Mine fell on its side on some pebble stones. The power-button, unprotected by the case, got scratched. The button doubles as a fingerprint reader, which ceased working due to the scratch. At first, I thought "no worries, this phone is friendly to those who want to repair it."

It turns out, this part is not available for replacement. I think this is an oversight; just like the screen, it is an outward facing part, hence, bound to be damaged for some.

Then, I brought it to my local repair shop. The owner had to tell me that they cannot repair Fairphone's, and that, for him, it is one of the worst companies to deal with. They try to centralise all repairs in their own repair center. Which means sending the phone -- which I need -- away for 2 weeks; paying a fee for diagnosis, an unknown cost for repair, and the hassle of a flashed phone. I already know what's broken, I just want the part.

I feel this is a real shame, as I am fully supportive of the stated aims of the company, and I want the product to be good.

[Aside: suggestions on how to deal with a scratched fingerprint reader are most welcome. E.g. can the scatch be re-painted? The phone thinks the reader is there, but it doesn't register any touch. ]

Would it more economical and sustainable to buy a second hand / reconditioned feature phone from Samsung?

Good move from a service perspective, repairs while you wait instead of backing up, transfer to new phone, sending the old one in for service, yada yada yada. Also great for Fairphone's growth to have a stable business partner.

I wonder what the take rate will be from people rejecting the Fairphone and requesting their own SIM instead. The inner IT purchasing cynic in me says this is just a simple way to cull out your purchasing costs by only issuing one quasi-unpopular* device.

* I used to issue out phones at a large hospital and we allowed device choice. We saw ~90% iPhones, 10% Android in our fleet.

I think they're very imperfect phones for a lot of reasons: they're bad value on a pure hardware specs to retail price comparison, their security update support isn't where it could be & the repairability - while best on the market - still has gaps.

However, the rarely mentioned story is their supply chain advocacy initiatives. Not only do they try to source as much of the hardware ethically as they can, their work has also had a broad knock-on effect on the entire industry. Their living wage advocacy for the assembly factories they use has resulted in wage improvements within those supplier companies for employees working on non-FP hardware as well. Their work in Congo with the Fair Cobalt Alliance is a big part of the reason that other companies like Apple are even able to source "certificate recycled" cobalt for their batteries (albeit those certifications are misleading due to the mass balance system, they're still a lot better than nothing).

I like the devices, but I've stuck with Pixel devices for the better security practices. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that a university wouldn't be concerned about late security updates and the like.

I just want a screen with a headphone jack and a web browser on a device that isn’t serviced by Apple or Google.

I don’t even care about having the battery being removable. It doesn’t even have to be able to make phone calls.

I’m getting ready to go back to a dumbphone and digital camera because no one is making what I’m looking for, and it sort of seems like they never will.

It’s also tacit, but I assume it helps them to interface with a Dutch company. Did they get any financial incentive for it?

It doesn't have to be cheap. It might for example resign into a security camera or a doorbell. A metal bracket with a connector, a button or a connection for one, a seperate psu with a bell or a relay for one, screws to attach the wires, perhaps a stripped down end of life OS (altho it could just be a mode) and it becomes a very good doorbell with motion detection, a good amount of storage, two way video if you want it. Share with someone [temporarly]. Backup footage on laptops, pc's, phones, storage devices etc etc

For $100 in parts it would be highly competitive in the space but it could be more expensive as it can basically do everything a $1000 security camera offers and more. Battery backup, sim card, etc. A big phone brand might even be able to get a contract with local law enforcement so that they can have/request [emergency] access.

It's just one example, a small/portable computer could resign into many things. The device only needs to know it is now a TV remote control.

But for now it seems like I'll remain with a Pixel and GrapheneOS.

Also nice would be replaceable plug-in modules a` la Frame.work laptops.

Might even get another one and run E or some other less googlified os

I think what we really need is legislation to force all phone manufacturers to at least make the batteries and screens relatively easily replaceable. Maybe a cap on the replacement costs and a minimum support time would be a reasonable way to do that.