Three years ago, I started to work towards digital freedom. When I had to part ways with my company iPhone when I left, I chose the Dutch smartphone to fill in for the role and truly start my Android journey.
Iāve had iPhones as long as Iāve held smartphones in my hand, the majority of them bought already used, with the exception of the SE, a 7 and a 11, these latter being company property. Starting with a 3GS and ending with a 11 Pro Max, I didnāt miss a single generation bar the 8 and X, so I was keeping them for a year at best when they were mine and 2 to 3 years when it wasnāt. iOS was my thing as I didnāt have the opportunity to use Android, save for a couple of months in-between my iPhone 6 Plus which suffered from the well-known bendgate issue and SE during which I owned a Sony Xperia. This iPhone SE got replaced when I started working for a company that lent me an iPhone 7 and later, an 11 Pro Max. I enjoyed the Apple ecosystem, fully knowing I was kind of locked in it - I really didnāt have the will back then to look for alternatives and actively switch, especially since that meant being sure that all my Apple devices would be able to work as they used to without having to go through loopholes. Moreover, choosing the Apple ecosystem would keep me from using Googleās since in the end itās really one or the other.
So if I kept an Apple-powered device there wouldāve been trouble, but going the Google route wouldāve been double. On one hand, I was sick of the Apple way of life with a closed-source operating system, a locked App Store and a somewhat zero-privacy iCloud ecosystem which didnāt offer any end-to-end encryption as they do now, but on the other hand choosing Google without even using their own services wasnāt an option I was ready to commit to. I really wanted to change though, so I decided to have a look to the AOSP-based operating systems but with a Google microservices implementation kept to a minimum at best. I finally chose a Fairphone 4 running /e/OS which is based off LineageOS.
Choosing the Fairphone was a given - I’ve been following the brand since its inception and rough start. While the two first generation seemed to be too much of a compromise for the not tech savvy, starting the 3 and 3+ it looked like the product was refined and a competitive choice on its market so I could consider buying one. In 2022, the Fairphone 4 was being sold so it is the one I acquired. If Fairphone sells their devices with a classic Android implementation, the device supports a couple of other ROMs so the deal was sealed.
3 years later of daily intense usage (web browsing, messaging apps, music player, personal organizer), I can safely say I’m happy with how it turned out. I never missed my iPhone and I never felt annoyed with the Fairphone’s performance compared to Cupertino’s high-end devices, exception taken for the photo module which is painfully average. I don’t really mind it much though, since I barely take photos. While bulky, the Fairphone 4 never felt heavy or too big for my relatively small hands, considered I have quite long fingers. I quickly got used to the Android interface and philosophy (and the fingerprint sensor location), which isn’t much different from iOS’. I managed to find or replace all of the software I used on my previous iPhone. Brand new, the battery would last two to three days but nowadays I can safely use it for a whole day and end up with roughly 30% left, so depending on my usage I charge it every night or every other night - like my iPhone. The sound quality while on a call, its ability to keep up with the 4G network felt the same as my previous device. Overall, the transition has been smooth, the only thing I had to dabble in the settings and think about for was the backup, as I didn’t want to use Google’s services. I could just log in on a Google account on the phone and be done with it but since I wanted to save everything by myself I had to configure a built-in app to backup the data on a WebDAV endpoint - nothing remotely hard but it wasn’t plug-and-play, as it would’ve been on iOS if I didn’t want to rely on Apple’s services.
My iPhone, bar the 6 Plus, never gave up on me - the opposite would be disappointing since they’ve usually been 1 to 2-year old devices under warranty. On the other hand, my Fairphone had its first defect last month; its USB-C port got damaged with normal use so I couldn’t charge the phone without having to mess with the cable until it would actually connect. This defect was the opportunity to check in a live setting if Fairphone’s promises over repairability were true. I did trust the different reviews that would approve the claim but since I’m not really handy with replacing such small parts, I was eager to see if it was as easy as advertised. Well, straight to the point - it isn’t fairly easy, it is really easy. The phone can be opened really easily, the battery gets removed in a second and you only need a small screwdriver to free the sound module that’s behind the USB-C port socketed at the bottom of the chassis. While everything was opened, I cleared the speaker which was full of dust. In 10 minutes tops, I changed the USB-C port and could check I properly plugged it since it would charge and the cable was firmly held in the port. The spare USB-C port was available immediately on the Fairphone website. I had to wait roughly a week and pay ā¬20, tax and delivery included.
On this photo, you can see the spare port on the left and the original one on the right. Considering a charge every 1,5 days, I probably plugged it between 700 and 800 times and the last months were aggravating since I had to plug and unplug it constantly so the cable and port would connect. I kept the original port, I might try to clean it completely to see if I can make it work again or if it’s effectively dead.
All things considered, the outcome is positive. The battery is still well alive and kicking since it can power the phone for 2 days if I don’t use it much, and more than a single day if I use it as I usually do (1 to 2 hours of music streaming, some web browsing and a bit of messaging apps). Its capacity is still at 97%, according to the operating system so I think I’ll be able to keep it for another two years. While two new generations have been out since I bought mine, I’ve no reason and no will to buy a new one, especially since the technical improvements seems to be of little significance, and I’m not really curious or excited anymore about these new products. This is what matters the most and should entice us to keep our devices, free from all the marketing traps and artificial needs because no matter how fairly produced and repairable the phone can be, nothing is better than not manufacturing one.