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Phones · Fairphone

Fairphone 5

15owners with an opinion
71%of verdicts positive
10/4positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for repairability and support; criticized for reliability and ergonomics.

What owners wrote

NeutralOwned 0.42 years
i've been using my Fairphone 5 without any google account since last december, so about 5 months now i guess? Not fully de-googled yet, not even a custom rom - just the stock OS, but not signing into an account. Most importantly, this means no Play Store for me - i get the majority of my apps from Obtainium (directly download + install APK releases from the app developer's source repository) and f-droid. The apps i use most by far are messaging apps like Signal and Telegram which offer direct downloads and easy updating without play store, Organic maps for navigation, breezy weather, Immich (google photos replacement, self hosted) and etar (calendar, but its kinda clunky). oh and keepass2android-offline for my password managing needs, which is synced to my homeserver using Termux (linux running on android, with certain differences/limitations). For sacrificed functionality: my bank's website works just fine on mobile browsers. for the 2 factor auth, it uses something called "Mobile ID", seemingly a standard different from sms or app-specific ones, i'm not sure how widely available it is but it works great for me. Chatgpt says it's used in a couple of European countries. For buying public transport tickets, i used the website for a while, but in my country the website is kinda shitty compared to the mobile app, it takes like 15 clicks to get a ticket where on the app it's 3. so i went to apkmirror/apkpure (ad-infested websites that offer direct download of APKs without google…
Doesn’t like it
As someone that swapped from fairphone 5 to a pixel9a with graphene. I have to side with graphene. Fairphone is a cool concept, but its a expensive phone, early on i had problem with the speakers and mic. Security updates are extremely slow, support is extremely slow. Their missions is to make a fair phone, but is it fair if you are then forced to buy more ewaste because your phone breaks? Look at pixel software support, its really good, and eu made batteries replacement mandatory.
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/
Likes it
I have the Fairphone 5, for which they picked the IoT equivalent of the mobile chipset so they could ensure 10 years of driver availability from the vendor (8 years of majors + 2 of security patching IIRC). Fairphone 2 came out in December 2015 and saw the last release in March 2023. That's 8 years of software updates when Android devices from that era barely got 3, and you had to pick the flagship. Kernel updates used to be bound to Android versions because of how the kernel modules development was handled, not really limited by the company or the hardware. I owned a OnePlus 5 and the custom ROM was stuck with older kernels for a while too, until the community stepped up to port it, because there just wasn't an easy way to build kernels with updated custom vendor modules for the hardware. Google addressed at least that part thanks to the Kernel Module Interface (read e.g. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/android-to-take-an-u... ). So newer kernels may still lag a bit based on the manpower available and priorities, but they should be easier to do. Now that replacement cycles have become longer because hardware is good enough that you don't need to change phone every year, and Android supports KMI and other features that make maintenance easier, more vendors decided to extend support, so at least there's some more choice. From the environment point of view, I can now finally easily repair my phone. A friend of mine always had bad luck with pixels, so bad that he went…
Doesn’t like it
Same here. And I have a friend who keeps his small IPhone because they stopped building smaller phones, too. There is a demand, maybe not that big. For me, I want to be able to operate the phone with one hand, and the large screen makes it difficult to reach all the spots on the screen even with large hands. I do operate my Fairphone 5 with one hand, but it is super awkward and at some point, the phone will fall into a gully because I cannot hold it tight while navigating. And I wouldn't mind 2mm more thickness if this means the cameras are flush with the back and the battery is larger.
Likes it
All the Fairphone Versions support e/OS/ as far as I know. I have the Fairphone 5 with the current e/OS/ version completely un-googled. But you also have the option to allow partial google-fication in e/OS/ so you don't miss out on most of the features and paid-apps you had.
Likes it
I recently got a FairPhone 5 and it is working pretty well, especially for the price. UbuntuTouch as an OS is quite refreshing as it's not just a copy of Google/Samsung/Apple UIs. I like how they use the sidebars. Definitely it still needs more work on getting more devices fully supported but that's an ever going effort, since OEM do not provide any help here (for now).
Likes it
I experience this a lot. I have a Fairphone 5 and helping provide answers to questions in threads online is a minefield. You answer questions of someone, and somebody else comes along and starts shouting they want feature x. People seem to flock to smaller phone companies and demand they fill in their one feature. Whether it's USB-OTG display functionality, headphone jack, slider to kill all connections, etc, everybody is convinced their one feature is holding this phone company back, just because they want this one feature. It's just disappointing. I'm just happy with my long-lasting repairable phone.
Likes itHasn’t owned it
Pinephone is close to useless. Fairphone 5 I think is as good as it gets if you want to avoid android. It is annoying though that fairphone 6 is not working with linux.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
There's nearly no information available on the working conditions, pay or environmental impact of Fairphones. T2Mobile is the company designing and making Fairphones since the Fairphone 4 and little information is available on them. Fairphone provides a long list of companies involved in the supply chain without more details than their location and website. Pixels have long term availability of official parts for repairs and also official repairs. Unlike Fairphones, Pixels have very good updates over the long term. Fairphones do not provide anything close to decent updates and it greatly degrades over the lifetime of the device. Fairphone 5 and earlier have an end-of-life kernel without security support. The devices start out lagging months behind on partial security backports and a year or more behind on full security updates which gets worse over time.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Fairphones lack the updates and hardware-based security features expected by GrapheneOS. They're missing hardware security features needed to provide strong encryption for the vast majority of users not using a very strong passphrase. They're similarly missing hardware-based protections heavily used in GrapheneOS to protect from exploitation including remote attacks. Fairphones have atrocious updates, privacy and security. They lag many months and even years behind on providing crucial standard privacy and security patches. They've failed to respond to the discovery of severe security issues including multiple of their devices using publicly available private keys for signing. Fairphone lags months behind on providing Android Security Bulletin patches which are themselves delayed by months compared to when OEMs are first provided and allowed to ship the patches. They lag a year or more behind on major OS updates and count this as additional support time compared to other OEMs. For example, a final major OS update being delayed for 3 years is marketed as providing 3 more years of support compared to shipping it on time. Fairphone 5 and earlier have an end-of-life kernel branch and the same fate awaits the Fairphone 6. Pixels move to newer kernel branches and are currently moving to 6.12 and then on to 6.18. Other OEMs are also beginning to use newer kernels and move to new branches. Linux LTS branches are only going to have 2 years of support going forward. Fairphones are desi…
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Fairphones don't provide bare minimum privacy and security. Expecting that is not being obsessive. The flaws are increasingly glaring and easier than ever to exploit thanks to advances in AI models. People should care about this and should get a device with reasonable privacy and security such as an iPhone instead. Fairphone 5 and earlier having an end-of-life Linux kernel with the Fairphone 6 coming up next is a disaster. Many months of delays for standard Android userspace patches from when they can first be shipped and years of delays for the full patches is also a major problem. An increasingly small portion of the patches is backported to older releases and they have months of delays for those. Fairphones are also missing crucial industry standard hardware security features. People have come to expect their device will provide strong encryption with a random 6 digit PIN rather than a very strong passphrase but that's not the case with a Fairphone. More information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354623
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Fairphones have atrocious updates, privacy and security. They lag many months and even years behind on providing crucial standard privacy and security patches. They've failed to respond to the discovery of severe security issues including multiple of their devices using publicly available private keys for signing. Fairphone lags months behind on providing Android Security Bulletin patches which are themselves delayed by months compared to when OEMs are first provided and allowed to ship the patches. They lag a year or more behind on major OS updates and count this as additional support time compared to other OEMs. For example, a final major OS update being delayed for 3 years is marketed as providing 3 more years of support compared to shipping it on time. Fairphone 5 and earlier have an end-of-life kernel branch and the same fate awaits the Fairphone 6. Pixels move to newer kernel branches and are currently moving to 6.12 and then on to 6.18. Other OEMs are also beginning to use newer kernels and move to new branches. Linux LTS branches are only going to have 2 years of support going forward. Fairphones are designed and assembled by an ODM. Fairphone has very limited involvement in engineering the devices. The working conditions and supply chain are also largely up to T2Mobile rather than Fairphone. Whether either of those are better than Pixels or especially iPhones should be demonstrated with evidence. There's extremely little information available on the working condition…
Recommends itHasn’t owned it
Opt out of the duopoly by getting a freedom Linux phone like FLX1s from FuriLabs, or the Mecha Comet with cellular modem. Or if you're technical, you can install postmarketOS on a Fairphone 5 or OnePlus 6. Sendero Linux sells refurbished ones with pmOS preloaded.
Likes itHasn’t owned it
i guess that you have to make compromise somewhere The Fairphone 5 used a QCM6490, a qualcomm industrial chip with a 10y support timeline The Fairphone 6 uses a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 with ane stimated 3-4 years of support At least for the 5 the compromise was motivated, in the second case i just don't feel like the low performance is a worthwhile compromise.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
> I'd like to switch phones soonish and was looking at the fairphone 6 with /e/OS but feel deterred by its mid range specs which would probably limit its longevity. I would like to get away from google. Fairphones lack proper security patches and OS updates from day one. /e/OS makes this substantially worse compared to Fairphone's own OS. Fairphone tends to lag 1-2 months behind on Android's standard partial security backports and a year or more behind on yearly OS updates. They skip the monthly and quarterly releases. Fairphone 5 uses the Linux 5.4 LTS branch which will be end-of-life in December 2025 with no plan to move away. Older Fairphones use end-of-life kernel branches. Here's information from the author of the divested projects about /e/OS including data on updates from 2021 up until late 2024: Issues with /e/OS: https://codeberg.org/divested-mobile/divestos-website/raw/co... ASB update history: https://web.archive.org/web/20241231003546/https://divestos.... Chromium update history: https://web.archive.org/web/20250119212018/https://divestos.... Chromium update summary: https://infosec.exchange/@divested/112815308307602739 For the Chromium update summary from July 2024, note 128/135 was shipping each update on a given update path. /e/OS only shipped 12/135. They did not ship most Chromium security updates and skipped most releases. They're still skipping many releases and have significant delays for the ones they do ship. Here's an article from another privac…
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Fairphone devices have 1-2 month delays for partial security patches. They have a year or more of delays for new major releases. Their recent Fairphone 5 uses the Linux 5.4 LTS branch going end-of-life in December 2025 with no plan to port to a new LTS branch. Their past devices use end-of-life Linux kernel branches. They do not provide the expected security patches even shortly after release. They aren't doing the bare minimum and aren't even compliant with recent EU regulations for device updates. Google provided resources for the Linux kernel to extent LTS support for 6 years for their 5 year guarantee with the Pixel 6. It ended up not being needed since Pixels began moving to newer Linux LTS branches. The official Linux kernel LTS support is back down to 2 years. The 6 years was meant to benefit all Android devices but it proved to be too difficult to do well and it makes more sense to invest a far smaller amount of resources moving to new LTS branches. Fairphone presents providing an Android OS release 3 years after it was released as providing 3 more years of extra support compared to an OEM releasing it in the month it was launched as their final update. That doesn't make sense. They've repeatedly had blatant security flaws such as using publicly available private keys for signing the OS on the Fairphone 4. These issues are downplayed rather than being acknowledged. There are important security features missing, but the main issues are the lack of proper updates and th…
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
I honestly think it looks fine. Nice texture at the back, pretty metal accents around the camera and at the side button, good logo. The uneven bezels (the one at the bottom is larger) are less nice, but that's just a reality of the budget this probably moves in, not even the Fairphone 5 did solve that yet.