No earphone jack again. That's a bit sad. Even though I mainly use BLT earbuds, I still sometimes wish I could use my wired headphones. It's just a small inconvenience
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I had a phone without before, that one came with a simple cheap passive adapter for USB-C to 3.5mm headset. You lose out on using headphones while charging, but other than that I was never really inconvenienced...
After having a phone without a 3.5mm port or a microSD card slot, the top 2 features I want on a phone are a 3.5mm port and a microSD card slot.
Shame Sony discontinued their Xperia 5 series, even if they were also excessively priced.
You also have to remember to have that adapter with you
An issue shared with the headphones themselves
I just leave the adapter plugged into the headphones. Then there's nothing extra to manage.
I disagree about this being a good solution. USB-C is not meant to take the strain of being used as an audio port when being used in the go so there is risk of damaging the port while a headphone jack is more stable and allows the plug to rotate. Plus I don't want to have a dingle I can forget when in a rush.
You can find adapters that can charge while still having a 3.5mm back
Not having a headphone jack is just a slap in the face from a company whose whole image is supposed to be longevity and eco-friendly.
You have these usb-c to mini jack adapters. They are like 5 to 10eu. They are small enough to keep them attached to your jack headphone. It works perfectly for me.
I think it is better to view the usb-c plug as 'one protocol to rule them all'. If you do so, it makes quite some sense.
It's too bad they dont ship to Canada. I'm in the market for a new phone and would seriously consider this.
The state of mobile phone market in Canada is so frustrating. Not only is our market dominated by 3 players who refuse to actually compete with each other, but we miss out on half the cool phones that the rest of the world gets too.
Clove Technology resells to outside the EU
But also consider potential carrier compatibility issues with importing
There's a deGoogled version too!!
I would prefer GrapheneOS (If I can live with the irony of getting a Pixel phone just to deGoogle it...). Sandboxing there is way better. But you lose the Repairability.. Gotta check and compare the new EU metrics too.
They are just two different devices.
main camera, AI-powered low-light magic
Can I turn it off? Can I? I just want my photos, the real ones, however bad they are. I don’t want them to be half generated.
Just to be clear, unless you're shooting RAW you never have your "real" photos. Every phone/camera performs massive amounts of post processing, including using ml models.
AI is only a buzzword for something that has been the norm for a while.
I want my photos to be grainy, with natural lens distortion, instead of current trend of pictures being shouty to look good on social media
Yeah, it's most likely just doing some "AI" (ML) denoising. Nothing to do with GenAI
Did some digging, but it doesn't appear the band compatibility with US carriers is improved at all. Am I wrong here?
From their own site it would seem they don't. There is a "US" version but you can't buy a Fairphone from the website directly.
Interesting that they seem to be using a consumer grade Snapdragon chip this time, typically they used weird chips ment for industry applications if I'm not mistaken. Wonder what sparked the change, did Qualcomm start supporting their chips for longer?
Probably yes.
And probably due to EU mandating new phones to be supported for longer.
https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en
Fuck these guys... Seriously. I bought a phone off of them hyped at the idea of the ethics. It didn't work on arrival. Over 3 months later and not one single reply to my helpdesk request (other than the Automated acknowledgement of receipt).
Unbelievably bad user experience, I went from hyped at the concept of reducing my production of electronic waste to beyond disappointed at a brutally bad user experience.
Then to make matters worse, it is difficult to source spare parts for the fairphone 4 (according to a friend of mine who owns one that he bought a while ago)... Like is that not the entire point of the phone, reduced consumption of new phones by supporting repairs. If you're going to stop producing the spares at least release the patents then.. if you really believe in the promoted ideals that you spout... Which they clearly do not.
It turns out that it's just another money hungry company hell bent on burning the planet down to see a line go up, as far as I'm concerned. All gaff to sell shite phones at higher prices.
Do not buy.
The to make matters worse, they’ve already stopped producing spare parts for the fairphone 4
Your comment made me laugh! There’s no need to criticize the company if you’re having a bad day or don’t like it. It only takes a minute to check their website for spare parts. Most likely, it’s your local shop that’s out of stock, not Fairphone itself.
https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?category=4&filters=33
All I needed to know was when they released their BT earbuds just when the jack port got removed to figure out where their priorities are.
Of course they're gonna offer BT earbuds if there's no audio jack? Or did you want them included or something? A lot of people here are way angrier than justified.
What do you mean with stopped producing spare parts for FP4? They are still widely available
The to make matters worse, they’ve already stopped producing spare parts for the fairphone 4
What's this then?
What are you talking about? I exchanged multiple mails per day when I had a problem.
Also as others have mentioned, the parts are still available on their website.
Is it me or did they get slightly more vague on their marketing materials, wrt the environmental impact ( at least compared to fp5 ) ?
Also the battery seems a bit harder to replace, as you now need a screwdriver. It does appear to be more flush, so it may be due to size constraints.
Edit: and there's "more" replaceable parts because the back is split in two. That split might prove better for durability tho, because pulling the back on their older phones felt like it would break every time.
Screwdrivers are pretty entry-level tools though.
I know I know, but it was really convenient to keep a spare battery and do a quick swap on the fp4.
Can anyone recommend this? Is the camera any good?
Basically nobody has this in hand yet. Its lighter (193g) and shorter (156mm) than the previous ones which is nice. Harder glass surface (Corning 7i) so less scratches. Its still thick tho at 9.6mm but i dont mind that. If gsmarena is correct, then they didnt include video output over USBC for some fucking dumb reason this time. Ridiculous.
Good question. I was just reading the article about it on The Verge, which mentions:
On the back, you’ll find a 50MP main camera and a 13MP ultrawide camera, while the front has a 32MP hole-punch camera for selfies and video calls. That’s a significant step down from the Fairphone 5, which used 50MP sensors on all three of its cameras.
No mention of camera quality, though, as it's basically a press release post and not a hands-on or review. I wish this would be available in the US for a fair price.
4000x3000 (12MP) is completely fine for a secondary camera imo. 32MP for the front cam is more than enough too. Upwards of 12MP, the denoising and optics are much more important than the resolution.
Haven't had an FP6 in my hands yet, but I've been using FP since the Fairphone 2, am currently using the FP4 and besides the ethics in sourcing their materials and manufacturing (which they genuinely attempt to provide, and while there is no ethical consumption in capitalism, there are still degrees of fucked-upness.), I do enjoy the repairability, longevity and long-term support. They are also decently supported by de-googled-android and even pure Linux phone operating systems, if you want to experiment there, and come without a lot of bloat that nowadays is ubiquitous with most smartphones.
I posted this elsewhere but the tech specs for the Fairphone 6 say the following:
USB-C 2.0 (OTG capable) can be used to connect USB Sticks/SD-Cards/Audio Amplifier/Network-adapters directly
I was really looking forward to use this with a pair of display glasses, like the XREAL One Pro, but this seems like the Fairphone 6 might not support display output? That's sad. Especially since the Fairphone 5 had this in their tech specs:
USB-C 3.0 (OTG capable) can be used to connect USB Sticks/SD-Cards/display (also Android™ desktop mode)/Camera/Audio Amplifier/Network-adapters directly
But maybe it was not used enough?
If I didn't miss it, no wireless charging again... Some one told me they refuse to do it because it wastes electricity. To which I'd say, even just turning on a car probably uses magnitudes more energy than charging my phone wirelessly. I don't want to mess up the USB C port if I don't have to, thanks.
It's a Fairphone... If you manage to destroy the port somehow, you can just replace it in 2 minutes with a screwdriver.