Peace be with you guys 🌹

This is my first Fairphone with /e/OS and I'm really excited😊. It arrived within 3–4 days even though the estimated time was 2–3 weeks. That suprised me, because I live in Germany.

Everything came intact: headphones, screen protector, and phone case. They also included this little pin to get into the SIM tray slot, which I thought was great. There was no charger in the box but that's intentional on their part. Doesn't matter to me since all modern chargers work anyway.

It's really easy to use and murena has its own browser. The default search engine is Qwant, which I don't use because of Bing. But honestly, my main goal was F-Droid and using apps that reportedly won't work on Google-certified devices starting in September. I've already downloaded my own apps like IronFox and I'm happy 😁.

Now I'd love to hear your opinion: I think Google has shot itself in the foot with this decision. By closing down Android further, more people will switch to de-Googled systems.

That's my take, what do you think?πŸ€”

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[–] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)

@AuroraSine As a Fp5 user, I've always been satisfied with both the hw and the sw of the phone. I wish you the same! Enjoy your new device! πŸŽ‰

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (27 children)

    I ve been wanting to do something like this. but one thing I'm not sure off is the Google compatibility πŸ™ƒπŸ™„πŸ™„

    I can't quit it cold turkey. for instance need Google maps and it's location sharing. i would love it if the Google apps were installed on this phone as second class citizens. is this possible?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

    You could just install Google Maps? Like, still gives Google access to your location and movement, but it's a free device, you can put on it whatever you want.

    You could also get a Fairphone with the Stock Rom, that should include Google Services. You could install a different Rom later.

    There's also self hosted FOSS location sharing services, but for those, you need a server or VPS, and do some legwork to set them up.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    Hi, thx for your Comment.

    I'm aware that you can't stop all at once. For me it was also step by step until I could boycott everything completely. Anyway, I looked into it for you. There's an "App Lounge" where you can log in with your Gmail account to access Google apps. You can also browse there anonymously. I think it's like the Aurora Store, but I'm not really familiar with that. As for Maps, Murena apparently has its own map app, but I use the one from F-Droid "OpenStreetMap". I hope I could help you.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    thanks. it looks like I can install Google maps from here. but I'm not sure it will allow location sharing to work as that needs to run in background and constantly update location

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago* (8 children)

    You're welcome. So I've done some research and apparently many features won't work at all because the necessary Google background services are missing (de-googled system). I can really recommend OpenStreetMap as an alternative to you.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    I use Organic Maps (which uses Open Street Map Data) on my Murena Fairphone 6 and it's doing a decent job.

    That said, it IS a downgrade. The search is not as forgiving of typos. Also, you often won't find a local buissnes at all when searching for it by name. So i look the address up and search for it on Organic maps.

    I am okay with that. It's okay to loose some convenience for not supporting an american megacorp. But i do understand that this is a personal decision to make.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    @Gloomy @AuroraSine CoMaps is an Organic Maps fork maintained by former Organic Maps developers, due to the opaque governance of Organic Maps, which is meant to become more proprietary in the future.

    You can take a look at CoMaps' open letter :

    https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Very cool. Maybe I'll get one, depending how the partnership between Motorola and Graphene goes. And on the pricing. 599€ for the Fairphone 6 with e/os is a little expensive for me, but I don't know how much a Graphene Motorola would be.

    The battery life seems surprisingly good, which could convince me to get it. Can you confirm if the 54 hours mixed use claim on their website is any accurate?

    They also included this little pin to get into the SIM tray slot, which I thought was great. There was no charger in the box but that's intentional on their part.

    Two small notes. The sim tray pins are included with practically every phone. I'm not aware of any manufacturer that doesn't include them. And the lack of charger is due to EU law. Maybe they wouldn't include it anyway, but at the moment the EU is forbidding including chargers with phones to 'reduce e-waste'.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago

    Ah, I didn't even know about that EU law. The Fairphone is the first phone I actually bought myself, so it wasn't obvious to me.

    Anyway, the battery life is really good. Though it depends on how many apps you have running in the background. I don't have that many right now.

    About the price: With everything included, it was definitely more than 600€. With the headphones, case, and screen protector, the price naturally went up. But I'd been saving since the beginning of this year, so I didn't break a sweat. The news that Google was going to close down Android was basically the kick in the ass I needed to step on it.

    Final word: It's expensive. But for me, it was worth it😊 Hope I could help you a little bit with your decision

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    [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Welcome, friend! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying mine!

    Might I suggest Lawnchair as your launcher?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Happy for you. Could soon be joining the club

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (11 children)

    Will fdroid stop working on my FF4 in September if I don't switch from the stock Android it came with?

    Haven't even signed into the play store. I don't want it. Most apps installed by fdroid, a few from APK.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago

    Hello. For the answer, I'd need to know if you have a degoogled system like /e/OS. Fairphones can be delivered either with Play Protect (Google-certified) or without it. If your device is Google-certified, it's possible your F-Droid apps might stop working then. Degoogled systems aren't affected as far as I know.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (11 children)

    Amazing, enjoy your new /e/OS. I'm planning to buy one. Since you're from Germany, how is your banking experience? Are you using any traditional German banks (like DKB, N26, Commerzbank)?

    That's my only concern, but happy to hear experience from /e/OS users :-)

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    [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Enjoy your phone! Could you tell me if RCS messages work on Google Messages?

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago

    Enjoy your phone! Could you tell me if RCS messages work on Google Messages?

    Hello, thank you very much. So I looked into this and according to my research, RCS doesn't work on /e/OS because there are no Google services running in the background. The system is intentionally deGoogled. But this isn't personal experience, only research.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I got mine last year with the e/OS version (that's what's offered in the US). I have not used google messages specifically, but I have had trouble with RCS messages on the default messaging app

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Exciting! I'd like to switch to /e/OS but I don't know if doing so would mean my banking app stops working. Do you have any experience with your own bank app on this OS?

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    [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Is it possible to use the launcher on other ROMs?

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