I’ve Been Thinking About a Switch to the Fairphone 5
I've recently been thinking about a switch to the Fairphone 5, but after some research, I'm not sure it's worth it?
I ditched Android around 6 years ago now, and since then I’ve been very happy with iOS, but over the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking about a move back to Android, specifically the Fairphone 5.
The rationale here is that phones are extremely expensive, they don’t last very long, and most importantly, they’re not easily repairable.
I’ve had my current phone, an iPhone 13 Mini, for around 3 years and I’m still happy with it. It performs pretty well for the mediocre requirements I have for it (mostly web and email), but I know it’s going to need some repairs soon.
For example, the battery settings show that the battery is operating at 87%, so that will need replacing soon, and the thunderbolt port used for charging is very temperamental. To get around that I’ve switched to wireless charging, but it will need replacing, I think.
If I were using a Fairphone, I could replace both the battery and the charging port myself, for a relatively small amount of money.
Is it worth switching?
Costing around £500, the Fairphone 5 has a 5 year warranty, is supported for 8 years and is repairable at home. On the other hand, the latest iPhone 16 starts at £800, has a 1 year warranty, isn’t repairable, and if this site is to be believed, will be supported for 6-7 years.
Honestly, 6-7 years is actually more than I thought, but my concern is whether the a device would actually last that long without needing repairs that would render the longevity cost prohibitive.
I don’t use any of the integration between iOS and my Mac, so switching to Android wouldn’t be a great loss to me, either. I’d need to find some equivalent apps on Android for things like Podcasts, email, RSS feeds etc. but I’m sure they exist. The Google integration is also a concern.
So the question stands, dear reader, is it worth a switch to Android? Have you gone through it? If so, please get in touch and let me know how it was for you, and whether you think it was worth it.