A tiny smartphone company just brought a new Android version to a 2015 device

If you have a Fairphone 3 already, you can install /e/ OS and try for yourself: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP3/

My daily driver for more than 6 months has been the FP3. I love it, its super comfortable, amazing battery. The biggest crux is the camera - terrible is darker conditions. Phones are so good these days, that even "mediocre" specs are far more than what you need in a phone.

I bought a Fairphone 3 with /e/ as soon as the announcement of the partnership between e.foundation and Fairphone was announced. I was aware I'd have to make certain compromises in order to have a device running an OS which would give me digital sovereignty. I had tried UBPorts on a OnePlus One, but the lack of apps and lack of Nextcloud integration meant it never really became my daily driver. My SIM didn't stay in it for long. As /e/ is basically LineageOS with MicroG and excellent Nextcloud integration, I reckoned it would have a better chance of working for me.

The Fairphone 3 itself is large and clunky, with a low screen-to-body ratio. The modular construction may ironically make its longevity questionable - it feels less robust than unibody phones. The screen is good, as is the touch capability. There's one adequate mono speaker. The battery life is a little poor, but gets me through a waking day of heavy use. The mic is fine. The camera is woeful, but I didn't buy the phone to take snaps with. That might be one tradeoff too many for some people. Wifi, 4G and Bluetooth are solid. I've put a 128GB microSD card in and this works perfectly. Overall the device is convenient to use, pocketable and very usable. The fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable. I like the old-skool aesthetic of the device.

/e/ OS comes with MicroG and no Google apps. To me, this is the main selling point of /e/. I've been working for years to disentangle my life from Google. The biggest steps I'd made prior to buying the Fairphone were to move my email account to Gandi and my documents, photos, calendar, contacts, map bookmarks, RSS feeds and everything else to a self-hosted Nextcloud instance.

And here's where /e/ really, really shines. When I switched on the phone for the first time, instead of signing up for an /e/ account, I entered the URL, username and password of my account on my Nextcloud instance. After a few moments, my calendar, contacts and data were synched to the phone or available to browse. I can't describe what a feeling of pure delight and freedom that gave me. This is a device that acts in my interests.

I've since piled a bunch of telemetry-laden Android apps onto the phone, but at least when I'm at home (which I am a lot these days) the telemetry can be mitigated by the Pi-Hole on my network.

What's remarkable is how well they all work; even apps that I expected to fail - like my banking app, Audible, Netflix, RSA Token, Skype - all work perfectly. I've downloaded them from one of three places: the /e/ app store (where apps are graded with privacy and energy ratings), F-Droid and the Aurora Store.

The one necessary app that doesn't work is Microsoft Authenticator, which I need for work SSO 2FA. I almost picked up a Nokia Lumia running Windows phone 10 for €30 just to run that! For now an ancient Nexus 9 stays charged to provide the second factor when I need it. I'll start a conversation with work to see what free alternatives they'll consider.

There's no more casting to the Chromecast; I'm watching the Nymphcast project with interest. LibreELEC and DLNA are local streaming alternatives.

So, all in all am I very happy with my purchase. The tradeoffs I have to make are more than acceptable to me. Yes, I would make the same purchase again.

My old Huawei Mate 10 Pro is getting a system reset, going into its original box and on to a secondhand goods site. I haven't looked at it for weeks.

Finally, I've already received an OS update in the few weeks I've had it. It's now midnight and I have 39% battery left.

Using the fp3 right now. It's great.

I had the fp2 previously. The experience wasn't great but it was cool to demo it to people... Like turn it off and take it apart in about 15 second. They sold a camera upgrade for about 25 bucks, and a replacement battery was around the same. The battery was pretty shit, but if you format your internal and external cards, replace the battery every year and use the open OS without all the Google crap, it lasts a day easily, even if you're oncall. That phone is rock solid and still works after many years of use, so it's my backup. But it doesn't perform great, doesn't have nfc.

The fp3 is a different story. Bigger screen, much better battery, same camera as the pixel, nfc. I get 2 days of battery life out if it. I'm not really sure what else people need from a phone. The fact that it's repairable is huge for me. After I dropped my new HTC M8 into water for a split second and then had to watch buzz to death, taking my photos and videos with it, I swore that never again would I buy a phone that didn't have a removable battery.

Thank you for your kind words.

It is true that we do not have an Open alternative for Fairphone 3 yet. I don't know if we will ever release one. However, I truly believe that the cooperation with the /e/ foundation [1] gives our users an even better option. /e/ do a much better job at providing a good open source OS than we could ever do because for us it always was and would be a side project.

1: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP3/