Thinnking of getting myself into Fairphone 5...

Boldos

Hello fellow Ubuntistas,
I'm thinking about migrating myself to a "proper" UT device for a change,,,,,

...and I have some questions reg. FP5:

Does it need to be unlocked in any way?
What Android is required to be flashed in order to work properly with UT ?
- Are there any specific Android images? Where to get those?
Can this device be re-flashed between Adnroid and UT without a hassle? (I plan to use the device for both OSes kindof interchangeably...)
Are there any caveats for using UT on FP5 as a daily driver? (I saw bad photo quality on some devices, hanging camera/ media recording/media playback, troubles with WiFi hotspots not working, ring tones disappearing after a period of time without reboots, etc etc...)

Thanks a lot for your comments

Moem

@Boldos Let's start with the device page... it already answers some of your questions!
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/fp5/release/noble/

kugiigi

Bootloader needs to be unlocked which can be done using an unlock code you can get for free from a Fairphone site.
The device list and the installer will tell you that
You can reflash Android with a script provided by Fairphone. UT can easily be reflashed with the installer. You'll have to delete your data everytime you do this.
There will be caveats. You're installing an OS that isn't supported officially and isn't developed with millions of dollars. There will be missing features, features/functions that will work "worse" than Android/iOS, you will be missing apps. It's really up to you to determine if you want it and if it's enough for you.

gpatel-fr

@Boldos

If GPS is something like a deal breaker for you, some Volla phones are said to have working AGPS , something that is lacking at the moment for the FP5 so GPS is a bit of a hit and miss.

The other problems you are talking about are not specific to the FP5 (some rather uncommon media types have trouble with the main media app yes but can be read if necessary with third party software, VoLTE call following is also hit and miss, focus is not very reliable for low distance (<50cm) photos but this can be worked around by switching to video mode and back, and I have no problem with my Wifi hotspot but I'm not using a variety of Wifi nodes)

projectmoon

@gpatel-fr said in Thinnking of getting myself into Fairphone 5...:

@Boldos

If GPS is something like a deal breaker for you, some Volla phones are said to have working AGPS , something that is lacking at the moment for the FP5 so GPS is a bit of a hit and miss.

The other problems you are talking about are not specific to the FP5 (some rather uncommon media types have trouble with the main media app yes but can be read if necessary with third party software, VoLTE call following is also hit and miss, focus is not very reliable for low distance (<50cm) photos but this can be worked around by switching to video mode and back, and I have no problem with my Wifi hotspot but I'm not using a variety of Wifi nodes)

I can confirm that the Volla Quintus has functioning AGPS. GPS lock takes a few seconds at most, usually.

Escain

@Boldos said in Thinnking of getting myself into Fairphone 5...:

Are there any caveats for using UT on FP5 as a daily driver?

Using UBPort on Fairphone5 as my main smartphone since several months now, and before, I had Fairphone 3+.

I think it's mostly usable as a phone, but:

Camera: No, even if the camera is properly handled, pictures are saved with very poor quality, making them mostly unusable.
GPS: once or twice I could get a position after 2h waiting outdoor. Mostly unusable.
Bluetooth: It works most of the time to connect to audio devices, and I had a working phone call with my car free-hands, but you may need to restart your phone once or twice to get it working.
Login after boot is sometimes broken: both keyboards overlaps and yo can't set the pin, this happens to me once every 10 reboot or so. Just need to reboot again to get it back.
Phone app consume too much energy, you probably want to close it all the time (you still receive phones calls).
During calls, the screen does not detect that you are making a call, so your hear is opening apps and changing everything. Just use the power-on button to lock the screen.
When you reproduce music through bluetooth, receiving a call always goes to the audio system, so you just need to change the output to receive the call.

Otherwise, it works fine for me: sharing connection, 3G, 4G, 5G, navigating, listening music, Telegram, notifications, fingerprint, updates, calls, sms, contacts, etc, etc, etc..