Custom Rom support like the ShiftPhone?
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)
BuyFromEU
3854 readers
3 users here now
Welcome to BuyFromEU - A community dedicated to supporting European-made goods and services!
We also invite you to subscribe to:
Logo generated with mistral le chat Banner by Christian Lue on unsplash.com
founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
I'm saying this a lot, but going to repeat myself here:
Fuck these guys... Seriously. I bought a phone off of them hyped at the idea of the ethics. It didn't work on arrival. Over 3 months later and not one single reply to my helpdesk request (other than the Automated acknowledgement of receipt).
Unbelievably bad user experience, I went from hyped at the concept of reducing my production of electronic waste to beyond disappointed at a brutally bad user experience.
Then to make matters worse, it is difficult to source spare parts for the fairphone 4 (according yo a friend of mine who owns one that he bought a while ago)... Like is that not the entire point of the phone, reduced consumption of new phones by supporting repairs. If you're going to stop producing the spares at least release the patents then.. if you really believe in the promoted ideals that you spout... Which they clearly do not.
It turns out that it's just another money hungry company hell bent on burning the planet down to see a line go up, as far as I'm concerned. All gaff to sell shite phones at higher prices.
Do not buy.
@philthi
Thats bullshit.
You can still get replacement parts for fp4.
The ux is the same as with other plain android phones.
The customer service is not a joyful experience, but it answers within 3 Months. Everything other would be illegal.
Most importantly they are not just another money hungry company! They are very transparent about what they do and its easy to see that there are easier ways to make money.
You are helping all the really irresponsible corps by equating them.
@SrMono
I would also be curios where you are located. I am in EU and had a software problem (caused by self) and support was very helpful and they even repared my phone free of charge despite me telling them that I was at fault myself. Now I wonder whether one of us was lucky / unlucky or it depends on the region...
Sending it in and back took a bit longer that it could but still was within a reasonable time frame.
As mentioned above, I live in the EU.
Do you have any source for spare part no longer being produced for FP 4? I can't find any information about it and they are still available on their webpage to buy.
What was it that didn't work on arrival ? Didn't it power on? Are you within EU? If so, why didn't you contact your countrys consumer advocacy agency, instead of waiting 3 months. We have 2 years consumer law within all of EU they would have taken your claim to the company for you.
Was the problem eventually resolved?
I own a fairphone 4 and I wanted to buy a new battery a month ago. They werent in stock but now they are again, so I guess you are wrong about the parts not being produced anymore (at least the batteries).
In terms of fp4 replacement parts, I am only quoting a friend of mine, I haven't personally looked into that; though I was ready to believe it after my experience.
Yeah but you didn't though. You made a statement of fact, which was wrong. A quote requires attribution.
It's true, my language suggests I had researched that and found it to be true. When the truth is I just trusted my friends recount. I'll edit my post.
This all assumed I have more spare time than I do. I am in the EU. This problematic phone should not be a problem that I have to invest time into resolving when it did not work from the very first use. This should be the simplest of support cases; return the phone for replacement or reimbursement.
The problem has not been resolved and the phone sits unused in its packaging in my desk drawer.
I have instead learnt to repair my current phone (which was itself a very rewarding and remarkably simple process, which is my new plan for reducing my electronic waste) and am still awaiting a response from fairphone after multiple follow up emails informing them of my disappointment and not one reply from a human.
You still haven't explained what the issue was, then you mention not having time, but you bought a ≈500 EUR device that acordingn to you didn't work, and the solution in your opinion is replacement or reimbursement. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, you either did not have an issue that would warrant a replacement or hardware repair, or you are mad you weren't offered the solution you wanted and now spam the same message when ever Fairphone is mentioned. Cause your story doesn't add up. No time to raise a case with consumer advocacy agency, 500EURs worth of phone thrown in a drawer. New phone; suddenly time to invest. Avoided answered what the issue was. Copy pasted same comment at least 4 other times. Fairphones customer service might be the worst, I don't know. But I do question the validity of your claims.
If I had had any response at all, I wouldn't be saying anything at all here. The reality is that I have had no response - not an unsatisfactory suggestion, not a tech support suggestion, not a "this is your fault", not one single word has reached me from them. I'm not telling you what the fault is, because it's irrelevant... 3 months waiting for any response at all (after several more follow up emails from me requesting a response) is diabolically bad customer support.
Regarding your CSI style breakdown of my inner reasonings, like whatever makes you happy.
Regarding copying and pasting my response, yeah I did that because I was quoting someone who turns out to be have been wrong 🤷♂️
Shame about the headphone jack. Could the switch be repurposed for something a bit more useful, or do you think it's locked to a single function?
If I hadn't bought a Pixel 7 Pro last year for GrapheneOS I'd consider it. But let's see how the development of GOS continues with Android 16 since Google fucked shit up again.
I’m running GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7a.
It is a shame, that fairphone and other manufacturers don’t match the minimum security requirements for GrapheneOS.
I'm tempted, but then remember there are enough ewaste phones to last a lifetime, and they're basically free.
3.5mm jack?
3.5mm jack?
Really, no jack at all.
If a StarTAC 7800 can fit a headphone jack, then so can this. I'll take a 2.5mm
Let's contain the coming 3.5mm jack jihadists under this reply please
So only SOME deficiencies can be discussed outside of its own sub-tree?
Fairphone has never previously provided full security patches for anywhere close to their promised support. The Fairphone 4 doesn't currently receive proper security support but rather receives the Android Security Bulletin patches consistently 1-2 months late and many of the recommended patches (Pixel Update Bulletin) years late.
Fairphone 4 does not include a secure element and does not provide many of the expected hardware security features. It also has a broken/incomplete implementation of verified boot and attestation.
Are these issues fixed with recent Fairphones?
EU law makes it a requirement to provide updates since a company stops selling the device. So they better fix it or they will be sued.
https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en
There can be updates pushed out while not addressing this issue.
Seems like it's missing some 5G bands (such as n25) needed for T-Mobile, which is kind of a bummer to me. Not too sure how necessary that is, though.
I want to buy a fairphone but 6,31", I need a phone not a brick 🙁
There was once a time when I swore I would not buy any phone larger than 5", that was when I had a 4.7" and couldn't find it comfortable to reach the notifications one handed on anything larger. I'm now using a 6" and swearing I will stop here. At this point I'm really tempted to just keep buying new-old-stock pixel 5's for the rest of time because I've moved the goalposts too many times now.
It's a good size. That's what she said.
Mommy said my 5.4 is the best size ☺️
(For the non /s people out there, I’m really taking about screen size, less than 6 is perfect but almost impossible to find today)
Don't forget that phones don't have bezels anymore. A phone from a couple years ago with a 5.something inch screen and half an inch of bezel on either side is the same size as a 6.something today.
With an oled screen? Nice, Samsung has been getting shittuer with each update.
This is actually cool. I might buy this...