this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Sustainability is nice, but it can't come at the cost of performance.
Instead of a modern SoC Fairphone uses an obscure automotive chip with the performance of an iPhone 7. As a result, it's obsolete out of the box.
I have no idea what the performance of iPhone 7 is nor do I care but that QCM6490 in the Fairphone is allegedly almost 3 times faster than the Snapdragon 665 I have now which I'm perfectly happy with. It's way more interesting that it's a long-term support SoC with updates until 2031. That is an actual selling point
This, fast processors in smartphones are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.
If it is fast enough, who cares about the rest?
Sorry but I'm not going to do CFD simulations on my phone, and something mid range is more than enough to serve as the communication hub+DAP+GPS that I need. In any case, limit performance and give me better battery life FFS! Or use the extra free power to give me a better amp to use harder to drive headphones!
Mobile is a race to idle. Faster SoCs (all else being equal, no bizarre scheduler, ETC) will be more power efficient.
Better SoCs have a direct correlation to better battery life, the iPhone is a prime example.
Actually look at the chip in benchmarks, it's faster than my old oneplus, which was running totally fine until I decided to replace it with an s22 for battery degradation reasons...
Of course the replies to you have to say something like “fAsT cHiPs aRe MARKETING GIMMICK!” As they’re on their way to the Pixel subs to complain about Tensor
there are some niche users who don't really need all the performance.
if it can browse the net, run light apps (IE not trying to run something like PUBG mobile or other games like it), and have a great battery then it would have an audience.
that being said, hell, the galaxy S2 with cynogenmod lasted me well into kitkat and i even tried oreo on the thing (too slow by then), and the biggest thing was the battery and sd card slot that allowed me to really keep it for way beyond its time.
I would even say that most users don't need the performance of the phones they are buying Although the price to performance ratio of the fairphone is indeed pretty high (i have a fp4 myself), but the longevity makes it worth it
I don't know where you're getting that it has the "performance of an iPhone 7". The QCM6490 is most analogous to a Snapdragon 782G, which was the fastest Snapdragon 700-series chip before they moved to the Snapdragon 7 Gen X branding. It was released in late 2022.
It's not a range topper, but it's still a respectable midranged chip even for 2023.
Fairphone went with an embedded chip rather than a mainstream Snapdragon because Snapdragon chips only get something like three years of support, whereas some of their enterprise products get eight. The QCM6490 will allow the Fairphone 5 to get software updates until 2031.
Here's the benchmarks: link. CPU - Fairphone 5: 1100 / 2800. Apple A11 CPU (iPhone 8/X): 1092 / 2352.
I don't quite get where sustainability comes from. You can buy similar (hardware-wise) Samsung with 4 year support for twice as cheap. 300$ difference is enough to change battery and screen even at overpriced Samsung's official repair service.