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Android Technology

Fairphone 3 Gets Seven Years of Updates, Besting Every Other Android OEM (arstechnica.com) 34

Posted by BeauHD from the good-on-you dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: No one in the Android ecosystem can hold a candle to Apple's software support timeline for the iPhone, but there is one company that comes the closest: Fairphone. Following in the footsteps of the Fairphone 2, the Fairphone 3 is also getting an Android-industry-best seven years of OS support. Fairphone continues to run circles around giant tech companies that have a lot more resources than it does, and it's doing this even in the face of component vendors like Qualcomm dropping support for the phone's core components.

The company announced today that the Fairphone 3, which was released in 2019, has had its support extended to 2026, making for seven years of updates. The company also just released Android 13 for the Fairphone 3. Google's own 2019 phone, the Pixel 4, shut down support in October 2022. Fairphone strives to make sustainable smartphones, designing its products to be repairable and also offering replacement parts for sale online. Part of that sustainability mission is an absolutely herculean effort to keep the Android updates flowing, even when Qualcomm drops critical software support for the SoC. Fairphone says the Snapdragon 632 SoC in the Fairphone 3 was only supported up to Android 11, so continuing to support the Fairphone 3 meant doing the upgrades all by itself.
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Fairphone 3 Gets Seven Years of Updates, Besting Every Other Android OEM More

Fairphone 3 Gets Seven Years of Updates, Besting Every Other Android OEM

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  • boot loader unlocked? so you can flash your own? after 3 years

  • I wish them best of luck (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Zolmarchus ( 2646979 ) on Monday July 10, 2023 @08:08PM (#63675831)

    Stock Android is the best, most flexible experience on a mobile device IMO, and I say that as a former Android but current iPhone user. In my case the reason for switching was nothing more than Google starting to charge iPhone prices for their Nexus/Pixel flagships, while falling laughably and ludicrously short of Appleâ(TM)s build quality and support timelines.

    But if someone else can do itâ¦

    • Re: I wish them best of luck (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Zolmarchus ( 2646979 ) on Monday July 10, 2023 @08:10PM (#63675839)

      BTW, and never mind the fucked up apostrophe, that abomination at the end of my post was supposed to be an ellipsis. Good fucking god, Slashdot, god damn.

      • Yes, we know you're using an iPhone, stop rubbing it in!

        That said: You can buy a new, unlocked Pixel 6A new from the store for $300 right now or a Pixel 7 for $500. I spent $350 for my old Nexus 5 16gb back in 2013 and $300 on my wife's old Nexus 4 in 2012.

    • Samsung seems to me to be the best Android build out there. Goggle's are terrible; I have two in my household, and they're easily the worst phone I've ever had. The best phone OS I've ever seen, and for which I pine as if for the fjords, is the last BlackBerry OS before they threw in the towel and went Android.
      • Samsung phone are trash. They are full with so much horseshit that cannot be removed.

        • Samsung: excellent hardware, an absolute garbage pail of software. I remember for a brief time, you could get devices linked from some Google website that had a "pure android experience" with all the crap gone and just stock android and there were a couple Samsungs on there. Too bad that ended.

      • I have had Samsung Notes for three upgrades up to the Note 8 I think. When I broke my phone I really didn't want to spend that much money again and I need a stylus since I have very big fingers. It am very happy with it and don't really understand any more why people even buy notes.
    • Stock Android is this best pile of shit around. Sure it is the best, but still a pile of shit.

  • Samsung are not also bad. Everyone else offering Android sucks. My 2012 Galaxy Note II LTE got several version upgrades and then security patches until 2017. The hardware physically died on me this year. I have tried Sony. They make really great devices and promise 2 full version upgrades but don't deliver. Basically it's 1 version upgrade, thanks for the money and go fuck yourself. So I went back to Samsung and an A52s 5G which has already had 2 full version upgrades, will get one more and I *know*

    • Re:Samsung are not also bad. Everyone else sucks. (Score:4, Informative)

      by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday July 10, 2023 @09:58PM (#63676035)

      The fairphone 2 came out 9 years ago. "Almost" (but not quite) impossible to still get parts is pretty fucking impressive. You seem to have really messed up expectations.

      • You're right. We should only expect to able to buy spares when the device is quite new and unlikely to require them!

        The Fairphone 2 is from 2015 but spares cannot now be bought. Meanwhile any phone from Apple or Samsung from 2015 can be repaired anywhere.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Meanwhile any phone from Apple or Samsung from 2015 can be repaired anywhere.

          Oh? For example on your kitchen table without any special tools? Because if you get spare parts, you can do that for any Fairphone 2. Hence your comparison is dishonest, because you are comparing apples (to be repaired only in a professional shop) and oranges (to be repaired by anybody with minimal skills). There are professional shops that repair the Fairphone 2 as well. Have you checked whether _they_ cannot get spare parts?

          Incidentally, while not everything is available, you can still get, for example, F

          • My comparison was not & is not dishonest.

            It doesn't matter if you don't need particular tools if you can't source the spares! Meanwhile there isn't a town on the planet where someone can't fix your old iPhone or Galaxy.

            And thanks so much for replying with an insult where none was offered. Typical bitch move.

             

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gweihir ( 88907 )

              Your comparison is dishonest. This is not an insult but a statement of fact. Or would you prefer "innetintionally inaccurate", "intentionally flawed", "intentionally misleading", "a lie by omission" or something like that? Means the same...

              • It wasn't dishonest, it's just that you don't like the following fact: you can get a really old iphone or galaxy repaired pretty much anywhere, whereas with an old Fairphone you can't even obtain all the spares so it *doesn't matter* if it's *designed* to be easy to repair, you will only be able to get it repaired in limited markets and while it's still quite new. Those are facts. Yet you continue to offer the same, obviously untrue insult over and over. You are a cunt.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      Sony never even gave one major version upgrade for my SEMC Xperia Play. They promised it up and down and then failed to deliver. Sadly, not enough of us to make a good class action suit, so I don't even get five bucks or whatever. So much for the FTC.

      I have found Moto to be the best balance in Android phones. Not great, mostly competent, very very good prices, plenty of capabilities, and they have devices with unlockable bootloaders. Not all of them though, maybe it's the qualcomm devices that aren't? I for

      • My Moto G7 Plus is a Qualcomm device and has unlockable bootloader. I think the unlockable devices are those tied to a carrier who doesn't want this to be possible. Mine was a retail device i.e. not supplied via a carrier. The following is quite useful: https://forum.xda-developers.c... [xda-developers.com]

        • I think the unlockable devices are those tied to a carrier who doesn't want this to be possible.

          Nope. That's not the differentiator. My phone is unlocked, bought direct from Moto, and still not unlockable.

          • Here's something to bear in mind and try, as it may work for you too. I tried Motorola's online bootloader unlock checker it several times & it always told me that my device's bootloader can not be unlocked. I went ahead anyway with pressing the button requesting the unlock code email. I received an unlock code by email within seconds, and it worked fine! I unlocked My G7 Plus and now it runs lineageos. Good luck!

            • I don't have that button. Like the page says, "If the Device ID you entered is valid, you will see a Request Unlock Key button." And like the popup says, "Your device does not qualify for bootloader unlocking."

              My device is a borneo XT2117-4. People have reported rooting it with Magisk. But it's frankly hardly worth any shenanigans, there's only a couple of pretty outdated roms for it anyway. It was cheap, it has served me well, the battery life continues to be excellent (Light use for three days or more) an

              • Due to the brilliance of Motorola's web designers I received the "can't unlock" pop-up *and* was presented with the request button. If you see the previously linked xda thread it seems it's fairly normal to get incorrect and actually conflicting info. It can be even be worked around.

                • Well, I don't get the button, and it's not like it's greyed out either, it's just not present. I started reading your thread and stopped at the part where there's no workaround for Qualcomm devices

                  • Mine is a Qualcomm device (Qualcomm SDM636 Snapdragon 636) and I got it unlocked despite Motorola's website telling me, at least 10 times, that it could not be. If I wanted to unlock a device which ought to be unlockable but the web tool denies, I would continue reading the thread. But that's just me.

  • I'm a baby boomer and only had a Samsung device when I bought their tablet, the Galaxy Tab S4. I later learned it could have had a newer processor but Samsung chose otherwise, but for me I saw it as blazing fast and powerful as I came from a HTC Flyer Tablet, and a MOTO G5 phone. Yadda yadda yadda, I guess I later became a loyal fan, as I now have a Galaxy Tab S7+, and a S21 Ultra phone.

    My point is that while I'm slow to upgrade Samsung provides enough software support that now my latest devices won't be te

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @03:19AM (#63676419)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Honestly I'd be far more excited about that. Successive versions of Android are (as with all OSes) slower and more complicated. Rather than OS updates I'd be far more keen to see long term back ported security updates. A Fairphone is useless to me if it runs like molasses on a cold day.

  • Too bad the phone are too fucking expensive.
    • Yeah I got a Motorola Stylus for $400 CDN / $300 US. I love the idea and features of the Fairphone, but these are just not times to spend lots of money on a phone and the Motorola Stylus does just fine.

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