Two years after the Fairphone 4 and following the release of some audio products like the Fairbuds XL, the Dutch company is back with a new repairable phone: the Fairphone 5. It looks and feels a lot like the Fairphone 4, but it adds choice upgrades across the board, making it the most modular and also most modern-looking repairable phone from the company yet.
The design is largely unchanged compared to the Fairphone 4, but the improvements that the company did make go a long way: The teardrop notch and the LCD screen is finally gone, with an ordinary punch-hole selfie and an OLED taking its place. Otherwise, you’re looking at an aluminum frame, a triangular camera array, and a removable back cover. Here, the company brought back its signature translucent back cover next to two black and blue variants. The dimensions and weight has been reduced ever-so-slightly compared to the predecessor.
no headphone jack
😡
Everybody seems to care about headphone jacks, nobody seems to care about Fairphone’s former stance to focus on keeping their existing models usable long term rather than produce a new phone every year and incentivise a race to the latest model like every other brand does…
Try getting parts for the original fairphone or fairphone2.
They just don’t have any stock on any of it and it isn’t coming back.
You saying they stopped selling them?
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Do you still have software support and parts?
can confirm the fairphone 3 is still getting updates - written from a fairphone 3
I mean, you don’t have to buy the new one. I guess as long as they’re not forcing you to upgrade while your current phone is still fine, it shouldn’t have too much impact on e-waste and stuff for them to refresh the parts list and specs for new buyers.
tbh it Fairphone 5 had one, i wouldn’t hesitate
Buy a 3 then, show em low tech is in demand
Would if i found one for sale
6.46" is too large a screen. My pixel 6a is barely small enough. Also, bring back the headphone jack.
I was pained to move to iOS when my kids decided they wanted iPhones and I needed one to manage their parental controls, but boy do I love the form factor of the 12 mini I got.
Everything out there seems so huge now.
I’d love to have more options for smaller, manageable phones, especially as my workplace have given out work iPhones now, I could realistically go back to Android again come upgrade time as I can manage their accounts with that.
Probably harder to make stuff repairable and modular when it’s smaller
I know lots like small phones, but I don’t. I personally would like a 6.7" 19.5:9 screen. This is actually a little smaller than I’d like.
It really does surprise me how so many people (at least on Reddit and Lemmy) care so deeply about a headphone jack.
- No internal battery means it’s not a product with a built-in obsolence period (which is fairly short, 3-5 years)
- Most of the better audio gear are all wired
- I mean, it’s simple economics: Not paying for all the extra stuff to make it wireless means you get better value for audio quality
- Many people here are enthusiasts in tech and hardware, we likely have more than a few devices. Switching between devices with BT is a fucking PITA.
Speaking as an audiophile, you can buy a USB C dongle for like $10 that even has a good DAC. Only issue is if you’re regularly charging and listening to wired buds simultaneously
Dongles are pointless e-waste. They constantly break, get lost, or are forgotten when you need them the most. They are not a solution.
You can easily leave them attached to your headphones 24/7, which helps avoid losing them
I’ve had headphone jacks on phones break and thats a lot harder and more expensive to fix than buying a tiny dongle (that creates negligible amounts of waste)
I’d argue they’re actually a very good solution 🤷 (aside from arguably on iOS with their dumb proprietary port, but thats easily fixed with USB C)
Interesting, got any recommendations?
The Apple one sounds great tbh, altho I know Moondrop makes one that should have a lil more power and should be a bit more durable long-term (my apple ones have held up well so far tho)
Wired also doesn’t drop out if there are too many people in an area. Like if you’re listening to music whilst waiting for the train.
And they’re cheaper, since you don’t need batteries, radio, and audio processing hardware on top of that.
For point 4. Newer devices are very clever and will auto switch when music is playing and of course both devices are turned on.
Partially. My MacBook will steal the bluetooth connection no matter if something is playing or not. I have to disable bluetooth on the Mac to connect smartphone to my headphones.
Most of the issue stems from annoying dongles that wired headphone users typically don’t want to carry.
The situation with fairphone is especially infuriating however, as omitting the headphone jack goes against the whole point of fairphone IMO.
Bluetooth headphones, as convenient as they are, have integrated lithium batteries, which are harmful for the environment. They also have a very short, finite lifespan. Despite these issues, fairphone removed the headphone jack on the fairphone 4 and 5, while simultaneously releasing true wireless Bluetooth earphones that are not repairable. Their whole brand is based on creating ethically sourced, repairable products, so offering an inherently unrepairable item for sale is rather disappointing. I am aware that they offer over ear headphones that are repairable, but I think they shouldn’t sell true wireless earphones until they come up with a real repairable design.
In contrast, there are wired headphones from the mid 1980s that are still functional and still sound amazing, even if they aren’t as convenient to use. There are also modern wired headphones and IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) that have removable, standardized cables. This is great since the cable is what breaks on wired headphones 99% of the time.
At least their Fairphone XLs are repairable.
There are also modern wired headphones and IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) that have removable, standardized cables. This is great since the cable is what breaks on wired headphones 99% of the time.
You can also replace the cable with different kinds of wireless adapters to make them either true wireless or (even better) semi wireless. I haven’t done it myself, but it’s pretty neat.
I feel the same way about the OLED screen.
The are too many static elements on a phone screen. Notification bar, keyboard, etc. I just expect burnin to be a huge problem within a couple years.
My impression is that burn-in isn’t nearly as much of an issue on newer panels as it once was. At least, I’ve been using the same OLED phone for 4 years and have no sign of burn-in yet.
I’ve had a little noticeable burn-in on my 5 year old OLED phone, but you usually don’t pick it up, unless you’re looking closely, or have a video that highlights the relevant parts of the screen.
I’ve had the s20 ultra since launch and I have zero burn in. I also use this phone constantly. But I also have the screen timeout set to 30 seconds. And again I’m on it constantly.
I posted 2 months ago that I have no burn in. Well, I do have some from the top info bar - clock, battery level, notifications. Seems like I had never noticed?
My phone has an oled screen and is a little over 4 years old. I leave the display on for hours sometimes and have had no burn in problems so far.
I don’t want to buy more shit I got to remember to charge when I already have a few nice 3.5mm headsets. I know its going to be dead every time I want to use it. I got to pair it every time I switch devices. It works on everything that has the right hole even if its older than your parents.
Its just extra work unless its your daily driver.
While I do care about the headphone jack, I am mostly bitter about the manufacturers deciding for me that I don’t need it. I’d heavily trade off 10% reduction in thickness for a user-replaceable battery and a headphone jack, but it was decided for me that a thinner phone is a big improvement.
Flip phones are making a comeback.
Maybe thicc phones will come back next?
Well, you can have a DIY version that feels like the real thing, but with more features. All you need is a fairly modern phone of your choice, a strong glue and a brick. You may want to paint it in beige just for the heck of it afterwards.
Please. Yes.
I am mostly bitter about the manufacturers deciding for me that I don’t need it.
They haven’t decided for you. You make the decision when you choose which phone to buy. There are phones with headphone jacks on the market. It’s entirely your decision.
They did decide for me by the point that a once obvious feature to include in a phone is discarded in all but a very slight number of niche phones where I’d have to compromise on a bunch of other features in return for something that used to be almost mandatory feature at once point.
all but a very slight number of niche phones
I’m pretty sure there are a very large number of phone models on the market with headphone sockets.
I’d have to compromise on a bunch of other features
Right. That’s the choice. As with everything one buys. And which nobody has taken away.
Requiring a headphone jack in 2023 rules out most “flagship” phones. If you’re looking for a mid-range then your odds are better. But if you want a phone with better camera array, then you’re leaving mid-range territory and chances are that you’d have to compromise on either the headphone jack or your camera quality. That’s about what I meant by “compromise” - the requirement for a headphone jack significantly limits your choices.
I use a headphone jack daily, it is a must for me. Not going to do a stupid Bluetooth adapter or dongle cable that can get lost or damaged
For the record, you know you don’t have to take the USB-C adapter off the headphones if you exclusively use it for that device, right? It’s not as much of a hassle as people believe it is, they just haven’t used one yet.
I use my headphones on my computer and phone which requires the removal of the dongle. It’s not a hassle to you, but it can be a hassle to others.
Same here, but I bought a decent usb dac and I’m now just using the front type c on my pc as well.
I’m fine with bluetooth, but I think a problem for usb-c is that it comes out the bottom of the phone, so awkward to use the phone with headphones. Also, can’t charge and listen.
Samsung even has some stupid specifications for which adapters are “supported”. Its pretty hard to say its not just a money grab to keep Bluetooth on all the time
The only way I can play music from Spotify or youtube in my car is through a headphone jack, I value it very deeply because of that. It’s much cheaper to buy a phone with a jack than it is to replace my car
There’s a bunch of different Bluetooth adapters you can buy these days for about 20 eur.
Still the best way to transmit sound even quality-wise, except if you want surround, 2 channel won’t suffice here
Not being able to listen to wired audio while charging is a dealbreaker. And not needing a dongle is convenient.
I can’t charge and use iem together
You know that combo adapter exist?
Like this one from JSAUX: https://a.co/d/iuZvmO6
In my experience these are not good products that have a huge (15-30sec) delay for the phone to detect the headphones and they seem to suck battery when in use also
Sure, at least in my case the whole point is to use a high end iem for sound quality. If I want convenience there’s a decent pair of Sony xm4 I carry around for calls and noise cancelling.
The adapters will simply affect my signal quality and add more wires.
it’s useful. I use it.
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Even when I had a headphone jack, I hated it. That wire tangled up everywhere.
Bluetooth came out, and that was that. Never went back to wired.
I used to break all my 3.1 earbuds but usbc doesn’t seem to break no matter what I do to them. But I do listen to most of my music and videos with Bluetooth. I haven’t missed the headphones jack even though I totally thought I would.
Wireless headphones have been my biggest tech revolution since the smartphone.
Qualcomm QCM6490
No good for free software OSes then :-(
Can you elaborate on why? Like, I’m not surprised, I just am not involved in this space enough to know why.
Proprietary drivers/firmware. Basically makes it impossible/very hard to develop custom ROMs/operating systems (the lack of openness makes it super hard to extend/modify/verify the software running on these chips).
The drivers are well separated via HAL so you can absolutely make custom ROMs/OSes without changing those. The Android OS has way more code above the HAL layer than below. You can’t however arbitrarily update the Linux kernel, modify the drivers or fix security issues found, beyond the security support window provided by Qualcomm.
you can absolutely make custom ROMs/OSes
You can’t however arbitrarily update the Linux kernel
So you can’t make free software OSes.
- Manufacturers (e.g., Qualcomm, Samsung) won’t return your call unless you buy in huge quantities, hundreds of thousands or millions of units.
- Lack of documentation.
- Information restricted by NDA.
- Non-free binaries required for lots of hardware.
- Generally lording over the market and exploiting their position, to the degree of anti-competitiveness, and as a consequence artificially extending the rein of non-free software in the mobile domain.
- Astonishingly poor quality of engineering.
Are there any better alternatives? The only ones I’m aware of off the top of my head would be Samsung’s Exynos, Kirin, and MediaTek. From the little experience I have in the space it always struck me as Qualcomm being the least shitty option, not necessarily the best.
Rockchip RK3399(S) is the best you can get in terms of freedom. The rest are much of a muchness.
What is the best open blob SoC available?
open blob SoC
What do you mean?
The highest performing SoC on the market with open source code the binaries are built from.
the binaries
Which binaries do you mean?
Firstly, probably the firmware of the CPU and associated hardware. Then, any specific drivers for ancillary hardware that might be closely integrated with the CPU.
Not even Purism was and to get the Librem 5 entirely closed-source free and it’s probably a lot further along than the Fairphone.
the firmware of the CPU
AFAIK, there aren’t any mobile CPUs with microcode like Intel CPUs.
and associated hardware
Rockchip RK3399 is the best you can get from my understanding. The newer Rockchip RK3588 requires a non-free blob for the GPU unfortunately.
Sure, I’m not claiming to be an expert here. Similar things to what an RPI4 firmware image is. Whatever that controls.
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What would be a good phone for free software OSes?
There are no good phones due to the way the SoC and modem manufacturers work. The best phones, like the PinePhone or PinePhone Pro, are simply the least bad.
I am so new to this so bear with me. There is Lineage OS for fairphone 4 - does this mean there won’t be FOSS ROMs available for the fairphone 5?
FOSS ROMs
What do you mean?
Lineage OS, graphene, caylx, yk the stuff you jailbreak a phone for. People are saying this can run Ubuntu touch, and yet other people are saying this will be troublesome for the Android ROM community to develop for. Bear with me, I’m new to the concept and certainly might be wrong about something.
No, it does not mean any of the projects you mentioned will be unavailable. None of those projects are free software OSes.
To be fair, Murena is going to be shipping a version of this with /e/ OS on it. https://mastodon.social/@murena/110978277374459512 (if you specifically meant non-android OSes please accept my apologies)
e OS isn’t a free software OS.
The processer has Linux support though. Isn’t it more the device drivers that are the problem?
If thie phone gets mainline linux support I wil buy it in a heartbeat.
By the way. It does already have an entry on the postmarketos wiki https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_5_(fairphone-fp5)
PostmarketOS isn’t a free software OS.
The processer has Linux support though.
I said it’s no good for free software OSes, I didn’t mention Linux. I’m not sure what you think it means for Linux to support a processor or why you think that’s relevant. Linux can be and often is used with non-free OSes.
Fairphones have always used Qualcomm SOCs, there’s nothing new here. I don’t understand the fuss here if I’m being honest.
Low-end hardware and a pretty much closed CPU you can’t do much with for 700 Euros? No, thank you.
It’s a 778G equivalent, from what I can tell, how is that even low end?
I dont really understand this gripe. Can you explain why its a closed CPU that I cant do much with?
If the CPU isn’t a breadboard I can resolder any time I want and have to carry around in a suitcase what is the point?
Lmfao
8 years of suffering on that octa-core
You make it sound like 8 years of guaranteed support is something bad, lol.
No, but this will be a living, stutters hell in 3 years time.
You know, people are out there using their phones on Snapdragon 400s; I know you’re exaggerating.
Don’t know, have my FP4 since release, no problems with performance.
Same here
Nah, these days hardware doesn’t go outdated that fast.
Damn…
They’re gonna keep getting bigger, aren’t they?
The bigger they are, the easier they are to repair. So repairable phones in general are going to be on the bigger side.
The dimensions and weight has been reduced ever-so-slightly compared to the predecessor.
I think they meant the company, not the phone
Phones back then are both smaller and more repairable
The bigger the hoop, the bigger the hoe… Or something like that.
I’ve heard that a few times.
I really hope it does well, the business model really needs to change.
Man I’ve never spent more than 300 bucks on any phone, fair or not. Isn’t there something in the 150-300 category that’s worth buying, more sustainable and de-googled/foss?
I don’t do high end shit with my phone. I just browse the web, take notes and do 2FA stuff. I don’t need a 700€ phone for this, even considering the higher cost because of sustainability.
A used Pixel can be had in that range.
Buy an FP3 or 4 if you don’t need these features.
More sustainable in the sense that you have a lesser carbon footprint, yes. Buy used.
Yeah but then you’ll have a worn out battery you can’t change easily (correct me in he latter if I’m wrong). I’ve seen some shops offering refurbished phones but the ones I saw had so high prices where you already may buy the new ones.
Yes, that is a point of concern, you’ll need to find a way to replace the battery… which is where the Fairphone’s design comes in again. Hopefully that will be the norm in the future.
I got a Pixel 3a for 50 bucks once (really good deal, a few circumstances around it) and an OEM unlockable 4a 5g for 100, so under the category you gave and in some sense more sustainable (its used), able to be degoogled,
The major issue for me is availability, they don’t sell the phone here, so if I buy through shipping services I can’t buy replacement parts.
Wait doesn’t that defeat the point then?
It does defeat the point, so I won’t buy a fairphone untill they sell here directly.
NTA but there are plenty of other reasons for buying a Fairphone but yeah, not having easy access to replacement parts is why I haven’t bought one yet. Would love to see a parts infrastructure for them emerge in the US.
Oh, that’s nice. I am gonna buy one.
Jk I will wait until my current phone is obsolete.
I wonder how much longer mine will be supported. Went from Android 8 to 10 by the grace of OnePlus, and then I switched to Lineage first, now DivestOS, which had me go from 12 to 13.
Still runs perfectly, so I hope they’ll keep it going. After all, my OnePlus 5T is actually part of the elusive list of golden devices for Divest. Didn’t even see that until two years later.
Is it available in the U.S. yet?
recently launched in the U.S.
Does anyone with a Fair phone have time to tell me how it compares to Pixel? I have loved all of my Google Pixel products to the point I have lived with them for 7 years since their launch.
No :(
The released fairphone 4 in the us comes with a special os, not based on android iirc.i think it was to test the waters.
What i am curious about is wether they can be reflashed to run lineageOSArstechnica has in depth articles on 3, 4, and one about the 5 that should give you a good idea on this. I say this as a pixel owner who’s undecided myself…
Can anything from the new phone be used on the pervious models?
Looking at the spare parts from the shop it appears that it’s not possible. It would have been cool, but that must be pretty dang hard to do without compromising the new device.
I like it. If Google didn’t send me a new pixel 6a when my 5a broke, I’d have bought one right now. Hopefully these catch on and are still around in a few years when this one breaks. I’ll get one for sure…
Sounds like the perfect opportunity for GrapheneOS
But is the camera good?
According to CNET not as good as pixel, but it is honestly fine (not great, but definitely fine) in my eyes.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/fairphone-5-review-the-phone-that-wants-to-save-the-world/
I’m surprised there are no night tests. The images look pretty good on what they tested.
Their promo video looks good. Though it is a promo video.
My guess is that it won’t have the bells and whistles of Samsung or Google Pixel devices. That doesn’t really seem to be the goal with the device though.
I’m excited for some real world tests. If we can get to at least an iPhone 13 quality of processing on the image, I’m in.
I get that. I’m not planning on switching from iPhone anytime soon really, but whenever I swap my Pixel 6 work phone I might go for a Fairphone instead.
GSMArena says it’s a Sony IMX800 with a 1/5.6" sensor, which is pretty respectable hardware, better than many premium compacts from years ago. With the right camera app or post processing you can get decent images from this.
1/1.56", big difference.
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