I’m thinking of getting a fairphone in the future. I like that they are modular and last a while. Are they easily customizable to where I can flash a different ROM? Is the default configuration private?
I’m thinking of getting a fairphone in the future. I like that they are modular and last a while. Are they easily customizable to where I can flash a different ROM? Is the default configuration private?
I’m curious, what’s your use case that you need that kind of a phone? just visited their site, says $550 for a somewhat mediocre phone. it’s repairable, but with expensive, fairphone-only sold parts. the OS on it needs removing, as stated multiple times ITT.
a 5 year old phone has comparable tech specs, costs like a 10th of that, you can open it and replace battery and parts. you also need to flash an alternative OS, so what justifies a 10-fold price hike?
edit:
it used to be cheaper, and with an audio jack. Add some environment and social consideration and I see many reasons to buy it.
Or you can buy a Google phone from Amazon and text about privacy or freeing Palestine while sipping your Starbucks coffee in your Tesla car.
Not everything has to be about how much do you personally get for the money you give.
I am so glad I could get the Faiphone 3 while it still had an audio jack. At that time the hardware was not too far behind, still too much for my use which is mainly scrolling through obscure left-ish forums and YouTube channels (thanks newpipe) and startups late-stage capitalist hacker news (I don’t know any better about tech).
The reason why Fairphone charges so much is because their selling point is ethics, and they claim they put sustainability of raw materials and fair pay for workers first. Whether or not they check that goal, companies like Google, Apple, etc definitely keep their prices low by paying workers in the global south pennies.
I repair my phones when they break and the easy repair of a Fairphone is in no way comparable to the absolute pain it is to remove the display on a phone released in the last 5 years.
Especially considering they provide a 5 year warranty, source fair materials, 8 years of security updates and many more years to come with full access to replacement parts.
I bought my Fairphone for similar reasons to you.
I had a second hand mid-range Samsung for about 6 months and then the USB port got destroyed. I was unable to replace the USB port so the phone is useless.
I bought a Fairphone 5 thinking that, if anything similar happened, I would NOT need to replace the phone and would save money in the long term.
Kids not dying in cobalt mines is also a bonus: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara
I too repair my phones when they break and I haven’t had any issues replacing batteries, one camera assembly (was supposed to be an upgrade - wasn’t) and twice the screen with assembly on budget phones. in fact, before I buy them (always used) I check youtube for replacement videos for battery and screen. all replacements done with chinese parts, ultra-cheap and locally available.
I don’t know about the fair sourced part, I guess I’m too jaded to consider that an issue so I’ll concede that’s important to some people. I figure I’m doing everyone a service by repurposing a discarded 5 year old phone.
You already lost me there. My times of looking up video guides on how to repair my phone are over, I can replace the battery with my hands and the screen is mounted with 8 screws. OEM parts can be ordered directly from Fairphone and arrive within 2 days.
It is incredibly difficult to get OEM parts for many phones, you never know if it is a good part until you actually have it in your hand. In some cases it doesn’t matter but I have never seen a cheap third party screen which comes close to the original.
You are, the best phone for the environment is an old phone.
Fairphone also at least tries to create / source their phones fairly. Not important in terms of privacy, but somewhat explains the higher price tag.
Bless fairphone’s intentions but isn’t it better to buy 2nd hand?
Not really, buying 2nd hand implies that people still buy 1st hand. The second hand market is subsidizing the 1st hand market.
2nd hand fairphone
That’s a good alternative, yeah.
$550 is a lot which is why it’s a future plan for me. I have a pixel 7a which is serving me well at the current moment but the repairability on this thing is egregious. To repair the battery you have to unseal the adhesive with a heat gun and then pull off the interior battery adhesive and there’s no guarantee it’ll reseal properly. I plan to get as much life as I absolutely can out of this phone, but when it gives up the ghost I want something that’ll last a long time and is repairable because reducing e-waste is important to me. I also just enjoy being able to fix things by myself. By the time I need a new phone, all of the five year old phones will be the current shitty unrepairable ones we have today.
not to rain on your parade, but F5 is a downgrade from 7a in practically every aspect.
I’m aware of the glued shut aspect and there are solutions for that nowadays. getting a SDM870 and better SoC for under $100 with tons of RAM and storage, for me is more than a worthwhile trade off.
on the other hand, it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t want to dick around with all that and/or want to support Fairphone’s mission.
Hopefully his 7a doesn’t die tomorrow, and by then Fairphone has managed to put out Something that’s at least reasonably better than 7a.
When I bought my Fairphone, I was simply too fed up with working around the intentional shittiness of the other companies.
I prefer to deal with some technical limitations, than have to deal with intentional ones.
I use Arch BTW.