Hi,

I have been using FP3+ for about 4 years with Ubuntu-Touch as my main/only phone. Even through it indicates support for bluetooth, GPS and some others, I had never managed to get them fully working. I would like to check the status on them before to buy the FP5 and install UbuntuTouch.

1. Bluetooth
   Bluetooth: Does bluetooth work for hand-free calls? (e.g. in the car, using the car microphone for calls)

2. GPS/Galileo/etc
   GPS/similars: Does it work at all? (on the FP3, I never managed to get any position, it just wait for reception for hours).

3. IDLE
   Does it correctly handle application in IDLE? The FP3 battery last for days with all applications closed, but battery get drained terribly with every simple application not fully closed (e.g. Call, Clock or Notes). The battery last 5-6 days normally and maybe 1-2 days with open applications.

4. NFC
   NFC: Never managed to get it working on FP3, for example, I have a radio that uses NFC to connect the Bluetooth, it works with my wife Android phone, but not with the FP3.

I assume that other aspects of the FP3 works at least equally for the FP5, like USB connection with the PC, calls, etc.

Could I kindly ask you to confirm if this is expected to work with the FP5?

Ubuntu-touch status on FP3, after 3 months:

Hi community!
First of all, thank you for providing this great OS compatible with my FP3+ phone. I really enjoy it and I am happy to be far from the big-brother company

Mostly, all necessary is working:

1. I can call / receive calls
2. Basic access for browsing
3. Telegram messaging
4. OpenStore applications for most common scenarios.

What I really miss:

1. P0: Bluetooth support for calls. When driving, it's an absolute must. I also have "that" wonderful headset able to manage calls.
2. P1: Fingerprint: not a must, but still, very convenient.

Hopefully it helps

Kind regards
Adrian

Hi,

I have my phone resetting when I enable hardwards like hotspot, wifi, data, or even camera.

After a reset, it usually works fine for some hours. Then, again, enabling data or wifi crash the OS. It happens several times per day.

My phone is quite recent, but I don't remember this from the previous update.

Ubuntu Touch 24.04 (24.04-1.1)
Last updated 06-12-2025

Hello, and thank you for your responses.

@gpatel-fr
Your picture looks good to me. And NO, my picture with 12.6MP is usually between 2 and 3MB, but that could depends on the details on the image.

I think that the issue become more apparent with a little bit of zoom, let say 10-15% of the zoom bar (almost no zoom).

So:
Image resolution: any, usually 12 or 12.6MP
Quality: any, but I let it in "Fine"
Flash: no, private: no, Geo: yes, but not sync.
A little bit of zoom.

Here is a comparison of the two images side by side:

You can see that the detail between the 3D-printed passes are much less visible, most dust has disappeared, and if you zoom the image, details seems like if it was an SVG image (no pixels with noise, but rather small areas with flat colors).

I have several hypothesis:

1. The image is saved always with an aggressive compression, indifferently of the Base/Normal/High/Fine quality.
2. The picture is passed through some beautifying filter intended for people.
3. Some image anti-noise filter is not adjusted properly when using the zoom.

Hi,

When I use my camera, the real-time image that I see is of good quality, but when I make the pictures, independently of the selected setting (Basic, Normal, High, or Fine) I get a very poor image.

Here is a screenshot of my screen when taking the picture:

And here is the picture saved (Note, I reduced a bit the image because this forum does not accept 12MP > 2MB images, but the quality is really bad as you can see here:

As you can see, all the details of the rubber are gone, it seems pretty much like an AI generated image with very low quality and detail.

@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:

1. Camera: No, even if the camera is properly handled, pictures are saved with very poor quality, making them mostly unusable.
2. GPS: once or twice I could get a position after 2h waiting outdoor. Mostly unusable.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Phone app consume too much energy, you probably want to close it all the time (you still receive phones calls).
6. 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.
7. 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..

@gpatel-fr Thank you. I will follow that bug-report.

@Escain What android version did the phone come with?

V14.

I think that the issue was because I setup a fingerprint on Android before I installed UT.
After several reboots and I don't know exactly what, it started working. Now, everything except GPS seems to work.

Thank you for your help

Hi,

I have my phone resetting when I enable hardwards like hotspot, wifi, data, or even camera.

After a reset, it usually works fine for some hours. Then, again, enabling data or wifi crash the OS. It happens several times per day.

My phone is quite recent, but I don't remember this from the previous update.

Ubuntu Touch 24.04 (24.04-1.1)
Last updated 06-12-2025

@Vlad-Nirky Ubuntu Touch 24.04 (2025-11-06)

I will try to reinstall Android, then UT again. Thank you.

Hi,

So I just received my new Fairphone 5 and installed Ubuntu-Touch on it. One of the main concern I had about my previous FP3+ was the missing support for the fingerprint.

I went to Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Locking and unlocking -> Lock security -> Fingerprint ID

A popup shows: "Sorry, the reader doesn't seem to be working" And when I click then "Add fingerprint", it shows a red circle like capturing, but the same "Sorry, ... " message.

I tested this 2h ago on Android and it was working.

Any idea how to fix it?

@kugiigi

Honestly UT's bluetooth is kind of a hit or miss.

But I suppose that all FP5 works the same right? so if someone confirms it is working properly for hand-free calls, I should get the same result?

Now I'm thinking maybe the FP3 also has this bug?

Probably yes: I am closing all my apps after usage all the time, and when I forget to do it, I found my phone low very soon.

Also, the FP3+ has an issue that when I start the phone under 10%, it does not connect to the network (like if it has no SIM).

It also seems to drain the battery faster than some low-power USB-A chargers, even if I shutdown it (because in OFF, it still shows the bootloader while charging, which consume quite some power).
I found myself few times with my phone at 8%, the charger of my car and unable to make a simple call. Very annoying!

Shouldn't it be possible to manually connect though?

Yes, that usually works for Audio output. NFC is just for convenience, maybe payments (never tried yet).

In any case, I personally don't daily drive my FP5 yet. In my opinion, it's not ready yet, at least compared to the FP4 which is stable and works well for me.

That is precisely why I am asking, because considering the UBPort page, it shows exactly like the FP4.
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/fp5/

Thank you for your help.