Today I finally made the switch to my new Fairphone 4 (from my previous Samsung S9, which I’ve been using for 3 years). I had pre-ordered it in September, received it early December. It has been lying around my home office and been in use as an alarm clock for the past three months, without me actually switching over.
Finally however I switched over the SIM card and SD memory card today.
I dreaded the migration (as I don’t simply sync everything on my Android Phone with Google, there’s a lot of manual migration involved), and didn’t feel like I’d have the mental bandwidth available to do so in an organised fashion.
In the coming days I will have to switch over apps (all installed already), such as the various authenticators, banking apps, cloud, mail and calendar, as I come across them. I will also need to re-add phone contacts, as I go along. I never store them on an SD card, or with Google, only on the device itself. It’s work whenever you switch phones, but it also means I don’t carry around years old contact details of people I no longer interact with.
I initiated the Flickr auto-upload from the new device (old images are all on the switched over SD card), have access to my company’s Rocket.chat instance, and added E’s phone number as first steps. With this phone I should be all set until 2027, as Fairphone guaruantees the device and software updates for at minimum 5 years.
A first random shot with the Fairphone, to try out its camera and test the correct settings for auto-upload to Flickr.
@ton had been thinking of grabbing another mobile, and the Fairlhone 4 would likely be it… if it were available in the USA. Such a neat project, and have been a longtime supporter of Fairphone’s efforts.
just the FP4 and SailfishOS would be a neat playtime/hedge in these times.
@Avancee This time around their release of a new phone finally aligned with my need to replace my phone. Until now they were either out of stock, or waiting for their new model when I needed a new phone. So I’m happy it worked out this time. I find the FP4 to be large though (it’s larger than my previous S9). I don’t know whether I’ll get used to that, or that it will become a hindrance.
@ton larger mobiles are defintely a shift. To this day, I pick up my Nokia N9 and marvel how that was once considered a large mobile.
Hi Ton. Would you consider posting a review of the phone after you’ve used it for a while? I’m going to have to replace mine soon-ish and was looking at the Fairphone. I’m just not sure how it’ll hold up in everyday use.
Hi Michael, sure. One thing I notice already is that, because of its bigger size than the Samsung S9 I had before, I can’t slide up far enough with my thumb holding it in one hand to open the unlocking screen. Meaning I now need two hands to unlock the phone, which is inconvenient. Will need to look in settings if I can change that somehow.