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Apart from everything else, having to remove the battery to access the microSD card is a weird choice. Android has always been able to handle SD swapping withou

Apart from everything else, having to remove the battery to access the microSD card is a weird choice. Android has always been able to handle SD swapping without a restart, and an Android cold start takes quite a long time (unlike the old phones which this design harks back to). Who's it for? Those very few Guardian readers that can be lured away from their iPhones by the promise of being eco-friendly.

SiempreViernes 3y ago
Wait, are you saying you don't want this phone because you can't hotswap the sim card untethered?
Scandiravian 3y ago
I'm getting one. I'm currently on a galaxy note 9, which hasn't received updates for a year. The hardware is still plenty fast for what I use my phone for, but since I have my banking app on the phone, I don't feel comfortable continuing to use it without security patches The microphone also broke around a year ago and though it's possible to replace it, it's not a simple fix, so I've accepted I need to have a headset nearby at all times The FP5 wouldn't have the same issues. I wouldn't have to spend any money on a new phone for almost a decade and if something breaks I can fix it pretty cheaply myself To me those are the most important considerations when picking a new phone and there's not really any other product that I think is competitive on those parameters
sneeze-slayer 3y ago
It's true, removing the battery is mildly annoying. But I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have added or removed a microSD card from my phone. It's just not something I do regularly--Get a new phone, plug it in, and forget. Maybe remove it every few months to back it up to my computer.
- sanitycheck 3y ago
  I pop mine in and out all the time, it's been the quickest way to move large files on/off the phone ever since Android lost USB mass storage support. MTP & PTP are horrible.
- Kirby64 3y ago
  You're missing the use-case for folks that use it for large data transfers for video files. Having to shut down the phone to do that is burdensome. It's why the new iPhones with USB-C that can record directly to flash drives are being praised.
tomwheeler 3y ago
> having to remove the battery to access the microSD card is a weird choice. IIRC, my old Samsung Galaxy S5 was like that too. While I would prefer being able to remove the card without removing the battery, in practice it wasn't that big of a deal for me since I only swapped out cards every few months.

SiempreViernes 3y ago

Wait, are you saying you don't want this phone because you can't hotswap the sim card untethered?

Scandiravian 3y ago

I'm getting one. I'm currently on a galaxy note 9, which hasn't received updates for a year. The hardware is still plenty fast for what I use my phone for, but since I have my banking app on the phone, I don't feel comfortable continuing to use it without security patches The microphone also broke around a year ago and though it's possible to replace it, it's not a simple fix, so I've accepted I need to have a headset nearby at all times The FP5 wouldn't have the same issues. I wouldn't have to spend any money on a new phone for almost a decade and if something breaks I can fix it pretty cheaply myself To me those are the most important considerations when picking a new phone and there's not really any other product that I think is competitive on those parameters

sneeze-slayer 3y ago

It's true, removing the battery is mildly annoying. But I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have added or removed a microSD card from my phone. It's just not something I do regularly--Get a new phone, plug it in, and forget. Maybe remove it every few months to back it up to my computer.

sanitycheck 3y ago
I pop mine in and out all the time, it's been the quickest way to move large files on/off the phone ever since Android lost USB mass storage support. MTP & PTP are horrible.
Kirby64 3y ago
You're missing the use-case for folks that use it for large data transfers for video files. Having to shut down the phone to do that is burdensome. It's why the new iPhones with USB-C that can record directly to flash drives are being praised.

tomwheeler 3y ago

> having to remove the battery to access the microSD card is a weird choice. IIRC, my old Samsung Galaxy S5 was like that too. While I would prefer being able to remove the card without removing the battery, in practice it wasn't that big of a deal for me since I only swapped out cards every few months.