My experience with /e/ Fairphone 3 - 18 months

[domino7]

Hi dear /e/ friends,

I have bought a Murena Fairphone 3 about 20 months ago. I am very happy with this system, Apps are simple and easy to use. The main points being the privacy and the good help available on this forum.

I am not a geek anymore and just want the device to work. In most cases I have what I need:

Now using /e/OS 0.20

SMS app works fine and combination of No auto correct and YES suggest words is good for me.

Clock : works fine and is easy to use.

Contacts works fine and I synch them as well as calendar with Outlook via MyPhoneExplorer. This works perfectly well!

Browser : I don’t use it because Tracker Control do not work with preinsalled apps. I use DuckDuckGo with no problems (one in main profile and one in work profile).

Magic Earth works sometimes and sometimes not. I use OsmAnd which works fine even if it is not very user friendly.

Mail app works fine and let me manage several accounts easily.

Telephone app work well. However, the “favorite” screen must be touched with care, especially when closing the app because of the risk of touching a favorite in the bottom of the screen. Telephone works fine with Bluetooth in my car.

Camera app is the problem. It is almost impossible to make a sharp picture. The focus is done in front of or behind the subject. The quality of images, especially in the corners is awful. You can see the destruction of images quality when you compare with the RAW image. This is the main bad point of my FP3.
Simple camera app gives a bit better result.

Bliss launcher : works fine. I do not use Weather widget, the non working and never ending subject on this forum . I use the weather app of my country. I think this item should be removed as it is obvious that accurate weather forecast is better provided by almost each country.

I don’t use MicroG and I load aps from F-Droid or Apps with (almost) no problems.

Shelter : works fine. Apps such as Whatsapp remains frozen most of the time. I addition I use Tracker Contol which works fine as well, even if the battery is solicited.

Updates : I update the system every 3 months and updates work fine. Never had any problem. It happened however that I lost all my contacts twice (not 100% sure it is linked).

Battery : The fist year, it lasted 3-4 days (I switch off at night). Now the battery lasts a bit less and sometimes chooses an endless “slow charging” mode, especially when the battery is below 50%. However, this is still much better than iphone.

System : is generally stable and I have no problems using the device. Sometimes the FP3 crashes, but not more often than once every two months.

In conclusion I am globally very happy with /e/ and FP3 and grateful to all developpers, contributors, support people, forum helpers, FP Angels who have created /e/ (and FP3), who support, maintain and document them.

Thank you all!

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[mungo]

[quote=“domino7, post:1, topic:39549”]
I have bought a Murena Fairphone 3 about 20 months ago.[/quote]
I bought mine last september and get along with it quite well though I find some issue now and then.

Now using /e/OS 0.22.

SMS app war replaced by Messages (a fork of QKSMS) v3.7.10 and now works fine even with MMS.
Clock: works fine and is easy to use.
Contacts is a little tricky as I can’t sync so far. Importing *.ldif-files does the trick.
Browser: Works fine.
Magic Earth works fine. No reasdon to change anything.
Mail is a no-go on the phone for me.
Telephone app works well.
Camera is no problem anymore since I fiddled with the settings and installed another gallery app (can’t find its actual name, it is by simplemobiletools.com, v6.22.3 Pro).
Bliss launcher : Was no option after some fumbling around. I installed KISS launcher which works fine for my demands.
I use MicroG, F-Droid, Apps and Aurora Droid without problems.
Orbot including VPN and bridges is used here, since last update it semi-works and seems to become an issue. Maybe a settings prob.
Updates: I update the system as soon as updates are available, working flawlessly. No issues like loosing contacts or else.
Battery: Had a dumb phone before, charged in three hours, lasting nearly a week.
I knew FP3 would be worse.
Got a little into battery knowledge and tried different chargers (PC (slow), external chargers (slow and fast)) and am now used to rest it charging slowly by the PC while I do my mails anyway.
Letting it go below 20% to recharge up to 70%, every third charging or so is up to max.
Keeps me on for at least a good day (and there is still a power bank available, for my head set as well).
System: Runs. No crashes.

So, keep up the good work.

[Doppel-D]

I am a bit puzzled about the contrary discriptions of the quality of the autofocus. Got it fixed between versions or is there another reason?

[tcecyk]

thanks for taking the time, I like reviews

Camera app is the problem

If you’re tapping a photo area that you care about, the lens will focus there to make sharper images. There are some options for more autodetection. Your remark on raw-vs-result is interesting.

[domino7]

@mungo your experience looks good! For SMS I do agree, it seems that MMS do not work all the time.
I forgot to say that my intention was to use the original installed applications as much as possible. I want things to be simple.
Yes, battery is a good subject to study… I may investigage it one of these days

[domino7]

Thank you @tcecyk for your message.

@tcecyk

If you’re tapping a photo area that you care about, the lens will focus there to make sharper images.

Yes, I am expecting that too… but the focus is not done on the subject. I spent quite a long time trying and changing all parameters.
I wondered wether it was FP3 having problems, but as other apps work fine, the mistery remains. Fortunately I have a real camera to take pictures.