There are definitely trade offs with Fairphone but it's unfair (no pun intended) to compare them with a company like Google without mentioning their strong points.
Fairphone does focus on having a better social and environmental impact, this comes as part of the price. It does also focus on repairability which also comes as part of the price. If those are things you do not specifically value (which is fine), that definitely makes their products too expensive in comparison with other manufacturers. The support side could definitely be better but as a small company, I personally thinks it's okay.
I have a Fairphone 4 and I'm happy with it, it's fast, takes good pictures, and just works. It has great support in communities as well.
I was able to easily change a part of a Fairphone 3 (dead usb c port) and the experience there was just great, they really made repairs super easy.
They're fair points. I do respect their ethos and what they're trying to do, that's why I hope they have more success than they're having at the moment. I do want to give equal weight and time to that. But at the end of the day, I'm buying a modern phone, it needs to behave like a modern phone.
FWIW, my understanding is the FP6 seems to be notably less successful and "just works" compared to earlier models.
It isn't really slow. It takes average pictures, and sometimes loses them. It regularly does annoying little freezes and bugs.
The FP6 has average spec, average performance, more bugs than average, worse/slower support than average (at least on their own forums) and a higher price than average.
I believe fair stuff done right should be at least as good as average, and I'm fine to pay more than average for that. When I pay more than average and get less than average, and looking like they're ignoring/avoiding problems in their own forums, that feels as though someone isn't being very fair towards their customers.
Comments
There are definitely trade offs with Fairphone but it's unfair (no pun intended) to compare them with a company like Google without mentioning their strong points.
Fairphone does focus on having a better social and environmental impact, this comes as part of the price. It does also focus on repairability which also comes as part of the price. If those are things you do not specifically value (which is fine), that definitely makes their products too expensive in comparison with other manufacturers. The support side could definitely be better but as a small company, I personally thinks it's okay.
I have a Fairphone 4 and I'm happy with it, it's fast, takes good pictures, and just works. It has great support in communities as well. I was able to easily change a part of a Fairphone 3 (dead usb c port) and the experience there was just great, they really made repairs super easy.
They're fair points. I do respect their ethos and what they're trying to do, that's why I hope they have more success than they're having at the moment. I do want to give equal weight and time to that. But at the end of the day, I'm buying a modern phone, it needs to behave like a modern phone.
FWIW, my understanding is the FP6 seems to be notably less successful and "just works" compared to earlier models.
It isn't really slow. It takes average pictures, and sometimes loses them. It regularly does annoying little freezes and bugs.
The FP6 has average spec, average performance, more bugs than average, worse/slower support than average (at least on their own forums) and a higher price than average.
I believe fair stuff done right should be at least as good as average, and I'm fine to pay more than average for that. When I pay more than average and get less than average, and looking like they're ignoring/avoiding problems in their own forums, that feels as though someone isn't being very fair towards their customers.