this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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5 years of OS updates is more than you get from any other Android manufacturer. For everyone else in the space, you are lucky to get 3.
8 years of security not OS support.
I don't want a phone like most phones for $800USD. Especially one that's slower, has a worse camera, etc. It needs either more impressive features or to be $200 cheaper. Otherwise why bother? Ultimately this boils down to price and features if they want to actually break into the market. The repair-ability alone isn't enough.
Fair wages for the people making the phone is also a selling point of this phone. It's not just about repairability.
That said I'm also not writing this from a Fairphone, because the price is too high for me.
That may be true but how are they guaranteeing this on a component level? As far as I know, they use off the shelf stuff so they only have assembly wages. And that doesn’t justify the price imo.
You can take a look at their impact reports they release every year: https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Fairphone-Impact-Report-2022.pdf
They keep close track of materials used and wage paid for all their suppliers. They also pay wage bonuses to the workers at some of their suppliers (page 41).
According to Fairphone "We plan at least 5 Android OS version updates after Android 13".
Let's see. There is still no Android 13 on the FP4.
At least CalyxOS, DivestOS offer Android 13 builds for FP4 (and obviously LineageOS, but it doesn't have OTA updates, afaik)
Samsung offers 4 years of os updates for many phones and watches. And news reported that pixel 8 will have better.
If I recall correctly, Xiaomi recently declared the same for some of their phones.
There's a clear trajectory where this is heading. From 2027 the EU will enforce replaceable batteries and it looks like some other markets might follow. Software support duration is increasing a lot as well.
I wouldn't be surprised if you'd get most of the Fairphone's benefits on a regular Samsung in a few years.
Well...aside from the fair supply chain, liveable wages, humane working conditions, environment footprint...
Yes, very realistic scenario. TBF, I cannot remember if I ever upgraded a phone due to the battery issuses.
So, for me personally, replaceable battery is not a significant benefit.
4 years including security updates though right? If that's the flcase then fairphone's doing 8 years.
No really. Samsung offers 4 years of os updates and 5 years of security updates. Samsung releases os updates really fast, so 5 years basically means 5 os versions.
Fairhone declares 5 os versions and 8 years of software support. Fairphone users here mentioned that fairphone is very slow with updates, so it could happen that 5 os versions really will take 8 years. If Fairphone will keep same cadence as Samsung, its 5 os versions can be coverted into 5 years.
But we have a bit of apples vs oranges here.
I personally find samsung's policy good enough for majority of users. I expect that I will upgrade my phone every 3 - 5 years for different unpredictable today reasons anyway.