Fairphone 5 review - Sustainable smartphone with 8 years updates and 5 years warranty

[Redaktion]

The Fairphone 5 aspires to be the most sustainable and modular smartphone on the market, produced under the fairest possible conditions. Despite its focus on sustainability, it aims to provide a modern user experience and receive updates for at least eight years. Our test will assess how well this concept is executed.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Fairphone-5-review-Sustainable-smartphone-with-8-years-updates-and-5-years-warranty.775970.0.html

[DanielGian]

Worse battery than all comparison devices makes this dead on arrival for anyone who researches their phone purchases.

[Martin82]

Worse battery than all comparison devices makes this dead on arrival for anyone who researches their phone purchases.

Lack of headphone jack too.
I would never consider it even if it had decent battery life.
It's not a "fair" phone by any means. Just like "Honor" phones are made with 0 honor. Everything is backwards and twisted nowadays.

[A]

Lack of headphone jack too.

Why do you even need it.
If you are an audiophile use external USB-C DAC, if you simply need wired headphones use USB-C with charge decoupler (or without one).

[Martin82]

I need It because It's the most convenient and cost-effective way to use headphones. And the only one that makes sense. I to recharge something additional device. And i don't want to throw it away after 2-3 years because the battery has degraded.

And most importantly, I don't appreciate being bullied into doing any of that.

[A]

I to recharge something additional device. And i don't want to throw it away after 2-3 years because the battery has degraded.

If 300mW power draw kills your battery get Bluetooth buds.

[Martin82]

I to recharge something additional device. And i don't want to throw it away after 2-3 years because the battery has degraded.

If 300mW power draw kills your battery get Bluetooth buds.

I to recharge something additional device. And i don't want to throw it away after 2-3 years because the battery has degraded.

If 300mW power draw kills your battery get Bluetooth buds.

I meant the wireless headphones they are pushing as the "logical" and "convenient" alternative. But you raise a good point, the usb dongle does indeed impact phones battery more or less. It's idiotic to go thru so much hassles for something that can be much simple and just work.
I have two pairs or wired headphones I use everyday - one with my phone and the other at home. They've been working without a problem for countless of years - that's theoretically impossible to achieve with current battery technology.

[A]

They've been working without a problem for countless of years - that's theoretically impossible to achieve with current battery technology.

You've made a point here.

[YUKI93]

I need It because It's the most convenient and cost-effective way to use headphones. And the only one that makes sense. I to recharge something additional device. And i don't want to throw it away after 2-3 years because the battery has degraded.

And most importantly, I don't appreciate being bullied into doing any of that.

Couldn't agree more. I never like using wireless earbuds/headphones as I have to keep charging them for four to eight hours of use. By contrast, I can easily use any wired earphones/headphones for as long as the phone battery can handle. And yes, wireless earbuds creates more e-waste.

[YUKI93]

I wonder if there's an enterprise IoT variant of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. If it exists, I'd love to see a more powerful Pro version of this phone. After all, the QCM6490 SoC in this phone is effectively the enterprise IoT variant of Snapdragon 778/778G/782G. Enterprise IoT SoCs allow much longer software support than general consumer mobile SoCs, hence why Fairphone can give the eight-year promise.

[Anshuman]

I very much like the long update period and easy to repair design but the really weak battery life is a deal breaker. As far as the performance of the SoC which is really the SD778G, over 8 years is concerned it should be just about OK in normal workloads judging by how my Poco F1 has fared so far. It ran custom ROMs from day one and even now only issue is slightly choppy scrolling (55-57fps instead of 60fps ) in some rather image-heavy webpages.