Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves - This sustainable smartphone aims to reduce global electronic waste::In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?
I’ve had a fairphone 4 running /e/OS (aftermarket) for a month now and im very happy with it. It consistently surprises me and exceeds my expectations in terms of flexibility and reliability (and of course privacy).
You should be aware that there are occasionally compatibility issues with common apps – particularly proprietary ones. The worst incident was when the NordVPN app stopped working for me a few days ago… though this may have been a problem with /e/OS or the custom launcher ive installed rather than with Fairphone. I ended up switching to Mullvad VPN and i like it a lot more.
Also I have not been able to purchase any paid apps via the App Lounge… i get a google error message stating that my device isnt registered with the Google Play Store or something like that. not sure if its just me or a widespread problem. I suspect it is an /e/OS issue that might not present itself if u are just using stock Android. If you have some absolutely must-have google play store paid apps that you can’t do without, I’d avoid /e/OS for now and some research to make sure this bug doesnt exist when using Android on FP4.
At this stage i cant recommend it for mom & dad or someone without any tech savvy whatsoever… but the privacy and flexibility make these minor setbacks absolutely worth it to me.
Overall i have no regrets and I can honestly say this is one of the most satisfying purchases I’ve ever made.
I tried /e/OS too, and had a great experience. The system has a polished feel and a lot of privacy-oriented settings by default, when compared to stock android.
I see a lot of criticism about that OS on reddit/lemmy, but never objectively stating what they mean, so I don’t know what to think about it.
Lineage OS can (optionally) link to Google services, so that would be a suitable OS for users needing Google