4 ms·

Meanwhile elsewhere: Fairphone 2 is available, is modular and user-repairable (iFixit: 10/10: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+2+Teardown/52523 https:/

by pronik 10y ago

Meanwhile elsewhere: Fairphone 2 is available, is modular and user-repairable (iFixit: 10/10: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+2+Teardown/52523 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+2+Teardown/52523). Ara looked cooler, but I guess I should cease any high hopes for Google innovation or market disruption. Which is sad, but probably the way things go in this world.

mintplant 10y ago
It's also still stuck on Android Lollipop, unfortunately. Otherwise it looks really, really cool.
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  Pretty much forever - drivers/BSPs won't be released any more for the Snapdragon 801. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-phone-getting-nougat-theres-blame-enough-to-go-around/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-pho...
  - pronik 10y ago
    Which only means it will be stuck on Marshmallow, not Lollipop -- until Fairphone releases a core module with another chipset on it (https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html). At least that is the promise. Might even use something from Mediatek which will probably drive the price down.
    - voltagex_ 10y ago
      I hope they do go for a cheaper SoC - that core module is more expensive than the entire phone that's in my pocket alone. I get that the price reflects ethically sourced materials, but they're gonna have to do something about the price. I wonder how they'll handle software and retaining data through a cross-platform upgrade - a build for Android for the msm8xxx series won't run on a Mediatek SoC.
      - Nullabillity 10y ago
        > I wonder how they'll handle software and retaining data through a cross-platform upgrade - a build for Android for the msm8xxx series won't run on a Mediatek SoC. At worst, ask people to reflash to another Android ROM when switching. User software and data is on another partition anyway, and you can force Android to recompile all user applications by clearing your cache partition.

by pronik 10y ago

mintplant 10y ago

It's also still stuck on Android Lollipop, unfortunately. Otherwise it looks really, really cool.

voltagex_ 10y ago
Pretty much forever - drivers/BSPs won't be released any more for the Snapdragon 801. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-phone-getting-nougat-theres-blame-enough-to-go-around/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/why-isnt-your-old-pho...
- pronik 10y ago
  Which only means it will be stuck on Marshmallow, not Lollipop -- until Fairphone releases a core module with another chipset on it (https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html https://shop.fairphone.com/spareparts/coremodulefp2.html). At least that is the promise. Might even use something from Mediatek which will probably drive the price down.
  - voltagex_ 10y ago
    I hope they do go for a cheaper SoC - that core module is more expensive than the entire phone that's in my pocket alone. I get that the price reflects ethically sourced materials, but they're gonna have to do something about the price. I wonder how they'll handle software and retaining data through a cross-platform upgrade - a build for Android for the msm8xxx series won't run on a Mediatek SoC.
    - Nullabillity 10y ago
      > I wonder how they'll handle software and retaining data through a cross-platform upgrade - a build for Android for the msm8xxx series won't run on a Mediatek SoC. At worst, ask people to reflash to another Android ROM when switching. User software and data is on another partition anyway, and you can force Android to recompile all user applications by clearing your cache partition.