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Comment by sigmoid10 | Hacker News Reader

This kind of release schedule totally ruins the entire premise of their products. The Fairphone 3 is barely four years old and you already can't get replacement parts for it anymore. And for what? Only because they slightly changed the chassis, instead of offering a new base version with more modern components. On top of that, the 3 will also lose security updates in 12 months. So you will be forced to trash your phone after 5 years tops. Compare that to Apple, who still support their seven year old iPhone 7 with parts and security updates. The problem is that a "real" Fairphone, that actually stands up to its values, is a terrible business idea. So no profit oriented company will ever be able to fulfill that promise.

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I can find Fairphone 3 (and even Fairphone 2) parts here: https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4/page/...

Is there a specific part you can't find?

Actually fairly incredible that you can still get spare parts for a 8 year old smart phone (the Fairphone 2). The problem from my POV was, that the hardware specs were already way past their expiration date when I sold mine 3 years ago, even when using rather unexciting apps, making spare parts somewhat obsolete.

Are later FPs set up to offer chip upgrades to avoid this dilemma?

They've offered camera upgrades before (https://www.fairphone.com/en/camera-upgrades-for-fairphone-3...) but not chipset.

The bottom module has been out of stock for a while[1], and is also the part that's probably going to break first due to the amount of use it gets when charging daily. As someone who needs to put their FP3+ in _just_ the right position for it to charge, I'm very tempted to buy a new phone so I don't have to deal with the anxiety of wondering if it's properly charging when I go to bed.

Before anyone says: yes, I have cleaned the USB port out. Cutting a triangle off a credit card and using the corner worked the best in my experience.

I still would pay for the other "fair" aspects of the Fairphone, but until I can actually repair it I'm not going to consider it a repairable phone.

[1] https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-3-bottom-module-avai...

I had the same issue and found floss picks worked well, but after a while the pins just became too worn. Thankfully my new phone has wireless charging.

> Before anyone says: yes, I have cleaned the USB port out. Cutting a triangle off a credit card and using the corner worked the best in my experience.

Are you sure you got all of the lint out?

I'm asking, because I thought I had, and my phone still wouldn't charge reliably.

As a hail Mary (I was ready to buy a new phone anyway) I tried a thin metal needle. I couldn't believe the amount of gunk I got out of the port.

In my attempts to get it charging I had compressed the lint so hard that none of the other softer tools I'd tried before could get it out.

While I didn't try your method specifically, I'm quite sure a credit card would've be too thick and soft to do it.

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I've tried all sorts, from compressed air (useless) to toothpicks (not quite small enough) to thumbtacks (really hard to do carefully). You've reminded me that the other successful tool was a SIM eject tool I found lying around, but even then it's still not reliably charging. It's better with the USB cable one way round compared to the other, which makes me wonder if I've managed to scratch it with the thumbtack.

The irony is one of the main reasons for buying this phone was I didn't want to have to get a new one and transfer everything due to some tiny problem with it. The latest ETA is end of October so I guess I'll wait at least that long before giving up...

Just experienced the exact same thing! Performed the miracle on the phones of several family members. I used the sharp end of a push-pin to lift it out, and was in awe of how much material had been compacted in there. Now my phone has that satisfying "click" when you put the cable in again.

The important parts (i.e. the ones that actually break easily) have been out of stock forever.

These type of comments miss the point of the argument in that the company is failing at promising an actual fair product.

It's sad that the Fairphone 3 is losing support already, though I think that's much more down to upstream vendors of the hardware not providing support for the chipset, not Fairphone themselves

In terms of the release schedule I think it's important to continue to have a "jumping on point" for customers who want to switch to a Fairphone. It's hard to convince someone to replace a 3-5 year old phone for another 3 year old model

As long as they keep providing 8+ years of support for newer models I think it's the best option, since the company also need to have a continuous revenue stream to exist for the full lifetime of their phones

I agree with you, but the problem for me is, how do I know the Fairphone 5 won't suffer the same fate with security updates?

As far as I can recall the fp3 was sold with a promise of five years of software updates and parts. I think they're still honouring that and haven't backtracked on any such promises for any of their models, so their track record is good in terms of keeping promises

I couldn't find any mention that they backtracked on their promises, but if that were to be the case, that would indeed be a very strong disincentive to trust them on their commitment to the fp5

I was sad to see that parts for this new phone are also incompatible with the Fairphone 4 [0]. Granted, they do specically say "repairable", not "upgradeable", but it does kind of rub me the wrong way.

0: https://thesonification.org/2023/09/01/fairphone-5-parts-won...

I'd love to see Framework make a phone. I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion, it doesn't mean not selling anyone anything for years, it just means selling upgraded/alternative/replacement parts instead? But the desire for it is pretty niche.

Same.

But I suspect that if it happened today it would have been detrimental to their ability to remain on the market.

I'd like to see a list of compatibility of parts between fairphone versions. I couldn't find any Fairphone's website. If there is nothing compatible, I really don't see the point either. Like if I had a 4 and was only interested in the upgraded camera, why can't I just put a camera from the 5 in the 4th? That would be actually game changing.

There were some prototypes like phonebloks (later named project Ara) ten years ago, which sadly was cancelled

Interchangeable parts between models is really hard, since your support burden kind of explodes when you have to support several parts for several models, so it would probably not be sustainable for a smaller company like Fairphone

With that said, I remember a Fairphone representative saying they were looking into if they could provide upgrades for the FP5 down the line, as the longer lifespan of this model might makes it economically feasible for them

I wouldn't base any purchase on that until there's an official announcement though

Personally I'm happy enough with the value proposition as it is to be getting myself an FP5

Also, modular components are death to the size and power budgets.

Nitpick: iPhone 7 never got iOS 16 or 17, which means it won’t be fully patched (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/apple-clarifies-secu...).

Soon you can also expect Apple to stop providing both service and parts for it (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624).

I have an inherent distrust of for profit business that uses virtuous adjectives:

For example, Jessica Alba's "The Honest Company".

In the same way, I am suspicious of "Fairphone" as a for profit company.

I have a similar gut reaction to companies using virtuous adjectives in their names.

That said, if a company really does value doing things differently, what are they supposed to do?

Not say so? Try not to make a profit, guaranteeing they won't be able to make a positive impact?

I think it's important to not let the deceitful marketing in the world poison the well for any possibility of honest marketing.

From what I can tell, Fairphone is working pretty hard to earn the name.

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