I’m a big fan of upgradable hardware, but lately I’ve found that the bigger problem with Android phones is the lack of software support. I had my last phone for 5 years and finally upgraded not because there were any major hardware problems, but because the android version was so far out of date that I was starting to feel the pain of missing out on some major improvements, plus some apps actually were starting to break. I picked my current phone specifically because Samsung was promising to support four major version upgrades which is, unfortunately, industry leading among Android OEMs despite lagging hugely behind Apple’s software support for their older models.
Fairphone seems to have a mixed track record on this. According to their website the Fairphone 2 got 5 major updates (great!). But the Fairphone 3 got only one update (bad). And the fairphone 4 has received one update so far with a second one promised. After that they say that they’ll try to provide two more updates, but they’re not making any promises because the processor will be out of support with Qualcomm by then.
This is, unfortunately, a very understandable position to take. The fact that Android OEMs rely on third parties like Qualcomm to design and support their processors is definitely the major problem here. Big guys like Samsung and Google can throw their weight around and squeeze a year or two of extra support out. But for small players like fairphone it’s not surprising that they find themselves in this position.
The fact is that any sane company would prefer to make money selling new chips, rather than spending it to support old ones. This problem will persist until consumers start demanding longer software support on their devices and making it a major part of their buying decision.
I actually flashed lineage onto an old (5th gen?) Amazon Fire tablet I had gathering dust recently. I’ve been very satisfied with the result, but I’m personally not at the point where I’d trust it as my daily driver OS. My smartphone holds sensitive bank data, I rely on it to call for help in emergencies, I use it as an alarm clock to ensure I get to work on time, etc. There’s just too much at stake for me to trust pulling a build off some thread on XDA-developers and hoping for the best.
quick edit: Maybe there’s collaborative a way forward though, where the LineageOS community and Fairphone work together to extend support through Fairphone approved Lineage releases. I’d totally be down for that.
For what it is worth, at least for Fairphone 3 the support in, e.g., LineageOS is excellent and I recently updated to LineageOS 20 (based on Android 13).
That said, I would hope that Fairphone does make at least one more major update of their official Android version for Fairphone 3.
I’m a big fan of upgradable hardware, but lately I’ve found that the bigger problem with Android phones is the lack of software support. I had my last phone for 5 years and finally upgraded not because there were any major hardware problems, but because the android version was so far out of date that I was starting to feel the pain of missing out on some major improvements, plus some apps actually were starting to break. I picked my current phone specifically because Samsung was promising to support four major version upgrades which is, unfortunately, industry leading among Android OEMs despite lagging hugely behind Apple’s software support for their older models.
Fairphone seems to have a mixed track record on this. According to their website the Fairphone 2 got 5 major updates (great!). But the Fairphone 3 got only one update (bad). And the fairphone 4 has received one update so far with a second one promised. After that they say that they’ll try to provide two more updates, but they’re not making any promises because the processor will be out of support with Qualcomm by then.
This is, unfortunately, a very understandable position to take. The fact that Android OEMs rely on third parties like Qualcomm to design and support their processors is definitely the major problem here. Big guys like Samsung and Google can throw their weight around and squeeze a year or two of extra support out. But for small players like fairphone it’s not surprising that they find themselves in this position.
The fact is that any sane company would prefer to make money selling new chips, rather than spending it to support old ones. This problem will persist until consumers start demanding longer software support on their devices and making it a major part of their buying decision.
I’ve posted about this elsewhere on this instance, but LineageOS has made a good start on supporting Android phones beyond their official support
I actually flashed lineage onto an old (5th gen?) Amazon Fire tablet I had gathering dust recently. I’ve been very satisfied with the result, but I’m personally not at the point where I’d trust it as my daily driver OS. My smartphone holds sensitive bank data, I rely on it to call for help in emergencies, I use it as an alarm clock to ensure I get to work on time, etc. There’s just too much at stake for me to trust pulling a build off some thread on XDA-developers and hoping for the best.
quick edit: Maybe there’s collaborative a way forward though, where the LineageOS community and Fairphone work together to extend support through Fairphone approved Lineage releases. I’d totally be down for that.
to add another layer, this US version is shipping with the /e/OS fork of Android which is going to be on its own upgrade cycle …
For what it is worth, at least for Fairphone 3 the support in, e.g., LineageOS is excellent and I recently updated to LineageOS 20 (based on Android 13).
That said, I would hope that Fairphone does make at least one more major update of their official Android version for Fairphone 3.