In a final bow, Fairphone will update its Fairphone 2 one last time next March, more than seven years after its release at the end of 2015. A great feat and a good practice to generalize.
After seven years of software tracking, Fairphone has taken the decision to discontinue support for its Fairphone 2, released at the end of 2015. The brand is planning a final update next March for a truly durable smartphone.
The consequences for users
In a blog postthe manufacturer explains that its model has far exceeded its “initial hopes to offer three to five years of software support“, although “in an ideal world, we would be able to support our devices indefinitely“. It will have officially known many versions of Android: it was launched with Android 5.1 Lollipop and is currently under Android 10.
Fairphone indicates to publish in March 2023 “a final update to the Fairphone 2 for Android 10“. In theory, the smartphone will work normally, but if there is a bug afterwards, it will no longer be fixed. This mainly leads to the end of security patches: the phone will be less and less secure over time. Some applications may gradually stop working on the Fairphone 2: banking applications, video streaming, video games, etc. However, this cannot be predicted with accuracy. Other applications will be able to work for years to come without any problems.
Fairphone 2 users still have a few solutions, but they are reserved for the most experienced. They can install an alternative version of Android, such as /e/OS or LineageOS. What potentially benefit from a higher version of Android.
To extend the life of its smartphones, one of Fairphone’s promises is to make spare parts available several years after the release of their models. The brand states that “some spare parts are no longer available for purchase, such as the lower module, which is only available for devices still under warranty“.
Longer update support: the trend of 2023
What is expected from smartphones that will be released in 2023 is longer update support, adding up the years. A tech trend that we saw in 2022 and which should continue this year.
The durability of smartphones is an increasingly important argument and manufacturers are working on it in terms of the duration of updates. Samsung already offers four years, OnePlus has lined up, as has Oppo more recently.
While OEMs are rolling out their Android 13-based interfaces to their latest smartphones, other third-party Android ROMs are working. This is the case of LineageOS which is coming to its twentieth version, based on Android 13. What…
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