The experience has been mostly good, with a few irritating issues. I still consider it good though, because I had a flagship Pixel previously and had my share of irritating issues also. I don't really miss Google at all.
* Occasionally the keyboard just disappears. Crashes or something. Killing the AOSP (Android keyboard) service restores it. Hopefully this gets fixed. * The App Store it comes with only shows open source products, or lets you add in Play Store apps without an account. * Searching in the app store sometimes stops showing results when I search and I have to clear its data to get them to show again. I think it's related to the Play Store interface. * Moving off Google Maps is a bit of a learning curve (although you could install it probably). OsmAnd~ or Organic Maps are good enough 85% of the time. * I find if I hold the phone in my right hand when talking that my ear is not naturally on the speaker and I can't hear people. I've never had an issue like this with a phone. Easy to move, but the beginning of most conversations are still a lot of "are you there's?"
AT&T network works great. Verizon doesn't. You might try it like a fool like me and think it does for awhile, but I promise you it doesn't. The phone doesn't support 1 or 2 of the bands Verizon uses, so sometimes you simply won't be able to receive or make calls or texts. Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) gave me some trouble too but I think those ones could have been resolved but I didn't get network coverage at my house despite the maps, so I gave up. Boost Mobile claims you can use the AT&T or T-Mobile network, but they don't give you a choice, seem to have stopped pushing AT&T, and will refuse to give you the other SIM when you ask for it. RedPocket actually gives you a choice when you sign up.
This impacts more than just the default browser as it also provides the WebView Widget used by apps.
The WebView also cannot be replaced by a user as it is directly loaded into the process space of all apps using the widget.
See my https://divestos.org/misc/ch-dates.txt table that compares all the other systems update history.
Are you using the stock keyboard? I allways install Simple Keyboard from F-Droid, Zero problems for years.
The issue that's bugged me is occasionally when I'm using Bluetooth audio, the volume "locks". For whatever reason it decides whatever the current volume is, that's the max or min, and I can only adjust in one direction from there.
I would have greatly preferred a small phone but the FP was the one that met my other criteria the best. I don't notice the weight much, but it fits large in my hand and pocket. When holding left handed and trying to tap a button on the bottom right (browser tabs) my palm frequently hits the side of the screen.
Comparing to the old Pixel 4 I still have laying around, you would think it's a power bank until you saw the screen.
After a drop in water, the faulty part was completely broken so I tried to order one from their shop.
This part has been "out-of-stock" for more than two years now. I’ve a repairable smartphone that I can’t repair. Meanwhile, the FP4 and the FP5 replaced the FP3.
So much for trying to "not consume".
I hate Apple but my wife manage to keep her iphones 3/4 years each.
My iPhone mini 13 is a tank possibly even more than the Nokias that I've had.
That said:
- fingerprint reader in on power button and triggers on touch (instead of on press), which means I often unlock the phone unintentionally when moving it. Annoying as hell.
- no audio jack
- a bit too big for my taste
- I miss a led indicator of missed messages
- push notifications or privacy (from Google), pick one
Still, if I lost this one, I would pick FP4 (or FP5 now, I guess?) again, no question about it.
I have the Fairphone 3 and I know that if I take care of it properly I wouldn't need to upgrade the display, but I would like perhaps a new camera if a module with a better sensor came along. If their software support is limited by the SoC they are using, perhaps I would be interested in upgrading the main board, but I could keep everything else after the 7-8 years.
Instead, they are expecting me to hold out for this phone as long as possible and then upgrade to whatever they are selling 5 years from now. Not only this will not happen (as I do not want a phone that does not have a headphone jack), this will basically condemn this phone to the same pile of obsolete-phones-with-perfectly-serviceable-displays-and-cameras that I have on my desk drawer.
> The Fairphone 3+ is the upgraded version of the Fairphone 3. It comes with two new camera modules and audio improvements to boost technical performance, enhance the user experience, and improve sustainability. The new camera modules are also sold separately. This way, you can upgrade your Fairphone 3 by replacing the modules.
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047776791...
Upgraded to Android 13, and it's gotten really slow, so I'm thinking of moving to /e/
But there is nothing stopping them from standardizing their own and building out support from other players in the industry.
My point is, during the Fairphone 3/3+ years they seem to be going in this direction. This is why that I bought in the first place. With the FP4, they went from "company with potential to disrupt the market and do good things" to "company that just follow practices from shitty Big Tech and does good marketing".
> Fairphone existed before Framework did, btw.
And? Just because they came before they can't change?
Not sure if/when that will be available directly from the fairphone website though.
Is it comparable, or is it a generation or two behind?
So it's cost per year is probably smaller than other devices if you manage to keep it this long. It being repairable probably helps.
(I don't have a Fairphone, but if I had to buy an (Android) smartphone, I would seriously consider the Fairphone)
I wouldn't run it with anything personal on it.
Unfortunately I don't think the team is big enough to support the device specific software at a high level, which is fine for a community project, but less so for a commercial one.
App compatibility should also be better with sanboxed-play-services compared to microG since almost all apps/features that don't require meeting certification requirements (e.g. Google Pay and certain banking apps) or privileged integration (Android Auto) should work just like on another Android family OS. Something you might run into is the hardened memory allocator exposing memory corruption issues in apps whereyou might not see the same crashing elsewhere.
I can attest this is pretty accurate.
A lot of the Android apps you find in the F-Droid or Aurora store can be installed, but won't work since most require you to have Google Play services enabled which Graphene sandboxes by default:
https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play
A perfect example is when I was looking for a weather app and most of the popular weather apps were a no-go simply because they required Google Play services. I ended using Weawow Weather instead of several other options like Weather Underground, Accuweather or WeatherBug.
EDIT: I'm currently using Graphene OS on a Pixel 4XL
Compared to any other mobile OS, there is no compromise software wise on GOS.
Follow the leader never needs this many words and for a niche and ethical brand, this is quite embarrassing.
All the "weatherproofing" and "complexity" talk is just smoke.
Engineer tech founders, open source maintainers: please pass these names by a normal person before you decide on them. No normal person is going to understand that "/e/OS" is supposed to be a Unix file path, nor care. They're going to go "why does it have a '/' around the 'e' ?". If they pop it into their browser search bar, they will get an error, because the browser thinks it's a file path or something. When they go to Google.com and search for it, one of the first things that comes up is "what does e OS mean?" In fact, you can just take "OS" out of the name altogether, because normal people don't know what an Operating System is.
It is also difficult to pronounce. I've come to call it slashyslash, but telling other people about it (which is absolutely paramount to it gaining popularity) is annoying. Me telling a friend about this would go:
I use slashyslash OS by Murena. It's forward slash, the letter e, forward slash, capital O capital S. Don't search for it from your address bar, but go to your search engine's homepage first.
The first thing people care about when it comes to the device they use to organise their every day lives with is convenience. If you can't even find it in the first place, what snowball's chance in hell does it have?
Also, LCD screen, really underwhelming.
I was expecting much more for that price.
e.g. Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 has an OLED screen and supports 5G SA for 140 EUR
