this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves - This sustainable smartphone aims to reduce global electronic waste::In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Actually, they do.

The Fairphone 3 was upgradable to the Fairphone 3+ by buying spare parts like the camera and installing them yourself.

The thing is that phones don't really need upgrades.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

phones don't really need upgrades

Huh??? I went through 4 phones during the lifespan of my last PC

[–] Patches 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah and you didn't really need any of them.

A smartphone from 9 years ago is still enough hardware to handle everything a smartphone needs to do.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

This is not true because you need to upgrade your software and patch it to keep it secure, and old hardware does not like newer os versions. Your phone will run more slowly if the os is newer (i believe that's planned obsolescence in action, though)

I appreciate that the hardware is still good enough functionally, but only if you want a less secure phone.

[–] captain_aggravated 14 points 9 months ago

You can install current day Linux Mint on PCs from the Core 2 era, ~15 years old, and it runs like brand new. OS bloat is not inevitable, it is a result of greed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's the fault of the manufacturers. Google does their best to mitigate this but the unfortunate reality is that when Qualcomm drops support you're going to stop getting updates.

There are efforts to get these phones supported within Linux. When that happens they can just run forever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My Galaxy S2 actually had more updates than it could handle. While the last useful update had already slowed down the phone somewhat, the last available update was actually completely uninstallable - the portion of Google play services that was required to be installed on the system memory was larger than the entire system memory.

I more than doubled the useful life of that phone by switching to LineageOS / microG.

Chip support is definitely an issue with these devices, but it's Google that's running the treadmill.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Galaxy s2 was easily my favourite phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Hardcore oled burn in though. Probably because of the RGB pixel structure instead of the pentile that Samsung use for everything else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

old hardware does not like newer os versions

You got that ass-backwards.

that’s planned obsolescence

There ya go.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yours is a bit of a redundant comment, then right?

In the context of what i was replying to, it made more sense to say the hardware had a problem with the software.

It's technically true either way, though

But yes, it would have made more sense to say the software doesn't play ball with the old hardware.

But since it's intended to be like that, it doesn't really matter how i say it. The point still gets across.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Maybe if you don't communicate with people regularly lmfao.

My current phone is about 3 years old and is getting slower with age, the camera is mid when compared to newer models, the under screen fingerprint sensor is ass, etc

My first phone? A slow mess, not running a modern operating system, overheated if you looked at it funny, camera looked like there was Vaseline on the lens, battery was shit, usb micro-b, etc

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

My phone is 5 years old, I’ve replaced the battery twice, and it runs just fine. I was planning on keeping it for a long time yet, but I’m going out of the country and US border patrol can take a copy of your phone when entering or leaving the country, so I’m gonna buy a new phone right before I go so it doesn’t have much data on it in case they decide to take a copy.

[–] Patches 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The frugal in me says Back up and then Factory Reset. Honestly the only reason I replace them is because they get too damaged. I wish I was nicer to my phones but I'm just not the type of person to baby them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I have like 200gb in photos and videos on this thing and I don’t pay for cloud backup, though I thought about that also. My old backup phone is getting really old though, so I’ll probably just cycle my current phone into its role And give the old one to my little brother as a WiFi only device.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

the camera is mid when compared to newer models

This is a weird take. New phones having newer features doesn't mean yours got worse than it was when you bought it.

A factory reset and battery swap will restore most old devices to their original state. If they were good enough three years ago there's no reason it's not now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right, except the original comment was that phones don't need upgrades. I'm saying that my circle of people, myself included, all appreciate getting new phones for newer features. So the notion that upgrades are unnecessary is a little delulu

For battery swaps, I'm not arguing against that. This is all under the main comments about frameworks strategy of designing upgrades into their product -- so i don't have to buy a whole new phone to get a new camera and battery :p

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Appreciating an upgrade isn't the same thing as needing one. I'm glad(?) that you recognize you and your friends are submitting to social pressure and consumerism but if you'll forgive me I think it's still a very weird take when not buying something you don't need is still an option.

[–] MrScottyTay 2 points 9 months ago

I'm still rocking my pixel 3 from ages ago, still don't feel like i need a replacement, plus i prefer my 3 over the later iterations and from other brands

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I wish that was true but it feels like the opposite to me. Running videos in a browser on my phone seems to be worse than when I first started using it - I suspect due to them becoming more demanding.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

The main upgrade they need is the processor because the companies making those are not supporting newer Android-Versions and at some point that becomes a security-issue.

Problem is that replacing the processor to a newer generation usually means the whole mainboard is obsolete, too and then is very quickly doesn't become easy to upgrade anymore

just switching between different types of cameras, screens etc. wouldn't be as big of a problem but that's also not part of the main-problem either