The Fairphone 5 released, is the sleekest repairable phone yet

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.

DTFpanda,

It really does surprise me how so many people (at least on Reddit and Lemmy) care so deeply about a headphone jack.

Delta_44,

Still the best way to transmit sound even quality-wise, except if you want surround, 2 channel won’t suffice here

silvercove,

it’s useful. I use it.

rockSlayer,

The only way I can play music from Spotify or youtube in my car is through a headphone jack, I value it very deeply because of that. It’s much cheaper to buy a phone with a jack than it is to replace my car

Discotheque,

There’s a bunch of different Bluetooth adapters you can buy these days for about 20 eur.

HidingCat,
  1. No internal battery means it's not a product with a built-in obsolence period (which is fairly short, 3-5 years)
  2. Most of the better audio gear are all wired
  3. I mean, it's simple economics: Not paying for all the extra stuff to make it wireless means you get better value for audio quality
  4. Many people here are enthusiasts in tech and hardware, we likely have more than a few devices. Switching between devices with BT is a fucking PITA.
970372,

For point 4. Newer devices are very clever and will auto switch when music is playing and of course both devices are turned on.

severien,

Partially. My MacBook will steal the bluetooth connection no matter if something is playing or not. I have to disable bluetooth on the Mac to connect smartphone to my headphones.

NENathaniel,
@NENathaniel@lemmy.ca avatar

Speaking as an audiophile, you can buy a USB C dongle for like $10 that even has a good DAC. Only issue is if you’re regularly charging and listening to wired buds simultaneously

meta_synth,

Dongles are pointless e-waste. They constantly break, get lost, or are forgotten when you need them the most. They are not a solution.

NENathaniel,
@NENathaniel@lemmy.ca avatar

You can easily leave them attached to your headphones 24/7, which helps avoid losing them

I’ve had headphone jacks on phones break and thats a lot harder and more expensive to fix than buying a tiny dongle (that creates negligible amounts of waste)

I’d argue they’re actually a very good solution 🤷 (aside from arguably on iOS with their dumb proprietary port, but thats easily fixed with USB C)

astral_avocado,

Interesting, got any recommendations?

NENathaniel,
@NENathaniel@lemmy.ca avatar

The Apple one sounds great tbh, altho I know Moondrop makes one that should have a lil more power and should be a bit more durable long-term (my apple ones have held up well so far tho)

T156,

Wired also doesn’t drop out if there are too many people in an area. Like if you’re listening to music whilst waiting for the train.

And they’re cheaper, since you don’t need batteries, radio, and audio processing hardware on top of that.

at_an_angle,
@at_an_angle@lemmy.one avatar

Even when I had a headphone jack, I hated it. That wire tangled up everywhere.

Bluetooth came out, and that was that. Never went back to wired.

severien,

Wireless headphones have been my biggest tech revolution since the smartphone.

Ataraxia,

I used to break all my 3.1 earbuds but usbc doesn’t seem to break no matter what I do to them. But I do listen to most of my music and videos with Bluetooth. I haven’t missed the headphones jack even though I totally thought I would.

algorithmae,

I use a headphone jack daily, it is a must for me. Not going to do a stupid Bluetooth adapter or dongle cable that can get lost or damaged

sirfancy,

For the record, you know you don’t have to take the USB-C adapter off the headphones if you exclusively use it for that device, right? It’s not as much of a hassle as people believe it is, they just haven’t used one yet.

lobut,

I use my headphones on my computer and phone which requires the removal of the dongle. It’s not a hassle to you, but it can be a hassle to others.

TwanHE,

Same here, but I bought a decent usb dac and I’m now just using the front type c on my pc as well.

Sethayy,

Samsung even has some stupid specifications for which adapters are “supported”. Its pretty hard to say its not just a money grab to keep Bluetooth on all the time

knobbysideup,

I’m fine with bluetooth, but I think a problem for usb-c is that it comes out the bottom of the phone, so awkward to use the phone with headphones. Also, can’t charge and listen.

Sabata11792,
@Sabata11792@kbin.social avatar

I don't want to buy more shit I got to remember to charge when I already have a few nice 3.5mm headsets. I know its going to be dead every time I want to use it. I got to pair it every time I switch devices. It works on everything that has the right hole even if its older than your parents.

Its just extra work unless its your daily driver.

Genericusername,

While I do care about the headphone jack, I am mostly bitter about the manufacturers deciding for me that I don’t need it. I’d heavily trade off 10% reduction in thickness for a user-replaceable battery and a headphone jack, but it was decided for me that a thinner phone is a big improvement.

Nouveau_Burnswick,

Flip phones are making a comeback.

Maybe thicc phones will come back next?

Franzia,

Please. Yes.

Genericusername,

Well, you can have a DIY version that feels like the real thing, but with more features. All you need is a fairly modern phone of your choice, a strong glue and a brick. You may want to paint it in beige just for the heck of it afterwards.

rah,

I am mostly bitter about the manufacturers deciding for me that I don’t need it.

They haven’t decided for you. You make the decision when you choose which phone to buy. It’s entirely your decision.

Genericusername,

They did decide for me by the point that a once obvious feature to include in a phone is discarded in all but a very slight number of niche phones where I’d have to compromise on a bunch of other features in return for something that used to be almost mandatory feature at once point.

rah, (edited )

all but a very slight number of niche phones

I’m pretty sure there are a very large number of phone models on the market with headphone sockets.

I’d have to compromise on a bunch of other features

Right. That’s the choice. As with everything one buys. And which nobody has taken away.

Genericusername,

Requiring a headphone jack in 2023 rules out most “flagship” phones. If you’re looking for a mid-range then your odds are better. But if you want a phone with better camera array, then you’re leaving mid-range territory and chances are that you’d have to compromise on either the headphone jack or your camera quality. That’s about what I meant by “compromise” - the requirement for a headphone jack significantly limits your choices.

danwardvs,

Not being able to listen to wired audio while charging is a dealbreaker. And not needing a dongle is convenient.

osbo9991,

Most of the issue stems from annoying dongles that wired headphone users typically don’t want to carry.

The situation with fairphone is especially infuriating however, as omitting the headphone jack goes against the whole point of fairphone IMO.

Bluetooth headphones, as convenient as they are, have integrated lithium batteries, which are harmful for the environment. They also have a very short, finite lifespan. Despite these issues, fairphone removed the headphone jack on the fairphone 4 and 5, while simultaneously releasing true wireless Bluetooth earphones that are not repairable. Their whole brand is based on creating ethically sourced, repairable products, so offering an inherently unrepairable item for sale is rather disappointing. I am aware that they offer over ear headphones that are repairable, but I think they shouldn’t sell true wireless earphones until they come up with a real repairable design.

In contrast, there are wired headphones from the mid 1980s that are still functional and still sound amazing, even if they aren’t as convenient to use. There are also modern wired headphones and IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) that have removable, standardized cables. This is great since the cable is what breaks on wired headphones 99% of the time.

Not_Alec_Baldwin,

I feel the same way about the OLED screen.

The are too many static elements on a phone screen. Notification bar, keyboard, etc. I just expect burnin to be a huge problem within a couple years.

dkt,

My impression is that burn-in isn’t nearly as much of an issue on newer panels as it once was. At least, I’ve been using the same OLED phone for 4 years and have no sign of burn-in yet.

T156,

I’ve had a little noticeable burn-in on my 5 year old OLED phone, but you usually don’t pick it up, unless you’re looking closely, or have a video that highlights the relevant parts of the screen.

Ataraxia,

I’ve had the s20 ultra since launch and I have zero burn in. I also use this phone constantly. But I also have the screen timeout set to 30 seconds. And again I’m on it constantly.

AsimovsRobot,

My phone has an oled screen and is a little over 4 years old. I leave the display on for hours sometimes and have had no burn in problems so far.

AsimovsRobot,

I posted 2 months ago that I have no burn in. Well, I do have some from the top info bar - clock, battery level, notifications. Seems like I had never noticed?

lud,

At least their Fairphone XLs are repairable.

There are also modern wired headphones and IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) that have removable, standardized cables. This is great since the cable is what breaks on wired headphones 99% of the time.

You can also replace the cable with different kinds of wireless adapters to make them either true wireless or (even better) semi wireless. I haven’t done it myself, but it’s pretty neat.

And009,

I can’t charge and use iem together

Dremor,
@Dremor@lemmy.world avatar

You know that combo adapter exist?

Like this one from JSAUX: a.co/d/iuZvmO6

Goodtoknow,
@Goodtoknow@lemmy.ca avatar

In my experience these are not good products that have a huge (15-30sec) delay for the phone to detect the headphones and they seem to suck battery when in use also

And009,

Sure, at least in my case the whole point is to use a high end iem for sound quality. If I want convenience there’s a decent pair of Sony xm4 I carry around for calls and noise cancelling.

The adapters will simply affect my signal quality and add more wires.

gbzm,

Everybody seems to care about headphone jacks, nobody seems to care about Fairphone’s former stance to focus on keeping their existing models usable long term rather than produce a new phone every year and incentivise a race to the latest model like every other brand does…

natenten,

I still have a fairphone 3 and I was a bit disappointed on how quickly the 4th came along, and now number 5 released not even 2 years later.

huskypenguin,

Do you still have software support and parts?

krimsonbun,
@krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

can confirm the fairphone 3 is still getting updates - written from a fairphone 3

Intralexical,

I mean, you don’t have to buy the new one. I guess as long as they’re not forcing you to upgrade while your current phone is still fine, it shouldn’t have too much impact on e-waste and stuff for them to refresh the parts list and specs for new buyers.

bandario,
@bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Try getting parts for the original fairphone or fairphone2.

gbzm,

You saying they stopped selling them?

bandario,
@bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They just don’t have any stock on any of it and it isn’t coming back.

dynamo,

tbh it Fairphone 5 had one, i wouldn’t hesitate

gbzm,

Buy a 3 then, show em low tech is in demand

dynamo,

Would if i found one for sale

sheogorath,

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.

Prethoryn, (edited )
@Prethoryn@lemmy.world avatar

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.

DannyMac,
@DannyMac@lemmy.world avatar

No :(

DacoTaco,

The released fairphone 4 in the us comes with a special os, not based on android iirc.i think it was to test the waters.
What i am curious about is wether they can be reflashed to run lineageOS

astral_avocado,

Arstechnica has in depth articles on 3, 4, and one about the 5 that should give you a good idea on this. I say this as a pixel owner who’s undecided myself…

pastermil,

Damn…

They’re gonna keep getting bigger, aren’t they?

boeman,

I’ve heard that a few times.

sw2de3fr4gt,

The bigger they are, the easier they are to repair. So repairable phones in general are going to be on the bigger side.

ammonium,

The dimensions and weight has been reduced ever-so-slightly compared to the predecessor.

I think they meant the company, not the phone

pastermil,

Phones back then are both smaller and more repairable

SpiritedTaco,

The bigger the hoop, the bigger the hoe… Or something like that.

Raiderkev,

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…

rah,

Qualcomm QCM6490

No good for free software OSes then :-(

TonyOstrich,

Can you elaborate on why? Like, I’m not surprised, I just am not involved in this space enough to know why.

ceuk,

Proprietary drivers/firmware. Basically makes it impossible/very hard to develop custom ROMs/operating systems (the lack of openness makes it super hard to extend/modify/verify the software running on these chips).

avidamoeba,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

The drivers are well separated via HAL so you can absolutely make custom ROMs/OSes without changing those. The Android OS has way more code above the HAL layer than below. You can’t however arbitrarily update the Linux kernel, modify the drivers or fix security issues found, beyond the security support window provided by Qualcomm.

rah,

you can absolutely make custom ROMs/OSes

You can’t however arbitrarily update the Linux kernel

So you can’t make free software OSes.

rah, (edited )
  1. Manufacturers (e.g., Qualcomm, Samsung) won’t return your call unless you buy in huge quantities, hundreds of thousands or millions of units.
  2. Lack of documentation.
  3. Information restricted by NDA.
  4. Non-free binaries required for lots of hardware.
  5. Generally lording over the market and exploiting their position, to the degree of anti-competitiveness, and as a consequence artificially extending the rein of non-free software in the mobile domain.
  6. Astonishingly poor quality of engineering.
TonyOstrich,

Are there any better alternatives? The only ones I’m aware of off the top of my head would be Samsung’s Exynos, Kirin, and MediaTek. From the little experience I have in the space it always struck me as Qualcomm being the least shitty option, not necessarily the best.

rah,

Rockchip RK3399(S) is the best you can get in terms of freedom. The rest are much of a muchness.

thisisawayoflife,

What is the best open blob SoC available?

rah,

open blob SoC

What do you mean?

metaphortune,

To be fair: Murena will be shipping a version of this with /e/ OS on it. mastodon.social/

TomViolence,

What would be a good phone for free software OSes?

rah, (edited )

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.

Franzia,

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?

rah,

FOSS ROMs

What do you mean?

Franzia,

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.

rah,

No, it does not mean any of the projects you mentioned will be unavailable. None of those projects are free software OSes.

phamanhvu01,

Fairphones have always used Qualcomm SOCs, there’s nothing new here. I don’t understand the fuss here if I’m being honest.

VO0RHAMER,

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.

VO0RHAMER,

By the way. It does already have an entry on the postmarketos wiki wiki.postmarketos.org/…/Fairphone_5_(fairphone-fp…

rah,

PostmarketOS isn’t a free software OS.

rah,

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.

rambos,

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

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

Dremor,
@Dremor@lemmy.world avatar

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.

timbuck2themoon,

I love how the solution for a green phone is to buy a whole other device for music.

Less e waste, surely.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

And looking at the internals of the Fairphone 5, there is plenty of god damn space.

lud,

Oh, that’s nice. I am gonna buy one.

Jk I will wait until my current phone is obsolete.

miss_brainfart,
@miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

CCatMan,

Can anything from the new phone be used on the pervious models?

lud,

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.

Dirk,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar

Low-end hardware and a pretty much closed CPU you can’t do much with for 700 Euros? No, thank you.

riesendulli,

8 years of suffering on that octa-core

Quacksalber,

You make it sound like 8 years of guaranteed support is something bad, lol.

riesendulli,

No, but this will be a living, stutters hell in 3 years time.

Quacksalber,

Don’t know, have my FP4 since release, no problems with performance.

callcc,

Same here

HidingCat,

You know, people are out there using their phones on Snapdragon 400s; I know you're exaggerating.

riesendulli,

https://discuss.tchncs.de/pictrs/image/37067513-2209-4190-9284-671f8dabbdb4.jpeg

severien,

Nah, these days hardware doesn’t go outdated that fast.

HidingCat,

It's a 778G equivalent, from what I can tell, how is that even low end?

Franzia,

I dont really understand this gripe. Can you explain why its a closed CPU that I cant do much with?

Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow,

If the CPU isn’t a breadboard I can resolder any time I want and have to carry around in a suitcase what is the point?

Franzia,

Lmfao

Rayspekt,

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.

witten,

A used Pixel can be had in that range.

kzhe,

I got a Pixel 3a for 50 bucks once (really good deal, a few circumstances around it) and an OEM unlockable 4a 5g for 100, so under the category you gave and in some sense more sustainable (its used), able to be degoogled,

HidingCat,

More sustainable in the sense that you have a lesser carbon footprint, yes. Buy used.

Rayspekt,

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.

HidingCat,

Yes, that is a point of concern, you'll need to find a way to replace the battery... which is where the Fairphone's design comes in again. Hopefully that will be the norm in the future.

icdl,

How did they fit in so many ads?

unsaid0415,

but muh headphone jack

huskypenguin,

But is the camera good?

dojan,
@dojan@lemmy.world avatar

Their promo video looks good. Though it is a promo video.

My guess is that it won’t have the bells and whistles of Samsung or Google Pixel devices. That doesn’t really seem to be the goal with the device though.

huskypenguin,

I’m excited for some real world tests. If we can get to at least an iPhone 13 quality of processing on the image, I’m in.

dojan,
@dojan@lemmy.world avatar

I get that. I’m not planning on switching from iPhone anytime soon really, but whenever I swap my Pixel 6 work phone I might go for a Fairphone instead.

baseless_discourse, (edited )

According to CNET not as good as pixel, but it is honestly fine (not great, but definitely fine) in my eyes.

cnet.com/…/fairphone-5-review-the-phone-that-want…

huskypenguin,

I’m surprised there are no night tests. The images look pretty good on what they tested.

HidingCat,

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.

severien,

1/1.56", big difference.

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