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Day 18

Hello everyone, I am heading towards the end of the FairPhone trial now and will soon be returning my device. I thought I should write a brief summary of my experience and thoughts, i'll break it down into a pro's and con's section I think. Pros: Ethically sourced Easily repairable Recyclable packaging Good size Nice screen Cons: Price Lack of OS update past Android 6 Build quality (subjective) Older gen hardware I think the device could be good for an organisation if it were running the current OS and security patches, and I think in terms of sustainabiity the mobile device is certainly a factor in the equation but not the main one, there are many many other things to take into acount that an organisation can do to improve sustainability, and a phone is almost certainly a step in the right direction. Would I buy one? That's quite a tough question, as morally I agree with the principles and ethos of the device, but my techie side likes bells...
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Day 14

Hello All, After mentioning in an earlier post my concerns regarding the CPU of the FairPhone, and potential issues this may cause moving forward, I have now discovered that the CPU is incapable of supporting any versions of Android higher than the current v6. I think the only solution that FP have here is to replace the main board with newer one with a more current CPU, I would imagine now that they have 2 devices out in the wild, it should't be too hard for a refactor of the hardware, either replacing the mainboard with a new one, or making replacement boards for the current model. Ethically and from a asustainability point of view, this device really makes sense, im just not 100% sure on some of their hardware choices.
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Day 12

Hello All, I have done some research over the weekend to try and encapsulate why I feel that Android 6 Marshmallow on the FairPhone is a bit of a raw deal for a device that costs as much as it does, I could perhaps understand a little better if it was a sub £300 device, but it is not, It retails for around £530ish. Anyway, I have drawn the comparison between Android 6 Marshmallow, and Android 7 Nougat. I appreciate we are currently on 8.1 Oreo, but even 1 generation is enough to show some major differences. Release Android 6.0 Marshmallow: Android 6.0 Marshmallow was released in October 2015. Android 7.0 Nougat: Android 7.0 Nougat was released on August 22nd, 2016. Split screen multi-tasking Android 6.0 Marshmallow: Android 6.0 Marshmallow does not support Split screen multitasking feature Android 7.0 Nougat: Android 7.0 Nougat supports split-screen multitasking feature. The split screen multitasking feature works with almost all apps. Android Instant apps Android 6.0...
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Day 11

Hello All, Well, not a lot to report today i'm afraid. I have noticed the battery life to be acceptable on the FairPhone, It will generally last a day with moderate usage, and about a day and a half with light usage, obviously your milage may vary depending on how you use the device. There does seem to be a bit of lag on the device when performing certain tasks, and the UI is noticably slower than my Pixel, I suspect this is down to the slower processor and lower memory. One thing I forgot to mention at the start is the "feel" of the device, it has a decidedly 3D printed quality to it, some may like this, others not. Personally I find it to be a bit too plasticy for my liking, as I quite like the aluminium and glass feel of the pixel, and the aeronautical aluminium feel of my Nokia 8. My main concern from a security standpoint is still that the device ships with such an old operating system. I will do further research into Android 6 in its current state.
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Day 9

Hello All, Not a lot to report today. I am still testing all the corporate apps, I have tested skype calls to phones and other skype clients, which works fine as far as I can tell, and it appears the lag is in the UI rather than when calling. All other corporate apps thus far seem to be ok.
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Day 8

Hello All, I have been playing around with the FairPhone and noticed in the updateer there is an advanced option, this allows you to install an AOSP (open source) version of Android, what this means is that it is pure Andrid without any of the Google additions and services, which is great if you're into that sort of thing. Obviously that means you will have no Google Play store or any cloud messaging or backup services, but there are a lot of other services you can install instead like the Amazon app store, or F-Droid the open source app store. I don't honestly think this would be useful in our corporate environment, but it is still worthy of note. https://code.fairphone.com/projects/fp-osos/user/fairphone-open-source-os-installation-instructions.html Unfortunately, I have noticed some lag whilst using skype for business on the device, it takes quite a while to update contacts, and to search the global address list compared to my pixel, and an IOS device. I can only a...
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Day 7

Hello all, Ok, well I finally got an iPhone user to try the method I had discovered previously to switch from IOS to Android. Sadly this method of transfer which uses Google Drive, only transfers your calendar, pictures and contacts. While this may be enough for some users, it does not however transfer your SMS, iMessage chats, or apps. The transfer cable and back to back method found on the Pixel devices, and in Android 8 does have this funtionality, there exists an Apple app on the Google Play store (paradoxical I know!) that facilitates the transfer, sadly this feature is missing on the FairPhone and I dont expect it will be possible until they either upgrade the OS, or provide their own means of acheiving this moving forward. I am stll in testing phase with the corporate apps, and will continue to do so. Since I have overcome a fair amount of the niggles i've had the blog may be quiet for a while, whilst I use the device in regular, daily usage scenarios.
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