this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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Fairphone is actually worse than Google when it comes to updates. Even their flagship phone is still on Android 13. Even the Pixel 6 runs Android 15 at this point and with this news it is guaranteed to get at least Android 17. Google has always been offering 5 years of support for the Pixel 6 and 7 series. What they didn't promise until this announcement was additional feature/OS upgrades, but when it comes to that they were already ahead of Fairphone.
When it comes to alternative OSes, Google actually makes it very easy to install them. That's one reason why GrapheneOS and the likes chose Pixel phones as their primarily supported phones.
IMHO, security updates are more important than OS updates, and Fairphone is good in that regard. I'd be hard-pressed to even name a killer feature from the last few versions of Android (or iOS, for that matter).
Absolutely, security updates are much more important than feature updates. Upgrading to newer Android versions is mostly useful to have access to newer Android APIs (apps eventually will require newer versions, although that usually takes quite a while). Another benefit of newer Android versions might be added security features.
The fairphone 5 is on android 14 and android 15 has only started to be deployed 2 months ago.
Ok, that endoflife.date site apparently isn't quite up-to-date then. But even still, Android 14 was released in October 2023 and as far as I can tell, Fairphone released their Android 14 update only in July 2024. I'm not saying Fairphone's update policy is terrible or anything. It certainly is better than that of many other vendors, but if you want updates as quickly as possible, you are probably better of with a Pixel phone. Of course repairability is an entirely different matter.
Isn't the main reason for GrapheneOS to choose Pixels that Pixels have the Titan security chip?
Yes, there are multiple reasons, but that security chip was very important to them. An easy way to install the OS was also quite essential.
Fairphone has a great approach and I would love to buy an EU phone with replaceable parts, however I've read pretty underwhelming things about their software support. in that sense, paying 90€ every 3-4 years to get the battery replaced on a pixel,would be a better bet. That,plus the pixel a variants are very competitively prices and you get huge bang dor your buck.
I wish fairphones were cheaper...
At its price point, it's very underwhelming.
I also did the math and I could get an average phone (used) every year for three years before I break even. And those average phones would be more powerful with each iteration.
Unless you're bought into eco-friendly minimal waste messaging, it's really hard to choose fairphone.
Yeah, I admit they cost more, but I'm not playing high perf games on it, so it's absolutely fine - no apps struggle.
And the eco thing has to start somewhere and that's not something Google's aiming for (afaik)
Plus, watching other's expression when I swap a battery to be fully charged in 60 seconds is great.