Hey community,
I would like to have some help with a decision regarding buying FP4 or 5.
Currently it looks like FP4 and 5 come with the same official version when looking at the info at Murena webshop (Android 13). This list states that FP4’s official version is U while FP 5 is T. I’m a bit confused now.
Another question is: How long can I assume FP4 to be supported with official e/os/ updates? Is it likely that FP4 is supported for a much shorter period than FP5?
I would like to use the phone as long as possible.
Any ideas or suggestions appreciated
Best
Rete
FP5 will get far longer support. FP4 is not longer sold by FairPhone itself and the support may drop end of next year if they don’t voluntarily extend it by two years.
FP5 will have support until 14 Sep 2031 afaik, and official support makes support by LineageOS far more likely as they can get all the technical compatibility stuff from the vendor directly.
FP4 may be supported for many more years, but as the official support from Fairphone drops, related programming work would need to be done by the communities of LineageOS and /e/OS, and there is no guarantee for that.
So in short: If you buy a FP5 now, you will at least get support until 2031, and even when /e/OS bites the dust before that, you could switch to LineageOS or the official Fairphone Android OS.
(But be aware that e/OS/ has trouble with FP5s 90hz mode for over a year now, and if 90hz is the deciding feature, you might not utilize the better display over the FP4)
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