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.
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.
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Jk I will wait until my current phone is obsolete.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.
Qualcomm QCM6490
No good for free software OSes then :-(
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.
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.
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 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
I really hope it does well, the business model really needs to change.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I could live without headphones jack, but its thick and cost almost 2x the price I can afford. Id consider keeping it if I get it for free because I like the Idea of repairability
I refuse to accept a phone without a 3.5mm jack. I have old hi-fi systems and my car also doesn’t have BT. The two places I listen to music most. No jack, no buy.
3.5mm jack takes way to much space, and it requires a dedicated DAC circuit. And there is not enough users to warrant it anymore, especially considering the existance of usbc to 3.5mm adapters which do exactly the same without wasting internal space.
3.5mm is bound to disappear everywhere but dedicated audiophile hardware.
I’m a vinyl collector and audiophile myself, I’d love to see analogical staying relevant, but let’s be realistic, smartphones are not dedicated enough to music to waste space for a feature that only 10% of the user will ever need.
If you really need a portable device with a 3.5mm jack, go buy a Walkman. Sony still make new ones, and they all have 3.5mm jacks.
I love how the solution for a green phone is to buy a whole other device for music.
Less e waste, surely.
And looking at the internals of the Fairphone 5, there is plenty of god damn space.
I would definitely get this phone if I can get it easily in my current location. Otherwise, I’ll help reduce my smartphone usage impact by using it long term and give it to my family members after I get a new phone.
That’s what I did. Used my ROG Phone 2 for four years before giving it to my brother in law and getting a Fold5 because of work.
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.
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.
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.
It really does surprise me how so many people (at least on Reddit and Lemmy) care so deeply about a headphone jack.
no headphone jack
6.46" is too large a screen. My pixel 6a is barely small enough. Also, bring back the headphone jack.
