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I have been using a Fairphone 4 with /e/OS for awhile now in the US. AMA. The experience has been mostly good, with a few irritating issues. I still consider i
by cooperadymas 3y ago
I have been using a Fairphone 4 with /e/OS for awhile now in the US. AMA.
The experience has been mostly good, with a few irritating issues. I still consider it good though, because I had a flagship Pixel previously and had my share of irritating issues also. I don't really miss Google at all.
* Occasionally the keyboard just disappears. Crashes or something. Killing the AOSP (Android keyboard) service restores it. Hopefully this gets fixed.
* The App Store it comes with only shows open source products, or lets you add in Play Store apps without an account.
* Searching in the app store sometimes stops showing results when I search and I have to clear its data to get them to show again. I think it's related to the Play Store interface.
* Moving off Google Maps is a bit of a learning curve (although you could install it probably). OsmAnd~ or Organic Maps are good enough 85% of the time.
* I find if I hold the phone in my right hand when talking that my ear is not naturally on the speaker and I can't hear people. I've never had an issue like this with a phone. Easy to move, but the beginning of most conversations are still a lot of "are you there's?"
AT&T network works great. Verizon doesn't. You might try it like a fool like me and think it does for awhile, but I promise you it doesn't. The phone doesn't support 1 or 2 of the bands Verizon uses, so sometimes you simply won't be able to receive or make calls or texts. Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) gave me some trouble too but I think those ones could have been resolved but I didn't get network coverage at my house despite the maps, so I gave up. Boost Mobile claims you can use the AT&T or T-Mobile network, but they don't give you a choice, seem to have stopped pushing AT&T, and will refuse to give you the other SIM when you ask for it. RedPocket actually gives you a choice when you sign up.
- VyseofArcadia 3y agoInteresting. I've been using the Fairphone 4 with /e/OS in the US on Mint for about two months, and I have encountered none of those issues. The issue that's bugged me is occasionally when I'm using Bluetooth audio, the volume "locks". For whatever reason it decides whatever the current volume is, that's the max or min, and I can only adjust in one direction from there.
- bornfreddy 3y agoYes, that one is weird... Using the device to set volume usually helps get it "unstuck" in my case, but to be honest, I didn't investigate more than that. Annoying, but easily fixable (for me).
- scns 3y ago> Occasionally the keyboard just disappears. Crashes or something. Killing the AOSP (Android keyboard) service restores it. Hopefully this gets fixed. Are you using the stock keyboard? I allways install Simple Keyboard from F-Droid, Zero problems for years.
- cooperadymas 3y agoStock, yes. I may have to give Simple Keyboard a try. Thanks!
- HenryBemis 3y agoI have been using Android with NoRoot Firewall. I aways use Gboard, really amazing keyboard software. The first time I let it "phone home" so it downloads whatever it needs for multiple languages. Then I block it with the NRF and it never phones home again (ET sad):
- colordrops 3y agoJust to be clear, Simple Keyboard does not have autocorrect, right? Also, there seems to be two "Simple Keyboard" apps on Fdroid. I installed the one with the most recent update.
- Foobar8568 3y agoI get the same problem on the stock android on my FP4, both with the stock keyboard and alternate ones.
- Tade0 3y agoDoes the device feel heavy? Looking at the specs it's over 200g - that seems a lot.
- cooperadymas 3y agoIt's hefty for sure. A very solid phone. I would have greatly preferred a small phone but the FP was the one that met my other criteria the best. I don't notice the weight much, but it fits large in my hand and pocket. When holding left handed and trying to tap a button on the bottom right (browser tabs) my palm frequently hits the side of the screen. Comparing to the old Pixel 4 I still have laying around, you would think it's a power bank until you saw the screen.
- _rdvw 3y agoPlease note /e/OS currently uses a highly insecure version Chromium from December of 2022: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/browser/-/commit/911e34fe6676bdd505bd6ba0dc5529184f4c4661 https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/browser/-/commit/911e34fe66... This impacts more than just the default browser as it also provides the WebView Widget used by apps. The WebView also cannot be replaced by a user as it is directly loaded into the process space of all apps using the widget. See my https://divestos.org/misc/ch-dates.txt https://divestos.org/misc/ch-dates.txt table that compares all the other systems update history.