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Phones · Fairphone

Fairphone 4

29owners with an opinion
74%of verdicts positive
16/6positive/negative since 2024
5 yrslongest happy owner
3happy after 3+ years

Praised for repairability and durability; criticized for support and performance.

What owners wrote

Likes itOwned 4 years
I used a Fairphone 4 (a clearly underpowered phone already at release) for almost 4 years and it still performed just as well. This issue is overblown.
Likes itOwned 4 yearsStill going
I've got a Fairphone 4 since 4 years and I've bought two replacement batteries so far (one has gone bad and I like to have an extra to swap with if needed). It still works very well with CalyxOS so the rational thing to do is to keep using it.
Doesn’t like itOwned 3 years
I bought FP4 three years ago and had a decent run with it until an update happened that made my phone unable to connect to my carrier (no calls or internet :( ). After a lot of back and forth with support they admitted that LTE on my country (Greece) was not officially supported ! They did refund me after that admission so I bear them no ill will. I hope they succeed in their mission and if their phone worked for me, I d still be using it.
Doesn’t like it
When I had a Fairphone 4, regulars on the community forum repeatedly reminded everyone that repairability was not a primary goal of Fairphone, ethical consumerism was, and any longevity and repairability was secondary or coincidental. Yes, that goes against most of Fairphone's own advertising, but it was consistent with my experience of the phone and discussions on the forum: security updates frequently so far out of date that some software could not be run, flimsy components inconsistent with advertising (yes, the battery was nominally swappable, but the snaps on the back would break easily, and support would claim that it was not intended to be removed regularly), parts that were frequently out of stock, and of course, whole new phone designs every generation rather than Framework-like component upgrades. It seems like they may have improved since then, but those problems, along with the atrocious security (FP4 used AOSP's public test signing keys, with publicly-available private keys, for its firmware) and sketchiness around specs, standards and openness (especially for the camera), generally turned me off the company.
Neutral
Fairphone 4 (2021) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Fairphone 5 (2023) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Parts for the Fairphone 2 (2015) and Fairphone 3 (2019) aren't available anymore, but I suppose that's not all that surprising after 11 respective 7 years. Afair, they started running out of some Fairphone 3 spare parts around 2024 and kept the ones they still had for warranty repairs. Source: I own one (and switched to the Fairphone 6 early this year).
Likes it
Not all of the development. For example, Luca 'z3ntu' Weiss works at Fairphone [1]. As an owner of Fairphone 4 and 5 I disagree with you that all their soft- and hardware had really bad design flaws. Fairphone 3 was an improvement over Fairphone 2 (which had quite severe flaws), but 4 and 5 have been good. They innovated long-term support and repairable smartphones, which contributed to legislation in EU. Fairphone 6 WiFi IPv6 has known workarounds. But it takes too long till the known fix is backported. I also have no issue using my Fairphone with one hand, while it is in a car kit. For using it with one hand solely, device is too large (and heavy) for me. There's enough I don't like about Fairphone. For example, software switch on side, silly change to green, renaming Gen 6 (nobody calls it that), too much marketing BS, long support queue (for like, ages), no SFOS (should've partnered with Jolla; I was excited for such announcement today). I wish they spend some more money on support instead of marketing. And the charging issue with Fairphone 6 seems severe, but there's only like 50 people on forum who reported. It isn't a common issue, but FP 6 sold more than 4 or 5. Ie. yes it is an issue, but the WiFi issue us way more common, as were the many issues with the 2. [1] FOSDEM 2026 - Luca Weiss https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/speaker/luca_weiss/
Doesn’t like it
The OnePlus One was exciting because I think it genuinely was an Android-flagship-competitor at a much lower price. Prices crept up though, and the last OnePlus I owned was the 5 which was still pretty excellent! After a brief, very annoying stint using the Fairphone 4 (underpowered & expensive, though I did actually replace both the battery and the usb c port myself and it was exactly as easy as promised), I'm now finally on a Samsung S25+, though I did really really consider the newest OnePlus. Sad to know that it won't even be an alternative for my next phone, though hopefully by then, memory/silicon prices will have settled and Nothing will have their own flagship alternatives.
Likes it
I recently changed the battery of my Switch 1, if for most of the process it was easy, and I really struggled on two points. 1) the plastic part into which the screws are screwed broke, and it is tough to remove them. 2) ungluing the battery with isopropyl alcohol without breaking anything was very long for me. I recently changed the USB port of my Fairphone 4 and it was just unscrewing and screwing. So for me it is a great change from Nintendo.
Neutral
I just bought a second Fairphone 4 just to play a bit with pmOS. I'm really surprised by the state it is. It's not fully usable as a daily driver yet, but with some work it can get there. Waydroid works also pretty good. Of course, the major problem are banking apps and similar. I hope that some progress can be done in this direction. And, who needs working audio, if you can have python and git in your phone!? :P
Likes it
It's not like Android and iOS are the only options exactly. So I never spend much on phones, but I just got a Fairphone 4 running E/OS , which is .... like running android, except it blocks tracking by default, and you're in control. Some fairphones come with e/os pre-installed, but installing it isn't even all too fiddly, you can do it direct from chrome(ium). And you can take it apart with your fingers and a screwdriver! There's hope yet!
Likes it
Apple and Google directly, No. I actively invest my personal income to organizations / businesses that are working to provide viable alternative. All are fruitful in reducing the barrier to a viable product. From improving hard-ware design to getting software in a stable state. Currently waiting on a phone from EU from a company on their attempt. Went with a Farirphone 4 running /e/OS/. Yes, /e/OS/ is based on AOSP. This phone has a high chance of full postmarketos support. It is the closet from being disconnected from Google that I find to be stable. Postmarketos would allow for a quick jump. In the mean time, still investing in companies and organizations that don't want to help Google in the smartphone market. It is a long-term investment.
Likes it
I've got a Pixel 9a expected to arrive today, specifically for it to run GrapheneOS. One of my old phones was a Nexus 6P running CopperheadOS (prior to the dispute that spawned GrapheneOS), and it was great back then. Looking forward to how things have progressed in the years since. I wish GrapheneOS would support non-Pixel hardware, though, specifically my Fairphone 4. I get why that probably won't ever happen, but it feels like a massive regression in terms of repairable hardware to move away from that.
Likes it
I bought the Fairphone 4 a while after the 5 came out. It felt like their strategy was basically to use the previous edition as the "low-end model", i.e. it's cheaper and less powerful, but still well-supported. And I'm very happy with it. Which is to say, buying the previous Fairphone is a perfectly sensible thing to do.
Likes it
I'm not a fan of the new battery and back panel. I've got a Fairphone 4 and the most useful thing about it is the replaceable battery. I can't count the number of times an extra battery in my backpack has saved me. Sure, maybe it's not that big of a deal to bring a screwdriver with me as well. But I just know I'm going to lose those tiny screws and changing the battery at the back of a taxi goes out the window.
Doesn’t like it
This is the only natural path if mobile chips are going to keep getting faster, everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources that never gets utilized. I wonder if we'll see USB-C docks for phones with fans blowing at the device for improved thermals. If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS it would motivate me to buy a top-tier device rather than my sluggish Fairphone 4, right now I don't see the usecase other than good camera. Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :)
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
T2Mobile is likely unable to meet our requirements. T2Mobile are not only designing the phone but even building/signing the firmware and device support code. Fairphone is putting together what they're given by Google (AOSP and GMS) and T2Mobile. Fairphone gets to make high level decisions among the choices T2Mobile is willing to offer. For example, their move to T2Mobile with the Fairphone 4 coincided with the removal of the 3.5mm audio jack.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Fairphone doesn't design or build smartphones themselves but rather their ODM partner does both. It isn't within their control to make devices meeting our requirements. When Fairphone moved to T2Mobile with the Fairphone 4, it came with significant changes to the hardware, firmware and software not within their control. They likely didn't want to remove the 3.5mm audio jack but the overall design of the devices isn't up to them. They want to portray themselves as being the ones designing the devices and stood behind it, but they likely didn't want it. Fairphone has made it very clear they don't consider their awful updates and lack of important hardware-based security features to be a significant problem. Their response to our points has consistently been to downplay it. Fairphone has also consistently taken the approach of not responding to serious security issues such as several generations of their devices using publicly available private keys for signing firmware and/or the OS. Not acknowledging or addressing a security issue beyond partially fixing it for subsequent devices is worse than simply downplaying it. /e/ and Murena spent years actively misleading people about GrapheneOS before we began regularly responding to it. They've taken the approach of misleading people into wrongly believing it isn't usable, isn't compatible with apps, somehow isn't a privacy project and much more. Their efforts have done immense harm to GrapheneOS, especially in Europe where they've mi…
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Number of devices fully supported: 0 Oh, you linked to Fairphone 4, let's see: - battery: partial - audio: partial - camera: partial - fingerprint: broken postmarketOS device support is a joke, they couldn't even get ONE vendor to support the OS..