Note that Fairphone does not provide software updates for anywhere near as long as they claim, and using a modern device with 7 years of support, such as a pixel or iphone, will be far better in the long term. Fairphone is basically e-waste out of the box.
Somehow that stands in stark contrast with the many Fairphone users that I know use their device for many years. One of them uses it as their primary computing device, not owning something like a laptop because the Ubuntu Touch that runs on it plugs into a screen and keyboard and works like a desktop as well as a phone for them. I don't understand why the derogatory statement about that being e-waste out of the box when it obviously works great, at least for those willing to pay the premium for as-fair-as-they-can-make-it part sourcing
Im not disputing the ability to use the device for many years. Using the device for a long time and the device being supported for a long time are different things.
Fairphone doesnt make their own phones, its outsourced to an ODM and Fairphone has very little input on how its designed. They havent "sourced" anything. Fairphone also stops providing kernel updates very quickly and delays userspace/driver/firmware backports for months. They delay yearly updates for years too. This doesnt even touch upon the fact they used public signing keys in the past.
It is not derogatory to say that it is e-waste out of the box, it is simply accurate. Choosing to continue using it despite how unsafe it is does not change the abysmal support it is given. A modern iPhone/android used from launch to the end of its 7 year support time, then properly recycled, would be far better for privacy, security, and for the environment. A support window that long would also provide a strong used market to continue using these devices. Cheap ODM phones with short support windows, and not benefiting from economies of scale, is a waste.
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 through 4 phones in ~5 years (2 bought, 2 replacements). I am at my third phone in 12 years (OP1, OP5, Fairphone).
