this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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While they were happy with what the fairphone 4 brought to the table, they seem to like what was changed for the fairphone 5.
What are you guys' opinions on this? A welcome change? would you get one if your phone died within the next year?

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The number of comment that says " I would buy one, but" is amazing !

What this company is doing is what every company should do, from laptop to tablet. As well as tractors. Dot being able to repair what you buy is fundamentally flawed!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

TBF it's not available in the USA, and a lot of us are in the USA...plus even if we got one, a lot of the bands wouldn't work, so it's not like you'd have a good connection with it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is the reason why I never bought an Asus phone despite hating our primary options in the US (Samsung, Apple, Google) and really wanting one. It seems most manufacturers forget that T-mobile bands exist despite them being nearly tied for #2 in marketshare in the US.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yea so many damn good phones basically are useless here in the states. It sucks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How tragic. I'm sorry. As a dirty Yuropoor I'll buy one in your place and enjoy it for you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Please do lol, I'd love to own one but it'd be a wifi brick at best here state side.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's compatible with most of T-Mobile bands.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unfortunately T-Mobile is really crap in most of the USA outside of major cities. I'm basically in a dead zone with T-Mobile in my town. ATT isn't much better and Verizon is the best but both are still lacking... literally dropped calls in some areas.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That sucks when you are stuck in an area like that. I've had t-mo for about 15 years now and they've been great and have solid coverage everywhere I've been in and outside the state. Verizon really is a better option for more rural locations though generally. I had them for a little while when T-Mo didn't have great coverage where I was. And I really dislike ATT so they were a hard pass lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That's the biggest thing for me. If I can get a similar phone to work in the US with no stability or functional compromises, I'm happy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

"Not available" in a given country doesn't really mean anything these days. You can buy anything online and get it shipped anywhere. The question I have is does it work on American wireless networks? Because if it does, you can figure out how to acquire a phone...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're right, it is amazing. These people are giving honest constructive criticism of a product. Companies often have to pay money to get that information. These complaints are generally valid as well.

The company's commitment to repairability is commendable but it's in lieu of other important factors. If I have to make the choice between having the newer OS with stronger, more powerful hardware or the ability to repair my device I'm going to choose the former every time. From the get-go the device might last longer simply because I won't want to get rid of it as quickly. The 5 is of course a significant improvement over previous releases but it's still behind. If they can deliver a device that is not immediately outdated in comparison to other phones of similar price then this would be a no brainer for me and likely others as well.

Similarly availability is another major factor. You can't buy what you can't get your hands on. Even more importantly it's even more futile to buy one for a network that doesn't support it at all. Obviously the creators just aren't ready to expand into another market and that's fine but it doesn't make the criticism any less important for their mission.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

For the same price, a Fair Phone is always going to be outdated. They can't scale as much as the big manufacturers can and they (are trying to) avoid slave labor etc.
It's simply not possible to be as cheap as the others who do everything to be as cheap as can be.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Framework ship laptops to Australia and has a headphone socket. Great company. Great products. Great experience, highly recommend. I can't recommend products that don't sell and support in my market. I don't have any loyalty to Fairphones or Steamdecks or any other product from low effort companies that don't ship beyond NA or Europe.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yet they don't sell in the USA, and they don't have a headphone jack. A company meant for repairability and reliability not having a headphone jack. That's like when framework removed it from the 16 inch laptop.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think your comparison to Framework is justified since 1) they made a headphone jack expansion module that's available along with all the other ports and 2) the Framework 16 has 6 expansion bays instead of 4. If you need a headphone jack you get a 25% increase in configurable ports, and if you don't need one you get a 50% increase in ports. Plus, you can easily switch between those two cases.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago
  1. that is a solution to a problem nobody wanted.
  2. Technically 5 if you're using one of them for the headphone jack (which you wouldn't need if it was included on the device ready). Also the one with 4 already has a headphone jack included, so you'd still have 4 available ports.

And 3.

They're small and I could lose it and would have to spend even more money for a replacement.