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tonur249
adrian_b
Really sad.
Based on what I had read yesterday, when I still hoped that it will have the same USB 3.0/DisplayPort like Fairphone 5, I was considering very seriously to upgrade my rather old ASUS smartphone to a Fairphone 6.
However, if it lacks USB 3.0/DisplayPort, which can be acceptable for a $200 smartphone, but never for a $600 smartphone, then Fairphone 6 is completely disqualified from my point of view.
Unfortunately, only some Chinese smartphones, e.g. from Motorola, offer USB 3.0/DisplayPort in smartphones with decent price/performance ratios and up-to-date Qualcomm SoCs, starting as low as $400.
tonur249
Yeah, I am considering either the previous Fairphone or a Samsung for this capability, but I had looked forward to go with a European developed phone this time. Oh well.
Vinnl
I bought the Fairphone 4 a while after the 5 came out. It felt like their strategy was basically to use the previous edition as the "low-end model", i.e. it's cheaper and less powerful, but still well-supported. And I'm very happy with it.
Which is to say, buying the previous Fairphone is a perfectly sensible thing to do.
mhitza
> But maybe it was not used enough?
Likely not used enough, yet. It would be premature to drop support this quick, as Google seems to just now move Android in the direction (DEX by Samsung is the same thing, but it's Samsung specific).
At the same time, only last year I saw a device in which I'd "dock" my phone (the Nexdock looked reasonably priced) and having both a phone and the steam deck with desktop mode would make such a device more useful.
I know you're talking strictly from the perspective of display glasses, but convergence is the main category under which I'd classify this feature.
tonur249
I agree, display with desktop mode on mobile devices could be useful. I'd really like the idea of using a phone as an everything device at some point, but there are a lot of things that are not lining up, with missing compatibility with external displays being a huge blocker.
zozbot234
Isn't USB C 2.0 on-par with what recent iPhone models offer? It's just fine.
FirmwareBurner
>Isn't USB C 2.0 on-par with what recent iPhone models offer?
Except I don't want to put up with the bs that Apple does to its customers, otherwise I'd buy an iPhone. It's not outrageous to expect USB 3.0, a 15 year old standard, on a 600 Euro phone with modern internals in 2025 that users are expected to keep for a long time without upgrading.
>It's just fine.
Just because it's fine for you doesn't mean it's fine for others. For other's that's the dealbreaker. Fairphone isn't a mainstream brand, it's a niche brand which tends to draw enthusiasts (often tech workers, hackers, tinkerers, etc), and enthusiasts are more picky and expect more features than your regular Apple and Samsung "muggles".
People buy niche phone brands not because they're the most performant or sexy, but because they still provide the niche features that Apple and Samsung gave up on, like SD cards, headphone jacks, removable batteries, etc.
OnePlus had USB 3.0 and DisplayPort outputs on 500 Euro phones all the way in 2019, and that feature was a lifesaver when my laptop suddenly died. There's no excuse now for this phone.
brookst
Do you think it’s possible that Fairphone did research and found that nobody used this feature, and it’s just highly opinionated people cosplaying as wizards who insist it’s incredibly important?
As a product manager, if I had a dime for every time someone insisted with stridency bordering on rudeness that some fringe feature was absolutely critical to my product’s success, despite data showing no market demand even from these overconfident “experts”… I would have a lot of dimes.
tonur249
Yeah, totally adequate for a normal phone, yet lacking if you want to use your phone for something more. You could argue that this isn't something that a phone should be used for, but yet it's something that I'd like to try.
FirmwareBurner
>You could argue that this isn't something that a phone should be used for
Shouldn't the user decide what to use it for, instead of others?
If people aren't gonna use USB 3.0, that's fine, but at least have it for those who do, it's not gonna bother the rest.
It's not like USB 3.0 is some expensive rocket science that takes a lot of effort to implement or takes up space in the phone like the headphone jack.
jantissler
The iPhone Pros have USB 3.0 since the 15 series.
DavideNL
I wonder if this is something that could be “upgraded” at some point, aka a part that could be replaced later?
Or would there be other limitations, like compatibility with a processor/chip…?
karussell
Strange. Even my Fairphone 4 has USB 3 it seems and supports connecting to an external display. Is a nice feature although I don't use it (yet).
hackrmn
To be fair (pun intended), I am still on Fairphone 4, and I've gotta say it has lasted me very well, and the battery is still in good condition so the selling point of being able to swap the battery (something I actually _have_ practically missed in the phones I have owned before the Fairphone) hasn't really even come up yet. Ironically, I have been mildly itching to replace the 4 with the 6, just because. But I am not going to -- not until current phone becomes unusable.
vinc
I got a FP3 in 2020, replaced the battery and the bottom module in 2022 because I couldn't charge it anymore, and I've been really happy with it ever since. I'm not planning on buying a new phone until this one die.
My only issue with my FP3 is that I have to tighten all the screws from time to time otherwise whenever the screen displays too many green pixels the touchscreen will start to trigger at random.
tempfile
Still rocking a 3 here (albeit only 5 years old). Going quite strong after a couple of replacements and upgrades.
lawn
I've got a Fairphone 4 since 4 years and I've bought two replacement batteries so far (one has gone bad and I like to have an extra to swap with if needed).
It still works very well with CalyxOS so the rational thing to do is to keep using it.
verbify
Isn't that one of the selling points of the Fairphone - the durability?
ntnsndr
Same story here. 4 is running strong, with ongoing updates from e/OS.
Jhsto
Fairphone also sent some Linux patches: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pm/20250625-sm7635-fp6-initial...
przmk
One core member (@z3entu) of postmarketOS works at Fairphone.
pickledoyster
available with /e/OS too https://shop.fairphone.com/the-fairphone-gen-6-e-operating-s...
As I near the eol of my daily driver, I'm considering a Fairphone, but what it's missing is a folding card holder, like the Satechi wallet stand for iPhone. Putting the phone in horizontal mode on a table and using a bt keyboard is how I do a lot of my writing
IlikeKitties
This question always comes up:
The Reason GrapheneOS isn't made for Fairphones Officially is that Fairphones lack a lot of base requirements for official support:
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
There's nothing preventing anyone from making a 3rd Party port of GrapheneOS to Fairphones, it just seems no one does.
jeroenhd
Which features specifically do Fairphones miss? It seems to me like most of those requirements are all part of the (mostly open-source) software stack. The Fairphone uses a standard Qualcomm chip that should work as well or as badly as a Pixel SoC.
The "Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)" part isn't even true for Pixels.
strcat
Fairphone no secure element, no hardware memory tagging and lack the expected security patches. It's missing some of the other features too. Our list is about hardware requirements and firmware/driver requirements, not the AOSP portion of the OS.
> The "Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)" part isn't even true for Pixels.
That's not correct. Pixels also ship the monthly, quarterly and yearly OS updates rather than the Android Security Bulletin backports to older releases. Android Security Bulletins are backports of High and Critical severity patches to the initial yearly releases from the past several years. Stock Pixel OS and AOSP have a new release each month and often ship those patches before they're backporting.
Android Security Bulletins also include a small subset of SoC vendor patches, but the remaining SoC vendor patches and other hardware component patches also need to be provided as part of meeting our requirements.
gruez
>The "Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)" part isn't even true for Pixels.
Doesn't the ASB get published at the same time as pixel updates? So by definition it's up to date.
IlikeKitties
> The Fairphone uses a standard Qualcomm chip that should work as well or as badly as a Pixel SoC.
I suspect it's the features of the titan m2 security chip. It's a pretty cool piece engineering [0].
[0] https://www.androidauthority.com/titan-m2-google-3261547/
poisonborz
eOS uses microG. I'd wish Fairphone offered partnership with GrapheneOS, especially now that Google broke their workflow. Sandboxed Play Services is pretty much a must for a lot of people.
daveoc64
>I'd wish Fairphone offered partnership with GrapheneOS
The makers of GrapheneOS have indicated that Fairphone doesn't meet their security requirements:
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114737139118874189
I think there are some fundamental flaws with how Fairphone operates, plus they don't seem to release security updates promptly.
thibaultmol
> plus they don't seem to release security updates promptly.
They did announce they're going to do daily linux patches though, so that's atleast something https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fairphone-6-Linux
untitled2
So Fairphone is NOT secure?
Iolaum
Unfortunately there seems to be bad blood between the two :(
It would be good if Fairphone could make a product that meets GrapheneOS requirements, but they measure the tradeoffs between security, usability, and cost (to do hardware and software things) differently. Each team is free to make the choices they deem fit. If only the intersection of GrapheneOS and Fairphone users were bigger, market forces would push them towards a common vision.
IlikeKitties
> Unfortunately there seems to be bad blood between the two :(
There's is no bad blood here, it's merely that fairphone doesn't meet the required standards for them to be a target the graphene team is interested in supporting offically. There's nothing preventing anyone from porting it themselves and nothing preventing fairphone from porting an inferior version of grapheneos to their phoens.
bcye
This seems to be missing the new focus features introduced with the physical switch, or am I missing something here. Also quoted as 50/100€ more expensive (two prices on the same page?)
DavideNL
The $50 extra, for a pre-installed eOS goes toward the eOS Developers;
However you could also install eOS yourself instead of course, if you prefer.
Maken
I'm actually interested on this. Has anyone used previous Fairphones with /e/os? ¿How painless is the experience?
Vinnl
I've used it on both my previous phone (Fairphone 2) and now on the Fairphone 4. It's very painless, their installer is easy to use. The caveat here is that my most-used app is Firefox, and I don't use banking apps or Chromecast, which people seem to be worried about often.
Maken
Thanks for the answer. I finally ordered the Fairphone 6 with /e/os. I hope I do not regret this decision.
lawn
While I use CalyxOS not /e/os the experience was very painless. I assume it's the same with /e/os.
phoronixrly
The main camera still sucks, and they seem to keep with the misleading messaging. It's not a 50mp camera if the sensor is 50mp but each pixel in the final photos is averaged from 4 pixels of the sensor...
Yes, the closed-source camera app that does not work on Lineage OS and other alternative firmwares has a 50MP switch, however the quality of the 50MP photo is as poor if not worse than the processed 13MP photo...
sva_
This practice of pixel binning is pretty much the industry standard though. Pretty much all recent phones do it
filcuk
It is 50mp camera still, otherwise you would not be able to increase quality by averaging those pixels. I dont think anyone need 15000px noisy poor quality image over standard high res with good quality
phoronixrly
Maybe it wasn't clear in my original comment. It sucks picture-quality-wise, and ON TOP of that, they use misleading messaging with their 50MP mode... Colour is washed out, focus is all over the place... I see no reason to buy a 6 before my 5 dies, which is funny because I can swap its components out indefinitely I guess...
Vinnl
FWIW, that closed-source camera app is also available on /e/OS, who they partner with.
phoronixrly
Well the picture quality comparison from e/os speaks for itself https://gitlab.e.foundation/-/project/177/uploads/5584822b24...
Vinnl
> use the pre-installed photo app
I believe the app I was referring to is not installed by default; you have to explicitly choose it from settings.
roflcopter69
Is it just me or does the discourse about a product like the Fairphone often feel kind of "culture war"-y? So many times I read comments where people are very upset and offended how a Fairphone costs way too much compared to other smartphones or how it supposedly is completely unusable because one feature does not work the way they expect. It's just strange. If you don't like it, don't buy it, no need to engage. But so many people seem to feel obliged to present their strong dislike for the Fairphone as if it's sole existence attacks them personally.
fossgeller
I noticed the same general reactions for Framework laptops. Some folks are acting like these smaller companies are trying to force their products on the consumers, but their advertising is completely fine.
However I also find some of the supporters of consumer friendliness unbearable (e.g. Framework or Thinkpad fans).
I get that tribalism is present in many layers of our society and culture (politics, sports, music), but I always found it weirder when people do it for products. The only goal of a company is to maximize their profits, why someone becomes a die hard supporter of them is beyond me.
To summarize, I just wish people would put less emphasis on consumer practices. Buy a product you like and is beneficial for you, but don’t judge others for their choices.
neogodless
> The only goal of a company is to maximize their profits
Overall this is effectively true, but it is not a law of the universe or anything.
Why can't a collection of people have ideals, want to support and realize those ideals through action, and also find a way to financially support themselves and even profit by pursuing those ideals?
The hypothesis you've put forth is that the group that founded Framework were sitting around thinking about the best way they could invest money to make money, and the best option they could come up with was to make modular laptops. What has their return on investment been thus far, and does it clearly and readily beat all other options they had for investing?
brookst
Plenty of companies choose different balances between profits and social impact. Compare Unilever and Nestle and tell me all companies are equally profit-focused. Look at Patagonia.
I agree with a live and let live view of purchasing decisions, and I agree that tribalism about companies is weird, but at the end of the day it’s far too reductive to say all companies prioritize profits equally.
berkes
I see it as a larger problem in many "ideologically inclined" projects, like Open Source software, fairtrade products, etc.
A large amount of energy is wasted on "infighting" where people spend significant effort on attacking projects that, seen from a distance, are actually allies¹.
Or where people dismiss the entire project because it's not 100 aligned with their view of perfection².
Or, indeed, where people who don't even use or want to use a project, spend significant effort to discredit this project.
¹ an example is the enormous amount of effort and campaigning within the "mastodon" community against projects like bluesky or nostr. But also gnome vs kde, Ubuntu vs Redhat, Etc
² an example is Opensource software being discredited because they use GitHub, or host on AWS. It's Patagonia being discredited because they use plastic. Or Fairtrade coffee being dismissed because it transports coffee with trucks and ships burning oil.
lawn
This is super common with most slightly niche devices I feel.
Framework/Oura/Whoop/Garmin/Fairphone etc etc it's all the same.
boredpudding
I experience this a lot. I have a Fairphone 5 and helping provide answers to questions in threads online is a minefield. You answer questions of someone, and somebody else comes along and starts shouting they want feature x.
People seem to flock to smaller phone companies and demand they fill in their one feature. Whether it's USB-OTG display functionality, headphone jack, slider to kill all connections, etc, everybody is convinced their one feature is holding this phone company back, just because they want this one feature.
It's just disappointing. I'm just happy with my long-lasting repairable phone.
NoSalt
Although it does have a μSD card slot, it does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sadly, my search for a new phone, since Samsung now has neither, will continue.
ebiederm
The Motorola Moto G series has both.
I just bought their 2025 model for that reason.
rpaddock
The obscure Brax3 has a jack, which is why I ordered one and am awaiting its arrival.
Artoooooor
Where is the headphone jack?
aiiizzz
Carousel breaks vertical scroll on mobile
lawn
I'm not a fan of the new battery and back panel.
I've got a Fairphone 4 and the most useful thing about it is the replaceable battery. I can't count the number of times an extra battery in my backpack has saved me.
Sure, maybe it's not that big of a deal to bring a screwdriver with me as well. But I just know I'm going to lose those tiny screws and changing the battery at the back of a taxi goes out the window.
PoignardAzur
It's not clear to me how many of the components are swappable in this version. That was a big selling point of the Fairphone to begin with.
whilenot-dev
The technical descriptions are clearly lacking, up to the point where this product page almost makes me angry... the dimensions seem to be "156.5mm x 73.3mm" with "9,6 mm" thickness, but just right below in the isometric view it says 162mm x 75.5mm x 10.5mmm. I would be really interested in this product as replacement for the iPhone SE, but how can they screw up something so simple?
t0bia_s
Anything above 72mm is too big to use it comfortable by one hand or put it in pocket.
I wish there is compact android phone with open bootloadet option.
berkes
Too big for you, or too big for almost everyone?
If the latter, do you have a source or some research to point to?
If the former, why did you choose to present a personal preference as a common truth?
mrweasel
Sizes of modern phones are interesting. Manufactures doesn't mind making phones into small tablet devices, but make them a bit thinker... That's crazy talk.
NoThisIsMe
I also wish there were more compact options, but the Pixel 8 is 71mm wide and you can unlock the bootloader. And if you're gonna run a custom ROM, the Pixel 5 is still a decent option.
hashworks
The website speaks of 12 modules, haven't investigated which.
lower
The shop has the 12 available replacement parts: https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?categ...
EmilioPeJu
The moment they release the schematics (a.k.a information on how to repair and recycle), I'm buying one or two
Vinnl
They released them for the previous model [1] [2], so presumably will come for the 6 as well.
[0] https://www.fairphone.com/en/2024/01/24/have-you-seen-the-sc...
[1] https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Fairpho...
fsflover
Perhaps you may be interested in Librem 5, for which the schematics is available.
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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?