Yeah I know what you mean. I have never used any of E’s features. I do however appreciate their app store and how it can install updates without needing the user to approve every update.
I HATE the Bliss launcher though. I ditch it for Nova Launcher immediately. The developer was kind enough to let me purchase a license that works without google play. I appreciate that /e/ simply has a paid incentive to keep Fairphone support high on the list.
Linus (Tech Tips) has posted his review of the Fairphone 4. Whilst not the almost unconditional love-in that was his Framework review, he is nevertheless very impressed with what they have achieved.
I must admit I am very tempted myself 
My next phone was set to be a FF4 until they dropped the ball by releasing it without a headphone jack and giving some BS reasons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjewR67uW1I
“In order to make this phone last for 5+ years together with our 5 year warranty… It is important that we remove any part of the phone that might break”
“Head phone jack is a typical place for dust and waster to get in”
“We needed space inside of the device”
The only valid reason (IMO) they gave is the space one, always a premium. They started selling bluetooth headphones alongside the release which are not repairable or user serviceable (battery!!). I noticed they now give the BT headphones away free with FF3/4 purchases likely to help with the negative feedback.
I’m looking at the Shift6mq (with lineage OS) as an alternative or Sony Xperia 10 III running Sailfish OS.
I want a 3+ because of its full size bezel, but I can’t get one in the US. LG V20 time for me instead.
My acutal is a Fairphone 4 and there is nothing to complain about it.
As I am German that does mean somthing.
Good news for people waiting for this phone in the US.
Edit: I noticed this news is already reported on Until Framework does their own phone.
I own a fp4 but really struggle with the palm detection.
I am looking very seriously at this as a personal phone. It is expensive, I never spend more than £350 on a phone usually, and buy refurbished which I try to keep at least 5 years to get some value out of them, but the idea of guaranteed support for 5 years plus it’s easy to repair and buy spares for does greatly appeal, especially as so many mainstream phones have left all sense and reason behind with regards to specs and price. The fact we’ve lost easy to change batteries, no Micro SD card expansion and the fact any part is incresingly expensive to force you to buy a replacement seems backwards to me. I don’t need 100MP cameras, I do need to pop in an SD card and slide off the back to replace the battery.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned!
It really is backward to me too. So far I’ve been able to keep MicroSD. But your choice in phones becomes annoyingly limited. I also always want an unlockable bootloader. It’s crazy to me that locked down devices that don’t give you admin rights is even a thing. You don’t actually own your device.
Yes, one of my clients has an estate of 140 mobiles, and I am in a constantly fighting having to replace devices because OS updates have been discontinued, so no new versions of apps cannot be loaded, or broken screens mean the whole phone has to be thrown away, or charging sockets / battery failure causing the same. I’m no eco fanatic, but I do detest having to throw away 90% pefectly usable hardware due to manufacturers making phones unrepairable. This is why I am pitching the idea of Framework laptops (and desktops) to my clients now, it makes so much sense from both a reduction in e-waste and ROI for the their balance sheet perspective, I am expecting it to be a pretty easy sell. We will see.
Best wishes,
Dave
Been having a FP4 for a year now.
It’s fine but not great. There is an issue that has had me a bit annyoed. There is an issue with some heat sensor that dims the screen when it reaches a certain temperature. This makes the screen very hard to read in the sun because the temp. threshold is not that high. Until this issue is solved i would not recomend the FP4 for others.
And Fairphone har been rather slow in terms of software support.
Mobile Hotspot is only 2,4 GHz band, the 5,0 GHz band doesn’t work. Though don’t know if this is an EU regulation, because i think 5,0 GHz is only allowed indoors and not outdoors, because of traincommuncation uses 5,0 GHz or something like that.
PROS
CONS
I am on the mailing list and received a teaser that implies there will be a new model announced at the end of the month.
Does anybody have any gen?
Fairphone just released am update which fixes the screen ghosting and allows the Hotspot to use 5ghz as well. Hoping it comes to /e/ OS soon as well.
They have but since the OS upgrade to Android 13, the phone now suffers from random reboots. It seams to occur when traveling and 5G connections to cell towers.
FP4. Overall good impression.
The fingerprint sensor fires too rapidly. If no finger matches one has not enough time to shift its position, and after too many failed attempts one has to enter the PIN. The protective cover makes that worse.
The plug at the cable is too long and damages with the original part are to be expected. I sent a picture to support, they sent a replacement.
I run DivestOS and for my use it’s not too much hassle for the enhanced security and to get (mostly) rid of Google. Installation was really easy, except that a compatible MicroG version had to be downloaded manually (fixed now, I think). The developer is very helpful in the FP forum, too.
Sometimes tapping does not elicit a response; I blame dry skin in combination with an additional glass protector (“Panzerglas[folie])” from schutzfolien24.de.
Some people in the forum complained that it would be a bit on the heavy and clunky side. Without the protective cover it’s OK, with it is really cluky, imo. Sometimes I use a belt pouch. Check dimensions and weight before buying