[Vinnl]

I have a Fairphone [1], for which repairability was a major focus (the latest two models are the first smartphones to get a perfect 10 from iFixit, IIRC). At some point, it started having some issues. Likewise, a friend of mine who had one wanted a new phone as well.

By combining parts from mine and his phone, I now have a properly working phone again with very little effort. This is so important.

(That said, the reason I started having issues in the first place was because some connections didn't fit as tightly anymore. This is supposedly better with the latest model, whose screen you can no longer replace without tools, but needs a regular Philips screwdriver that actually comes with the phone. Less gimmicky on parties, but should be an improvement.)

[1] https://www.fairphone.com/

[Derbasti]

My wife and I had a Fairphone 2 as well. Fantastically repairable. I broke the screen on mine just before a vacation, priority-shipped a new one two days before we left and had it all repaired in time. My wife's phone had a strange headphone issue, bought the spare part, and even got reimbursed afterwards, because it might have been a manufacturing issue.

But we have both since moved on. Why? Because the Fairphone 2 was slow when it was released, and things got unbearable in the end. They still technically work perfectly, but software demands simply outgrew the hardware. At the end, the battery (a new one) would barely last half a day, and google maps or websites would frequently evict background audio due to memory pressure.

Which is terribly sad to me; Fairphone (the company) did everything right, but the market decided against them that old hardware just is not viable. Here's to hoping that smartphone demands have slowed down enough to make the Fairphone 3 last longer than the 2.

But for now, I choose buying used phones over fair new ones. And maybe that is actually better for the environment, too.

[Vinnl]

> But for now, I choose buying used phones over fair new ones. And maybe that is actually better for the environment, too.

It is! And very much in line with the Fairphone philosophy. But yes, definitely still a long way to go in terms of repairability and longevity of Android phones. Fairphone's pushing the limits, but those limits are still disappointingly low.

[moksly]

This is anecdotal, but everyone in my circle of friends who bought a fairphone2 (2015) has replaced it. Meanwhile my mom is still using my old iPhone 5s (2013). And my wife uses her iPhone SE(2016).

Hell the fact that they have released one in 2013, 2015 and 2019, kind of goes against their message doesn’t it?

[rowanG077]

That doesn't surprise me. The crowd of people who are aware of the fairphone are most likely techies. And I would wager techies are much more likely to replace a Phone then the Generic Apple user.

[moksly]

No one I’d call a techie bought it, it was the artsy environmental types. The reasons for replacing it ranges from the OS not being updated to run modern Apps to the phone breaking.

We’re pretty digitised in Denmark, so if you can’t download apps from the iOS or play stores you’ll have a harder time transferring payments to friends, using public transportation, ordering food online, interacting with the public sector, accessing your citizen mail box and stuff like that, and Android isn’t very good at longevity.

[Vinnl]

> he reasons for replacing it ranges from the OS not being updated

They just released a beta of the upgrade to Android 9 for their five-year-old phone. Yes, that's just Android 9, but still way better than other phones that old, and they had to overcome major hurdles for it [2]. But yes, iPhones are much better than Androids at longevity.

[1] https://www.androidauthority.com/fairphone-2-android-9-11295...

[2] https://www.fairphone.com/en/2020/06/18/fairphone-2-gets-and...

[Avamander]

Android is fine. It's the sub-par hardware that isn't, poor flash memory gets unbearably slow at some point and that bogs down pretty much everything.

Second and related problem is developers that abuse storage, no, you don't need to fsync your logs or DB to the storage after each row. It really fucks with devices that have lost a bit of IOPS.

[moksly]

I’m not really into it, but the problem they seemed to have with the fairphone was that it wasn’t getting new android versions for some reason. I guess you could argue wether or not developers should support old android versions but the reality is that they don’t.

[sokoloff]

I know a lot of consumers who upgrade their phone whenever their cell phone financing plan lets them do so.

[fluffything]

I'm still using my iPhone SE (2016). I've changed the battery once, and the screen twice (I should probably stop dropping it).

Changing the screen takes ~20 minutes, and a new screen costs ~16$.

I will probably upgrade to the iPhone SE2 at some point, but given that my phone works perfectly for what I use it for, paying 550$ for an upgrade just does not make sense.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Well, I'm using an HTC phone from 2014. I haven't had to change or repair any parts and it costs about half an iPhone, I think. To clarify, everything seems to be working just fine.

Unfortunately, Google. But that's the only problem with it. I was actually going to stick with a flip-top but then I started working as a dev and figured that getting a smartphone would give me some extra cred.

Nowadays it's probably the other way around, I should probably dig out my old fliptop and use that, to show how 1337 I am.

[fluffything]

> I haven't had to change or repair any parts and it costs about half an iPhone, I think.

I've dropped the iphone dozens of times. I should stop doing that. I guess that if I had been more careful, i wouldn't have had to change anything, except for the battery (the old battery was "fine", ~65-70% capacity, but given that changing it takes 15 min and 20$, and makes the phone feel like brand new, it is a change that I happily do). Can you comment on the battery life of your 2014 HTC phone after 6 years of use? What kind of battery does it have ?

[Vinnl]

Hence the part I wrote in parentheses. They're still learning, so I'd expect the FP3 to be much better than the FP2, just like the FP2 was an improvement over the FP1. I think it's unrealistic to expect a new company to immediately hit a home run, but I think their main contribution is that they're paving the way for other companies: they're making mistakes, but also openly documenting what they're doing and what challenges they're running into.

[mobilemidget]

you left out some important information, and leaving me in thoughts..

"I now have a properly working phone again"

But what about your friend? What did he have to do to call you again, or you guys simply stopped calling each other? ;)

[Vinnl]

He got a new phone :) So instead of us both having to get a new phone, just one sufficed.