cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43965516
It is worth noting that both the hardware and software of Fairphone is heavily dependent on a Chinese company T2Mobile.
For those looking to avoid both US and Chinese companies, then the Jolla phone is the way to go.
Have any of you checked out the reviews on their site? The one’s in Dutch?
Hilarious. Almost none of the reviews are about the phone itself, but the promotions surrounding it, whether its available in certain stores, and my favorite, the font on the case.
I guess the phone is so awesome they have to think of other stuff to complain about. I just want to know if the phone is good!
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This is why new laws are being passed to verify ID on a hardware level. They know the enshittification has progressed to the point that people are starting to break away. They want to put a halt to that by any means necessary.
I’d be curious, it seems obvious the world is coordinating it in some way.
I don’t think it requires or implies coordination. What looks like coordination might simply be an overall increase in authoritarian governments globally which all share many of the same incentives to limit privacy and increase population tracking.
Could be just a trend that gained some momentum. If it’s coordinated or not I don’t know.
If it has a MicroSD slot, 3.5mm jack, a removable battery and costs no more than £300, I’m interested! <3
I’d rather it were made in Europe too, but I understand we can’t have everything, supply chains being what they are.
P.S Bonus points if it has an IR blaster, I use the one on my current phone quite a lot, surprisingly enough!
They can’t build them that cheaply. They don’t have the same scaling effects as the big brands, and they make an effort for sustainability which is a huge problem with cheap-ass phones.
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They should partner use grapheneos and sell in USA.
I just bought a FP6 with /e/os installed by Murena in the US and it’s been great so far except that RCS isn’t supported by /e/os so group texts don’t work. Which is honestly a huge issue that is causing enough social friction that I’ll probably revert to an iPhone soon.
Personally, I’d love a phone I can experiment with pure Linux OSs or Sailfish on.
They partner with Murena for selling to the US right now (though its only usable on Tmobile).
They are trying to enter the US market on their own (perhaps with the Fairphone 7), but the US carriers make things way more complicated than other markets. They already sell their headphones in the US through Amazon as of late last year.
Wasn’t the issue here that they would have liked to partner with GrapheneOS, but GrapheneOS didn’t want to, because of some security requirements that they had?
GrapheneOS had security requirements and they offered to help Fairphone implement them, but Fairphone refused. Apparently they are not interested in their users security and privacy. So I won’t be touching Fairphones with a 10ft stick.
Motorola was interested and should be launching a phone with GrapheneOS preinstalled at the end of 2026 or in 2027.
Is there a source available for that?
Sorry, I meant for the Fairphone refusing their help part. I haven’t read that and find it interesting. Thanks anyway! I’m optimistic about Moto.
I got a Google pixel 10 just so I can have GrapheneOS as soon as possible. I am glad that Google’s plans to lock down Android are blowing up in their faces.
Graphene has beef with every device maker that doesn’t include a secure element throttle (which is every device maker except Google and Apple, and presumably Moto as of the first partnership device).
I mean, if you want to call it a beef, go ahead. But it’s not like it is an unreasonable request, since it is necessary to make sure short pins used by most people are at least a bit secure.
I want a folding fairphone
I would just love a smaller one in general. Hate big phones. Give me a pixel 3 sized one at most.
I miss my pixel 4a dearly. Found it in the old phone box the other day and couldn’t believe how little it was.
Main reasons I stopped buying Fairphones:
- too big
- focus on fair-trade (fair enough) but not on free operating systems
- sustainability: by the time my FP2 partially broke (USB charger port), they were no longer selling spare parts
Other than that - it’s a great company and a team of good people.
I have had this for 4 months and love it. Previously had Samsung 25 Ultra. Hated it.
Anyone know if the coming Android restrictions will impact support?
Ok, I like that attitude, but could you go into more detail? AFAIK hardware wise the samsung will likely be better in every way I think?
It wasn’t a hardware preference, it was a privacy and control preference. Samsung is a data miner. I absolutely hate being locked out of my own shit. It doesn’t belong to you, but you’re renting their device and paying with data. I can see the calls home on my monitoring software, and now they have that MS linking SW that you can’t remove. I hate Samsung. Also, my S25 Ultra broke twice and I only got about 2 weeks use out of it total. Once, fell out of my pocket on carpet. Last, off coffee table and into floor. Those things are expensive and extremely fragile now.
Fairphone is honestly not a bad switch. It’s smaller than a flagship Samsung screen, but as ethically sourced as possible, modular so repairs are easy, open source software, privacy focused, has an ecosystem curated with care, and you can sideload all you want. I think I pay like $25 or $45 a month for unlimited everything with hotspot through the provider that supports it in the US. Also, there is no bloatware. It’s the absolute minimum needed for them to be a marketable solution in my opinion. My battery has never died in 4 months. Sometimes it uses less than 10% a day. Samsung was a nightmare constantly draining. I could go on and on.
Edit: Had S22 Ultra for 3 years before trying the dog shit S25. It took a beating, didn’t have MS link SW, but that is the device I used while developing better habits like deleting Facebook and beginning degoogling efforts. I never saw Samsung show fragility before 2025. Had several Samsungs before then too.
Well, i doubt there is much difference between the s22 and the s25 in terms of Samsung privacy
Also, you changed 3 phones in 4 years, not good on the environment.
Slab phone is solved tech already and this is the time where we can vote for more ethical solutions without really losing anything. The newest fairphone is basically just a standard android flagship.
This is exactly what we need: profound economic warfare, and lawfare against the sources exploiting us. We need to organize and support the groups that fight the forces leading to us getting exploited.
Our problems are fundamentally human sourced, and we need to take action to stop being vulnerable to exploitation and coercion.
All other problems CAN be resolved with time and work.
Some of those who work forces, Are the same who close sources…
Great use of RatM lol
They have a “fair labor” agreement with China so that it is as ethically sourced as possible. People can’t just get anything somewhere else. They are at least trying.
They also set up an initiative around the fair extraction of cobalt.
For the specs alone it is an expensive phone, but well worth it to me.
I do somewhat miss the HD haptics from my previous Samsung.
I got my gen 6 a few days ago with /e/os installed. I definitely don’t regret it.
same, but installing a different launcher is sadly mandatory as the default is ass
What are the benefits of installing a new launcher? Is it just aesthetics?
That and features. I use Smart Launcher because it has a transparent themes like Liquid Glass which blends with the wallpaper. Has good search function. also Auto organizes your apps in categories.
for me, yes. bliss launcher is imo pretty awful. lawnchair feels more like the samsung one which ive used forever
How do you become comfortable with the amount of permissions the launchers need? I’m struggling with that. The default is not bad though.
I am using GrapheneOS, not Fairphone yet with e os. i went to the permissions after i read your comment and lawnchair actually doesn’t have any permissions on my phone. I suspect eOS wouldn’t need any either.
I didn’t know you could use different launchers until a few weeks ago. I’m so much happier with Lawnchair.
Not a big deal for me as I customize every phone that I own anyway, so for me I’m just using Lawnchair and that works perfectly for me even on this phone so I don’t see an issue with it.
Are tutorials to do this available?
I am very relatable regarding this change. i never know the settings page i need to go in order to change the launcher. I go to the settings and in the search bar, i input ‘default’. In the result there should appear a Default home app. click that. If you have another launcher installed it should appear on the list.
Installing a new launcher? Just install it from the app store and then activate as your default launcher in androids app settings. It’s just that simple.
Nice. How does it work compared to Android? Do all apps work (bank, government, shops and so on)?
I have eOS on the fairphone 5, and I have had zero problems with banking apps and the like.
That doesn’t mean you won’t have problems though, I don’t use many of those kinds of apps other than a bank authentication app, and a few others for public transit tickets, etc. I also live in europe, milage may vary elsewhere.
Keep in mind that eOS IS android, just with google telemetry removed. You can add a google account if you want/need to, at which point any android app should work as expected. That of course defeats the purpose somewhat, but even then eOS will still help you stay as private as possible by informing you about app trackers and using alternative services for location, etc.
Fairphone 6
My bank app will install, but I can’t login unless I also install Google Play Services. The website works fine without.
No issues with other apps. I do prioritise installing from F-Droid whenever possible.
I use a different open source OS. Have you tried microG? Or is that already on e? Even if you have it, some parts might need configuring.
Yes, microG is on /e/OS by default. I believe my bank uses some of the security features from Play Services that aren’t in microG.
I’m not 100% sure that it can’t be fixed, but it’s such a minor nuisance that I don’t think it’s worth my time to investigate.
Not /e/OS user, but it is Android - just degoogled. Uses microG as a replacement for Google services if I’m not mistaken.
As for apps, I recommend checking out an app called Plexus on Fdroid - it’s an app where people report how apps work on alternative ROMs with either microG or fully degoogled. It’s pretty neat.
Thanks for the info and I am going to order a Fairphone this week.
Surely without Google services it’s AOSP. Android is trademarked by Google.
/e/ (also known as /e/ OS and /e/OS, formerly Eelo) is a fork of LineageOS, an Android-based mobile operating system,
I used e/OS on an FP4 forever, but the Danish government apps ban anything not made by an American megacorp.
My bank app worked. I was very happy about it. My metro pass app also installed without issue and transferred my pass. Even government apps worked. Microg is useful for sure.
Same
Do you use Google Play? Any (banking) apps that don’t work?
It comes with MicroG and the app lounge. Most all apps in App lounge have privacy grades and a link to the analysis that supports the grade. Just kill whatever setting sends the one call home to Google. It’s something to do with the cloud. You can see the traffic by installing NextDNS and setting your DNS server to theirs. People complain about it, but some people need a phone that makes transactions and to be marketable they have to provide that option. Not sure why they don’t disable the call home by default though. I’m also not sure what happens if you turn it off. I hacked MicroG out of mine entirely and just do banking at home. Banks track the fuck out of you anyways.
Apps from the play store can be downloaded using the app store on the phone which can pull from the play store. My bank app worked using microg. Download the plexus database to see the rating https://f-droid.org/packages/tech.techlore.plexus
Got mine with Android and now wish I’d gone for /e/os instead - looks to be a mega faff to change it now
Avoiding Chinese companies is a factor for me, BUT if the choice is between a Chinese company that wouldn’t comply with a five-eyes data request vs one that would, then I would definitely prefer my data be stolen by a foreign country that doesn’t see me as a sovereign risk
Its getting kind of silly to be afraid of China when big tech is American… There really isnt any logical reason at this point. Just emotional, because people are afraid of China.
The entire west is getting absolutely wrecked by American big tech so its funny to read those articles about how scary China is. I guess we prefer the devil we know, but I dont think China has anything even remotely as capable as American spy agencies and big tech.
You should avoid both. I avoid the us tech because its on a trajectory towards what china currently implements. China has a ton of offensive security capability and they use it constantly.
The NorTel remembers.
We have come a long way, to be finally more concerned about our government spying on us than about a foreign nation.
Chinese company who has to comply with the CCP is a problem for me, and my work.
What’s your work?
If it’s anywhere in the public sector it might be a problem.
Stuff I and my employer doesn’t want the CCP to know.
Well, don’t use your private phone for work related stuff.
interesting, they swapped their S24 with the fairphone .
I’ve been using a CMF Nothing with /e/OS installed by Murena for a year now and I can say it’s been a breeze.
What is the claim behind “runs Google?” The Fairphone also runs Android doesn’t it? How is it any less Google than a Samsung?
it’s only the open source part? normally, google injects proprietary code into phones, usually through “google play services”? idk I’m just kinda a hobbyist
I think they mean Google play services yeah. When i was running cyanogenmod on my phone, I had the option to not install Googles play services.
Some apps rely on that being installed but most worked fine without it.
