new one

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Looks good until you zoom in a little

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Dresden always looks nice no matter the phone. ;)

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (7 children)

Interesting, my girlfriend's friend bought a FP4 because she wanted an eco-friendlyish phone that would last a long time and she says it has been the worst phone of her life with tons of bugs, super slow specifically over 4G, mediocre camera, android auto works badly, etc...

(She uses android, not /e/ or calyx)

I want so hard to believe, but there are just as many reports of it being very bug ridden as positive reviews, so it is difficult, since the negative ones always seem to be detailed and specific.

I would also consider a pixel for graphene, but no SD card and 128GB or 256GB internal memory only is a deal breaker. My SD card + flash in my current phone is already at 245GB

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[โ€“] [email protected] 27 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I really wanted one but it's hardware isn't supported by grapheneOS. I wish these two companies would partner up, that would be the best of both worlds.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Might not be the same, but they do partner with Murino to offer an /e/os degoogled alternative.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (4 children)

That's cool. At least its degoogled. GOS's security is a must for me though, after using it I don't ever want to go without. But I'm glad fairPhone is offering alternatives.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Yup! Completely butchered that spelling, sorry for anyone who tried to google them.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I have a FP5, and love it. Yes, of course I wish it had a headphone jack.

Dual sim for my two countries I use it for, plus no sim tool needed to change hardware sim is a nice little plus.

Replaceable battery is dank. It's small and light enough to toss in a small bag if I'm going somewhere and I honestly basically never think about my battery life now.

All the rest of the hardware is pretty good. Not amazing, you can get more for the money, but also it feels good to have some morality in it. And I don't want to break it bir the peace of mind that if I do it's an easy repair, fantastic.

I hated the Fairphone case though. Terrible POS. I got a random internet one and it's much better.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Adding a headphone jack would make it a slam dunk

[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Does someone have experience with a de-googled Android phone (graphene, /e/, ...) for professional use in IT? I need a ton of authenticator apps (Microsoft Authenticator, Oracle Authenticator,...), various VPN apps and privacy-invading 'security' apps. Does such stuff typically work without play services and with a custom rom?

In the past I used a custom rom on my private phone and already there it was a bit of hassle to get the banking app running. I'd assume it to be worse with these professional spyware apps. Am I right?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Authenticators work fine for me, banking works fine, I've had a VPN working. Have had some issues with whatsapp backup because it only wanted to backup to google drive. But after circumventing that, no other issues. This is on e/os

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Every thing you said works perfectly fine on my calyxOS FP5. Haven't tried Oracle Authenticator

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (2 children)

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_5_(fairphone-fp5)

Audio

Status : Broken No driver for the audio codec yet. No internal speaker or microphone is currently working. You can get all sounds via Bluetooth or USB peripherals.

That's a shame :(

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

But that's only the case for postmarketOS, and not the stock OS, right?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

yeah just postmarketOS.

Someones working on porting SailfishOS: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sailfish-os-for-fairphones-devices/21516/76

The Fairphone 4 is fully supported by Ubuntu touch though (and Fairphone5 is in the works) : https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/fp4/

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

I would assume so, Its probably only broken when using a linux distro like postmarket and not the stock android it comes with.

I hoped this was a linux phone where all the features just worked but sadly not.

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[โ€“] corsicanguppy 9 points 6 days ago

My key feature is a headphone jack. I'm really bummed to hear the FP5 has none.

[โ€“] Sunshine 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Fairphone is benefiting from the economies of scales!

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I personally use a Pixel 9 with GraphineOS, I would love to use a fairphone however they desperately need to get themselves together and improve security significantly.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I can't tell you the details but for some good reasons, GrapheneOS don't support Fairphone hardware. They somehow fuck things up in the security domain.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

How so?

Do you mean the company?

The phones are getting updates years after other phones support stops...

Edit.. just saw your other post.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

Apart from the excellent repairability, this would feel like a downgrade from my S21 Ultra. Love the concept though.

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