Fairphone 5 Released (shop.fairphone.com)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/technology@beehaw.org
 

With 5 years of OS support and 8 years of security update.

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[+] 10 points 2 years ago* (3 children)
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They are offering a minimum of 8 years of software support. 5 years is the warranty. I'm not sure why OP wrote that, it's not what was announced.

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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    It's not, according to Fairphone "We plan at least 5 Android OS version updates after Android 13". So, 5 years of os and other 3 years of security.

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  • [+] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago*

    Sorry, I misunderstood what OP was trying to say. I didn't realise they were talking about feature updates when they mentioned the 5 years. A security patch is still an update to the operating system and evidence of support, so my initial reaction was that they were wrong when they said "5 years of OS support".

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)
    1. It’s 8 apparently
    2. 5 years is as long as most phones that I used last so there would be no point to buy it
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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago* (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    The high price actually cancels the point of the repairability. I can get a similar phone for easily €400-500 less. If I budget that extra price for repairs, I can get the battery and screen replaced quite a few times.

    I say that as an FP4 owner, who did the same calculation mistake there.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    According to Fairphone "We plan at least 5 Android OS version updates after Android 13".

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    4 years including security updates though right? If that's the flcase then fairphone's doing 8 years.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Unfortunately it's impossible to offer support for longer than the chipset

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Actually in the past they updated their software even past the support from qualcomm, rewriting by themselves what was needed to allow and old chipset to run newer android version

    Source

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, well, they are just doing what custom ROM makers have been doing for a decade and a half.

    My old Droid 4 was also EOL after Android 4.1. Custom ROM makers pushed this up to Android 7.1 by ignoring the parts (e.g. the Kernel) that they couldn't update.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Sure, but the good is that this is the only company doing it. Also my Galaxy Nexus received a big kernel update from people at xda developers, but was by chance and good will of the people involved. Here they did it because they kept up the commercial promise behind the product they sell, something that basically no other company in this sector does (or they do, but with very short term promises).

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