I probably will need a new mobile phone this year. I like my 8+ year old iphone, but american products are not an option anymore. losing some purchased apps is annoying but there is no other choice. How are experiences with the #Fairphone ? Anything else reliable made in a non trustworthy source? #Jollaphone seems very underwhelming. Good camera & battery life, large display are my “have to have it” #UnplugTrump #UnplugUS
Fairphone still lacks standard security features such as a secure element, and they have partially installed EoL hardware.
See also:
See also information from Tavi (Android security researcher and former developer of DivestOS):
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/is-fairphone-really-interested-in-sustainability/99302/2
If you want a secure, privacy-friendly smartphone, the best choice would be a current Pixel (refurbished models are also fine) with GrapheneOS:
@Voxelpower interesting, thank you - very relevant information (although a bit sad too)
@waldschnecke I'm using a #Faiphone since 2019. First #FP3, now #FP5. In general they are solid phones, but I think the camera is probably mid class (I don't know the camera of the #FP6).
@weibelt Thanks!
Thats my "impression" from what I read on dxomark and some others, no real data on the 6, but it kind of paints a picture and would be pretty much one of the 3 top requirements for a device like this. (good camera, reasonable security & reasonable privacy for a person like me)
@waldschnecke Fairphone mit Murena e/OS/ is a great Choice. I am super happy with that. Blocker of App-Tracker in board, privacy easy to manage. All Apps I need are fully functional, no google-Account needed
#fairphone #eos #murena @murena #opensource #sustainable #unplugtrump #unplugapple
e/OS/ is pretty much the worst choice for a smartphone OS in every aspect. e/OS/ massively reduces security and privacy compared to AOSP and almost completely eliminates the security model.
This includes, among other things:
-) No support for Verified Boot (a security-critical feature in Android)
-) Months of delays in security updates
-) Full patches can sometimes take longer than a year
-) Chromium came/comes in a delivery state that has not been updated for months.
-) They once had an Orbot client in use that had not been updated for years
-) There was also an incident where their cloud service mishandled session keys and granted users access to other users' files, then lied to users that the server couldn't see the files, even though there was no E2EE
-) The voice-to-text service from e/OS/ sends data to OpenAI by default ...
This is not a complete list; see also:
In addition, Fairphone uses some EoL hardware and still lacks important security features.
See also information from Tavi (Android security researcher and former developer of DivestOS):
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/is-fairphone-really-interested-in-sustainability/99302/2
You should take a look at the comparison table from eylenburg, which provides a clear overview of important information about the individual custom OSes:
@Voxelpower @waldschnecke @murena so what is your advice? Old iOS with lack of updates? What is an non american, sustainable Phone which is practical?
GrapheneOS is great, but it supports only PixelPhones - NoGo! Only self flashing - Not for the masses! Lack of some essential app-functionality - with that not relevant for daily use!
Would say... Buy a Nokia 5310 (as an example of a great, but dumpphone)? LinuxPhone like jollaphone sounds nice, but is no reality ATM!
so what is your advice?
@pchblk @Voxelpower @murena I guess my "solution" is to keep what I have until it falls apart, stick to a decent tablet (which I prefer for drawing) and just a dumb-phone.
I have the kit lying around to restore my old iPod with an SD card and a fresh battery ... I'm quite sick of this... I'ts not the future I wanted to live in.
@Voxelpower @pchblk @murena Pretty disappointing 😞 I would have liked something at least semi assembled in the EU … I guess I have to keep the old iPhone alive somehow for a while…
@waldschnecke@chaos.social I'm curious about Linux phone options also. Ever since I started using Linux, I realized how much I want to de-couple from major companies like M$ and Alphabet. I've slowly been moving my resources away from them over time.
@station yea, I’m too, but I need this one to “just work”. A tinker-phone would be nice to play around with, but I first need one thats reliable ;)
@waldschnecke Jolla is tempting too though, but doesn't have the sustainability profile.
@leanderlindahl Doesn’t seem so (yet?) It all looks a bit “it kind of works” and the camera seems pretty disappointing :(
@waldschnecke I switched to #Fairphone in May '25 from iPhone. Super satisfied. Can run all apps that I need (banking, public transport etc). And its cool that it's easily repairable (haven't needed to repair though). But make sure to get #murena #eOS preloaded. Then you get a phone from a NL company and a phone OS from a FR company. (Inside components and assembly from Asia, but that's hard to avoid unfortunately.)
@leanderlindahl Are you happy with the camera? I read mixed results. dxomark has “only” checked the v4 and v5
Fairphone with custom-rom is a great sustainable and independent possibility. (Maybe tricky to buy from US).
Pixel with custom-rom grapheneos is a very secure possibility.
@synapsenkitzler access is no problem 😉 luckily I live in sweden
