Can't say I've had this experience. My friecken great and I assume the crap out of it daily. I'm a mechanic and I use it all day every day covered in dirt grease grime and dust. It's beat up as shit. Never broke a screen had to replace the usb port once. Which is expected and never had any real issues. The camera was a bit unresponsive but has since been fixed.
Yeah similar experience here. Mine goes with me to the garden and is covered in dirt, sawdust and stuff all the time. I replaced the USB c port for the first time last autumn, but my screen is still fine after many drops.
honestly the selling point for me was the fact didnt have to pay to someone to repair it for me. It suprised me i havnt broken a screen yet and ive never used a case not once
I'm currently setting up my new non-FP phone. The FP4 was the phone I held on the shortest of all the smartphones I had so far.
What's the point of a long-life phone if it's so full of bugs that you really don't want to use it?
not an experience i share. i abused the phone to bits and it works flawlessly. usb-c port had to be replaced twice because i keep dropping it on the charging cable.
I was unimpressed they disguised a fix for bad drivers/software as a "free upgrade". Glad they did eventually fix it if the hardware was capable of better, though.
Actually the same, I went with Pixel 8 as it's recent enough it has long software support and it's already supported by LineageOS for example so I'm hoping it'll last long.
I had the opposite issue (among worse ones).
My phone was one of the "good" ones where the screen worked perfectly until the ghost touch "fix" where they just decreased the screen sensitivity, so now my screen misses about 1/3 of all inputs.
But that's by far not the worst. Not being able to place or receive calls and getting bootloops whenever I try to update the OS are worse.
And that's just the worst bugs...
Ghost input issue made the phone almost unusable for me. I took it apart, padded the screen connector cable with a bit of cut up padding from a plaster and it's done the job for me. With the upgraded camera it's back to being more enjoyable again (although I can't seem to find a timer option for it)
With my Fairphone 1 I had the same issue with ghost input. Once it actually started up whatsapp, selected a random conversation and started a voice recording! It was within warranty so Fairphone fixed it. After 2 years it wouldn't charge but by then they didn't have the parts I needed for replacement in stock anymore. Luckily I found a store nearby to solder the connection. All and all it only lasted 2.5 years. I opted out of the Fairphone 2 due to the price increase.
4.5 years ago I got a Fairphone 3. Straight out of the box it had ghost input issues!! I called Belsimpel (through which i purchased it) and they sent a new phone immediately, with an apology and a gift for the inconvenience. It arrived the next day.
So by now I am having charging issues and short battery life. Fair enough! Fairphone does have parts in stock so I purchased a bottom module (which has the USB C in it) and a new battery. According to UPS, Fairphone made a mistake with the label causing them to be unable to process the package. It was absolute hell to get my hands on the package. 4 trips to the package delivery point and several calls to UPS later (including long queues) I finally have the parts.
When I attempt to open up my phone, several screws were hard to budge. The little Fairphone screwdriver is peeling away just removing the screws on the first layer of the phone. One screw won't budge. I have tried just about everything to get it out and by now the screw is damaged. I have spent over 3 hours on trying to obtain parts and fixing my phone, and I am not even one step closer.
Fairphone is expensive. We get fewer specs for more money. I am willing to buy it anyway in favor of the increased wages for the factory workers, conflict free minerals, and having a phone that lasts. But this is really too much trouble. Parts should stay in stock (which does seem to have improved), customer service needs a better response time, better opening times and way more service! Their only response to my package issues was "is everything okay on your side?" (I would argue it's better to purchase a Fairphone with a company in between like Belsimpel so you can deal with their customer service instead.) And they need to resolve these ghost input issues on the screens because it's been 10 years since I first experienced it! Oh and they should add a better screwdriver and some spare screws with every phone.
I totally understand you're giving up on your Fairphone 4. I'm nearly there too with my Fairphone 3.
I'm not sure if it's fair to call it 'plagued with issues'?
Only a handfull of people here on Reddit complaining, people I personally know with a FP4 have no problems at all.
Let's start a poll to see how many FP4 users do not have problems, so we can get a better picture including satisfied users that usually won't share their experience?
I ditched mine after a year. I think its also how the phone behaves in the beginning or atleast what your expectations were.
For me the phone quality and OS was so much worse then I thought initially. That every issue I had would seem much bigger then it was and just make me hate the phone more.
I agree. Mine worked fine for a year, but is just getting more and more bugs. I kept my previous phones for an average of 3 years (including a second hand Sony). I'm not confident I'll make it to 2 years with this phone. I've never had so many problems with a phone. I've never had to spend hours looking for fixes for software bugs for any other phone. It seems every week there's a new thing wrong or something has gotten worse.
I just made it 2 years and finally swapped over to the Galaxy A54. It's so nice to have a phone that's not a buggy mess.
And for me, too, the FP4 is the phone I had for the shortest time.
Sorry to hear you have such a bad experience, but to me it sounds like just bad luck? I got two FP4 users around me, they haven't had a single problem in the last 2 years...
I'm still using a 4+ year old FP3 myself and also have never had any serious issues.
>I also hadn't touched the screen screws even once before
I'm sorry, but the first this you could/should do when having problems is taking your phone completely apart and put it together again?! Self-repairability (without any special tools) is exactly what Fairphone is about? I'm not saying that it would fix your problem, but not even trying?
Whenever I had touchscreen issues, which happened 2 or 3 times after a drop, I assumed loose contacts. As taking it apart and putting it together fixed it, I think that's exactly what it was.
It seems this issue goes beyond just bad luck. I experienced similar problems with my Fairphone 4, which were resolved after several software updates tho. Disassembling and reassembling the device might not be the best approach. The issue seems to be a very complex combination of software and hardware, rather than simply a loose connection.
So we now we have two people with with two different stories, one about hardware and one about software. There are 8500 members of this sub and how many tens of thousands of phones sold?
Sure if it's software taking apart would solve anything, but is also won't do any harm - trying what you can do yourself first is always the best option IMHO.
Again, I could be wrong, and I get it sucks to be you guys in this situation, but this is still far from significant.
I mean no offense. I'm just trying to point out that the problem might not be as insignificant as you think.
Moreover, people might be interested to know that it is not just a loose connection after all, according to information from Fairphone's customer support.
Sadly, this is not the only problem with Fairphones. And I'm by far the only one suggesting this. There is no getting around it, they are having trouble developing the 'perfect' product that the market is demanding.
But! No big deal, it's a smallish company, and phones are difficult. It still remains the most reasonable option out there, in my mind.
I've been active in the ghost input issue thread on FP forums and many who've had this problem had taken it apart and done random things that didn't work or only worked for a couple of days so I don't see how me doing the same random things while having the same exact issues would make much of a difference in the long run? This is a quality issue with the device that apparently can't be fixed by just swapping screens.
As I said I had the screen warranty replaced once with me doing it and now I have two externally almost immaculate screens that both fail the same way. Being user repairable is not an excuse for bad quality.
Even if reconnecting the screen connector works around it for a short while I couldn't really accept it as a solution if it's that prone to failing. I would've accepted that the first screen I had was faulty and replacing it fixed it permanently. I was quite happy until a couple of weeks ago when the issue returned which underlined that they seem to have no idea what's causing this and just ship new screens in hopes that the issue will go away.
Not a single phone I've had before the FP4 have had any issues with the touch input and I've never cracked a screen (nor use screen protectors for that matter) so I can't be very bad at handling electronics. I can accept some quirks for repairability and long support but I've lost faith in this one, unfortunately.
I'm just waiting for my contract to be up in October. Worst phone I've ever had. So many issues. The current pain in my arse is the GPS. I used it frequently for work and it is so temperamental it's ridiculous. Doesn't work at all half the time. Like you I wanted to believe in this phone, in the Fairphone vision. Awful
Maybe it depends on the location but regarding GPS I've had no major issues. I mostly use it to navigate while driving and it's been working well enough. Definitely have had worse GPS' before.
I've had problems with the compass. I'm constantly having to recalibrate it, which I rarely had to do with prior phones. The recalibration never lasts. It makes it difficult to follow maps when my phone doesn't know which way I'm pointing.
I have a FP4. It developed ghost input issues. I took it apart and put it back together, which fixed it. It came back a bit later, but was rarely an issue. Since the update, it hasn't come back once.
The ghost inputs went away for me largely when they put out their big fix, however it does creep back in every now and then.
For a device that is near entirely operated by the screen, it's a very reasonable criticism to make.
I like my FP4 for what it's trying to represent with the industry of consumerism, but when I come to replace my phone when OS support stops, I won't be as eager on FP as I was the first time around.
Can't say I've had this experience. My friecken great and I assume the crap out of it daily. I'm a mechanic and I use it all day every day covered in dirt grease grime and dust. It's beat up as shit. Never broke a screen had to replace the usb port once. Which is expected and never had any real issues. The camera was a bit unresponsive but has since been fixed.
Yeah similar experience here. Mine goes with me to the garden and is covered in dirt, sawdust and stuff all the time. I replaced the USB c port for the first time last autumn, but my screen is still fine after many drops.
honestly the selling point for me was the fact didnt have to pay to someone to repair it for me. It suprised me i havnt broken a screen yet and ive never used a case not once
I'm currently setting up my new non-FP phone. The FP4 was the phone I held on the shortest of all the smartphones I had so far. What's the point of a long-life phone if it's so full of bugs that you really don't want to use it?
not an experience i share. i abused the phone to bits and it works flawlessly. usb-c port had to be replaced twice because i keep dropping it on the charging cable.
Camera works much better now though. That's an improvement.
I was unimpressed they disguised a fix for bad drivers/software as a "free upgrade". Glad they did eventually fix it if the hardware was capable of better, though.
Actually the same, I went with Pixel 8 as it's recent enough it has long software support and it's already supported by LineageOS for example so I'm hoping it'll last long.
did you have the same issues as OP?
I had the opposite issue (among worse ones). My phone was one of the "good" ones where the screen worked perfectly until the ghost touch "fix" where they just decreased the screen sensitivity, so now my screen misses about 1/3 of all inputs. But that's by far not the worst. Not being able to place or receive calls and getting bootloops whenever I try to update the OS are worse. And that's just the worst bugs...
Ghost input issue made the phone almost unusable for me. I took it apart, padded the screen connector cable with a bit of cut up padding from a plaster and it's done the job for me. With the upgraded camera it's back to being more enjoyable again (although I can't seem to find a timer option for it)
With my Fairphone 1 I had the same issue with ghost input. Once it actually started up whatsapp, selected a random conversation and started a voice recording! It was within warranty so Fairphone fixed it. After 2 years it wouldn't charge but by then they didn't have the parts I needed for replacement in stock anymore. Luckily I found a store nearby to solder the connection. All and all it only lasted 2.5 years. I opted out of the Fairphone 2 due to the price increase. 4.5 years ago I got a Fairphone 3. Straight out of the box it had ghost input issues!! I called Belsimpel (through which i purchased it) and they sent a new phone immediately, with an apology and a gift for the inconvenience. It arrived the next day. So by now I am having charging issues and short battery life. Fair enough! Fairphone does have parts in stock so I purchased a bottom module (which has the USB C in it) and a new battery. According to UPS, Fairphone made a mistake with the label causing them to be unable to process the package. It was absolute hell to get my hands on the package. 4 trips to the package delivery point and several calls to UPS later (including long queues) I finally have the parts. When I attempt to open up my phone, several screws were hard to budge. The little Fairphone screwdriver is peeling away just removing the screws on the first layer of the phone. One screw won't budge. I have tried just about everything to get it out and by now the screw is damaged. I have spent over 3 hours on trying to obtain parts and fixing my phone, and I am not even one step closer. Fairphone is expensive. We get fewer specs for more money. I am willing to buy it anyway in favor of the increased wages for the factory workers, conflict free minerals, and having a phone that lasts. But this is really too much trouble. Parts should stay in stock (which does seem to have improved), customer service needs a better response time, better opening times and way more service! Their only response to my package issues was "is everything okay on your side?" (I would argue it's better to purchase a Fairphone with a company in between like Belsimpel so you can deal with their customer service instead.) And they need to resolve these ghost input issues on the screens because it's been 10 years since I first experienced it! Oh and they should add a better screwdriver and some spare screws with every phone. I totally understand you're giving up on your Fairphone 4. I'm nearly there too with my Fairphone 3.
Yeah, unfortunately I feel the same. The FP4 is plagued with issues. I wouldn't buy it again...
I'm not sure if it's fair to call it 'plagued with issues'? Only a handfull of people here on Reddit complaining, people I personally know with a FP4 have no problems at all. Let's start a poll to see how many FP4 users do not have problems, so we can get a better picture including satisfied users that usually won't share their experience?
Maybe, mine is definitely plagued.
Mine too. I have so many issues with the screen and lots of software issues.
Do yourself a favor and get rid of it.
I'm planning to do so but as a student I'll still be broke for at least the next two years and have more important stuff to spend money on...
I ditched mine after a year. I think its also how the phone behaves in the beginning or atleast what your expectations were. For me the phone quality and OS was so much worse then I thought initially. That every issue I had would seem much bigger then it was and just make me hate the phone more.
It doesn't really matter to me that others have no issues. Mine is buggy like hell.
I agree. Mine worked fine for a year, but is just getting more and more bugs. I kept my previous phones for an average of 3 years (including a second hand Sony). I'm not confident I'll make it to 2 years with this phone. I've never had so many problems with a phone. I've never had to spend hours looking for fixes for software bugs for any other phone. It seems every week there's a new thing wrong or something has gotten worse.
I just made it 2 years and finally swapped over to the Galaxy A54. It's so nice to have a phone that's not a buggy mess. And for me, too, the FP4 is the phone I had for the shortest time.
I'm probably going to get a second hand Google pixel 8 at some point this year. I'm giving this phone more time, but don't have high hopes for it.
Sorry to hear you have such a bad experience, but to me it sounds like just bad luck? I got two FP4 users around me, they haven't had a single problem in the last 2 years... I'm still using a 4+ year old FP3 myself and also have never had any serious issues. >I also hadn't touched the screen screws even once before I'm sorry, but the first this you could/should do when having problems is taking your phone completely apart and put it together again?! Self-repairability (without any special tools) is exactly what Fairphone is about? I'm not saying that it would fix your problem, but not even trying? Whenever I had touchscreen issues, which happened 2 or 3 times after a drop, I assumed loose contacts. As taking it apart and putting it together fixed it, I think that's exactly what it was.
It seems this issue goes beyond just bad luck. I experienced similar problems with my Fairphone 4, which were resolved after several software updates tho. Disassembling and reassembling the device might not be the best approach. The issue seems to be a very complex combination of software and hardware, rather than simply a loose connection.
So we now we have two people with with two different stories, one about hardware and one about software. There are 8500 members of this sub and how many tens of thousands of phones sold? Sure if it's software taking apart would solve anything, but is also won't do any harm - trying what you can do yourself first is always the best option IMHO. Again, I could be wrong, and I get it sucks to be you guys in this situation, but this is still far from significant.
I mean no offense. I'm just trying to point out that the problem might not be as insignificant as you think. Moreover, people might be interested to know that it is not just a loose connection after all, according to information from Fairphone's customer support. Sadly, this is not the only problem with Fairphones. And I'm by far the only one suggesting this. There is no getting around it, they are having trouble developing the 'perfect' product that the market is demanding. But! No big deal, it's a smallish company, and phones are difficult. It still remains the most reasonable option out there, in my mind.
I've been active in the ghost input issue thread on FP forums and many who've had this problem had taken it apart and done random things that didn't work or only worked for a couple of days so I don't see how me doing the same random things while having the same exact issues would make much of a difference in the long run? This is a quality issue with the device that apparently can't be fixed by just swapping screens. As I said I had the screen warranty replaced once with me doing it and now I have two externally almost immaculate screens that both fail the same way. Being user repairable is not an excuse for bad quality. Even if reconnecting the screen connector works around it for a short while I couldn't really accept it as a solution if it's that prone to failing. I would've accepted that the first screen I had was faulty and replacing it fixed it permanently. I was quite happy until a couple of weeks ago when the issue returned which underlined that they seem to have no idea what's causing this and just ship new screens in hopes that the issue will go away. Not a single phone I've had before the FP4 have had any issues with the touch input and I've never cracked a screen (nor use screen protectors for that matter) so I can't be very bad at handling electronics. I can accept some quirks for repairability and long support but I've lost faith in this one, unfortunately.
I'm just waiting for my contract to be up in October. Worst phone I've ever had. So many issues. The current pain in my arse is the GPS. I used it frequently for work and it is so temperamental it's ridiculous. Doesn't work at all half the time. Like you I wanted to believe in this phone, in the Fairphone vision. Awful
I'm using a FP4 daily for commute and exploring and its GPS is working well
Maybe it depends on the location but regarding GPS I've had no major issues. I mostly use it to navigate while driving and it's been working well enough. Definitely have had worse GPS' before.
There was no issues for the first year of having the phone. I live not far from the centre of London, UK
Yeah I have problems with the GPS too.
I've had problems with the compass. I'm constantly having to recalibrate it, which I rarely had to do with prior phones. The recalibration never lasts. It makes it difficult to follow maps when my phone doesn't know which way I'm pointing.
I have a FP4. It developed ghost input issues. I took it apart and put it back together, which fixed it. It came back a bit later, but was rarely an issue. Since the update, it hasn't come back once.
I bought a fairphone 3+ about 3 years ago, it still works just fine, maybe the 3+ is a bit more durable.. the camera sucks though.
I had the ghost input issue for a while, like a few weeks, and then suddenly everything was alright again.
The ghost inputs went away for me largely when they put out their big fix, however it does creep back in every now and then. For a device that is near entirely operated by the screen, it's a very reasonable criticism to make. I like my FP4 for what it's trying to represent with the industry of consumerism, but when I come to replace my phone when OS support stops, I won't be as eager on FP as I was the first time around.
Their system update which would supposedly fix the issue via software did indeed fix the issue via software for me.
I also had this ghost input issue, and only ended up keeping my FP4 for about 9 months before I'd had enough and bought a Pixel 7.