I am looking at getting one as my next phone when my Pixel 7 reaches EOL. Hopefully the Fairphones are still around by then and hopefully they get more support from custom ROMs. I know CalyxOS supports the Fairphone 4

  • fendrax@jlai.lu
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    1 year ago

    I know for a fact that the FP2 is quite thick and bulky and often gives a bad first impression to people from an aesthetics point of view. Personally, that has never been an issue for me but that’s a matter of taste.

    Anyway, I believe that anyone buying a Fairphone should do it for a reason and not like they would buy another a regular product. I wrote in this other thread (in French, unfortunately) that buying a Fairphone is like buying a compromise between fairness, repairability, environment concerns, aesthetics and technical performances. There have always been loads of reasons for people to complain about Fairphones. Either they are ugly & too massive or outdated or expensive, the list goes on. While those complaints can be true, one has to keep in mind that improving on one aspect (making a thiner phone, for example) has direct consequences on the others (like, a thiner phone is probably more difficult to be made modular, so either more pricey or less reliable). Someone replied that rather than being a purchase of a tradeoff, it is a purchase of another type of innovation. Instead of being technical innovation, it is social and environmental innovation. I kind of like that way of approaching it as well.

    Also, I pointed out that there is no doubt that giants in the smartphone business would make fantastic ethical and repairable phones if they ever wanted to. Only they would have the ability to propose a series of models which would fulfill anyone’s needs. But hey, they don’t seem to care, do they? In the meantime, I am willing to support the only tiny actor in the field that is striving to at least try with their unique model.