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Android Cellphones Operating Systems

Five-Year-Old Fairphone 2 Getting Updated To Almost Three-Year-Old Android 9 (theverge.com) 57

Posted by BeauHD from the impressive-certifications dept.
Sustainable smartphone manufacturer Fairphone has gotten Google's certification for its Android 9 update for the Fairphone 2. The Verge reports: Getting certification for a nearly three-year-old version of Android doesn't sound that impressive until you realize that it's running on a phone originally released five years ago when it ran Android 5. The roll-out of the software starts today, and will continue until April 18th, Fairphone says. It's a length of support that's basically unheard of among Android phone manufacturers. Although Fairphone 2 owners aren't going to be able to enjoy the latest Android 11 features, the more important thing is that they're running a version of Android that's still officially supported. Google's latest Android security bulletin from this month includes multiple fixes for security issues in Android 9. "To get Google certification for Android 9 for Fairphone 2 just as we hit five years of support for the smartphone is a huge achievement for Fairphone," says CEO of Fairphone Eva Gouwens. "In order to get certification, we had to pass approximately 477,000 Google tests." "We want to show the industry that this kind of thing is possible, that a smartphone doesn't have to be discarded after 2-3 years, we can prolong it's lifespan," the CEO added.
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Five-Year-Old Fairphone 2 Getting Updated To Almost Three-Year-Old Android 9 More

Five-Year-Old Fairphone 2 Getting Updated To Almost Three-Year-Old Android 9

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  • The company says the phones should be updated to Android 11 in the second half of this year

    The real question is why they waited so long to update the firmwares.

    • Updating the Android version does not typically involve updating firmware.

      Firmware updates are very different from operating system and platform updates.

  • That's great news.. I'd looked at Fairphone before (and I'm still pondering them when it's time to move phone), simply because of them being modular. You need to upgrade something? Swap out a module. Most of the phone stays there, and it's only the bit you need that you pay for and actually use.

    I have a firm dislike of monolithic "We glued everything together so you need to replace it if the unimportant thing that we made flimsily ever breaks". I especially like the greater than 5 year support. The l

    • I thought it was "we glued it together so it's still usable if^H^Hwhen you drop it in the toilet".

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I used to feel that way especially about laptops; but when it comes to most portables. There is little worth reusing.

      While I have stuff that certainly ended its useful life because a key component gave up, the battery, the back light, that I might have continue to use otherwise if you examine the state of the rest of the bits they are also pretty tired. The monitor hinges are tired, the chassis is banged up, fan bearings are worn and noisy, plastic parts of ports are tired and usb cables fall out to easily

    • That's great news.. I'd looked at Fairphone before (and I'm still pondering them when it's time to move phone), simply because of them being modular. You need to upgrade something? Swap out a module. Most of the phone stays there, and it's only the bit you need that you pay for and actually use.

      I have a firm dislike of monolithic "We glued everything together so you need to replace it if the unimportant thing that we made flimsily ever breaks". I especially like the greater than 5 year support. The last several phones I've upgraded, I only needed to do so because the companies stopped supporting them, leaving them to older known flaws. I'd still happily be on a ten year (or older) phone if someone supported it.. And with a bit more cash in the pocket from not having to upgrade!

      I think if you research the upgradeability of the Fairphone you will find it is limited. There were limited replacement and upgrade parts for the Fairphone 2, and the camera module was unavailable for many months. I just saw in their forums that they recently announced the end of "bottom module" replacement part sales. Things may be better for the Fairphone 3.

      • That's great news.. I'd looked at Fairphone before (and I'm still pondering them when it's time to move phone), simply because of them being modular. You need to upgrade something? Swap out a module. Most of the phone stays there, and it's only the bit you need that you pay for and actually use.

        I have a firm dislike of monolithic "We glued everything together so you need to replace it if the unimportant thing that we made flimsily ever breaks". I especially like the greater than 5 year support. The last several phones I've upgraded, I only needed to do so because the companies stopped supporting them, leaving them to older known flaws. I'd still happily be on a ten year (or older) phone if someone supported it.. And with a bit more cash in the pocket from not having to upgrade!

        I think if you research the upgradeability of the Fairphone you will find it is limited. There were limited replacement and upgrade parts for the Fairphone 2, and the camera module was unavailable for many months. I just saw in their forums that they recently announced the end of "bottom module" replacement part sales. Things may be better for the Fairphone 3.

        Here's the thread on the bottom module. Some users are saying they had to replace it almost once a year:
        https://forum.fairphone.com/t/... [fairphone.com]

      • I think if you research the upgradeability of the Fairphone you will find it is limited.

        Fairphone: Limited upgradeability.
        Other phones: What? Fuck off.

        • I think if you research the upgradeability of the Fairphone you will find it is limited.

          Fairphone: Limited upgradeability.
          Other phones: What? Fuck off.

          Other phones don't market "modular upgradeability" as their raison d'etre.

          • Other phones don't market "modular upgradeability" as their raison d'etre.

            Neither does Fairphone.

            Fairphone's raison d'etre is the first four letters of its name.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Aside from the camera they should be considered repairable, rather than upgradeable. And while that's good you're not exactly getting a very good phone for the price they sell at.

  • One tablet stuck at 2.4ish but I was running linux on it so I really didn't care.

    The 8 year old 7 inch tablet I usually use for reading ebooks is stuck at 4.something.

    I have a couple other tablets which are mostly only good for sucking electricity one has IR for controlling some home theater electronics.

    • Years ago when tablets where hyped, my GF bought a Samsung Galaxy Pro, it had an impressive screen and all, was $$$ too, it came with Android KitKat 4.4 and there was never ever an upgrade, after a few years it became unusable as some apps simply do not install on it.

      I bought a Nexus7 2013 and it was upgraded to 5 and 6 at least, and we still use it, we installed all the Netflix, Disney+, Youtube, Hulu, whatever streaming app and the tablet is used to cast on the big TV through Chromecast (I have dumb TV, n

      • LineageOS has released their version 17.1 for the Nexus 7 (2013) tablet. It is based on Android 10, so far more updated and runs all the modern apps. It is actually more responsive than the official Android 6 that Google released for the tablet.
    • I have one of the Google Nexus 7 tablets from 2013 (the second version). It was officially updated to Android 6.0 then discontinued by Google. However, LineageOS has begun releasing 17.1 for the tablet, which is based on Android 10. I loaded it onto the tablet and it works beautifully. I was surprised that the performance is still quite good, more than enough to web browse and read ebooks, etc.
    • I still have mine, and its Super LCD screen remains eminently viewable. For some reason Netflix still works on it, though I long ago lost the ability to use the Google Play Store as the Flyer is stuck at Honeycomb. Using an unofficial newer Android means losing the ability to use the N-Trig pen, so I skipped that. It's good for ebooks, even Kindle, and its stereo speakers are very good for listening to music or Binaural Beats, Nature sounds, etc. It still functions as an alarm clock, and I'm able to mainta

  • Wow (Score:3)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday March 25, 2021 @09:26PM (#61199528)

    Making progress faster than GNU HURD!

  • Getting certification for a nearly three-year-old version of Android doesn't sound that impressive until you realize that it's running on a phone originally released five years ago when it ran Android 5

    I guess it is impressive for Android but not impressive for iPhone. The iPhone SE (1st gen) [wikipedia.org] released almost 5 years ago recently got the latest iOS update. But bear in mind, the iPhone SE internals are from iPhone 6S which had been released 6 months earlier.

    • That's impressive for Apple as well, I'm glad they've turned around. The last time I bought something from them (an iMac) they stopped giving OS updates in less than 3 years.

      • And what iMac was that?

        • "iMac DV+", with the slot-loading DVD drive and the Motorola G3.

          • Apple has always given 5+ years of OS updates on Macs. The iMac DV+ shipped in 2001(MacOS10.0) and got updates until 2007(MacOS10.4).

            The iMac DV did have a shorter lifespan than most, but it was released at the tail-end of the G3 era, and was supported through the G4/G5 eras and into the Intel MacOS era. The first Intel Macs shipped with MacOS 10.4. MacOS10.5 dropped support for G3s(requiring a G4 or higher).

            • Wrong model, I got mine in '99. It came with OS 8.6 and never got any version of OS X.

              • Was it an iMac or not?

                • Full bubble iMac, lime green plastic over white, puck mouse and all.

                  • The latest supported OS of the iMac G3 [wikipedia.org]was 10.3.9 which was released in 2005. If you could upgrade the processor unofficially it would have been 10.5.8 (2009). So minimum 6 years to almost 10 years worth of OS updates.

              • Wrong model, I got mine in '99. It came with OS 8.6 and never got any version of OS X.

                Literally every iMac was able to install OS X. . . I don’t think you are remembering correctly.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        That's impressive for Apple as well, I'm glad they've turned around. The last time I bought something from them (an iMac) they stopped giving OS updates in less than 3 years.

        Yeah, that stopped when Apple went to Intel and Apple deprecates support only when the OS can't support it anymore. OS X stopped supporting 32-bit UEFI graphics first, then stopped support 32-bit UEFI boot. Then they stopped supporting 32-bit graphics, then 32-bit only chips.

        Same goes on iOS these days - the reasons they drop support is

  • What happens when an OS can't update itself seamlessly.

  • Missing info (Score:3)

    by viperidaenz ( 2515578 ) on Friday March 26, 2021 @12:01AM (#61199896)

    What they don't point out is the phone has been stuck on Android 7.1 until now, which was last updated in December 2019.
    Android 7.1 came out in 2016.

    • Which is quite surprising by itself. The last Android version to support Snapdragon 801 was 6.0. Fairphone was the only company to port Android 7.1 on Snapdragon 801. It's not like they chose to abandon the device.
  • The nearly 5 year old iPhone 7 runs the current iOS. Have to go back more than 6 years to be forced to run an older iOS. I think this is just another example of Android being so fragmented that end users have no expectation of achieving the current release even on recent phones.

    • What you call "fragmented" is the whole point. It is not a monoculture of goosestepping lowest-common-denomonator drones.
      There is choice. There is individualization.

      You just need to ... and that is the part that makes you shudder ... *decide for yourself*. Like a damn grown-up.

      Typical Apple drone. You just do not get concepts like freedom and choice, or being an individual.

    • It's remarkable *for an Android phone*. Yes, it shouldn't be, but as things stand it is.
      I would be willing to pay more for an Android phone if the manufacturer ensured say 5 years of OS upgrades along with hardware strong enough to be likely to still be working at that point. Since no brand is apparently willing to offer that I end up buying midrange phones since high-end aren't gonna be much better in terms of support anyway.

  • Blame Qualcomm (Score:4, Informative)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Friday March 26, 2021 @04:37AM (#61200372)

    Fairphone explains why it took so long, in a video [youtu.be].

    The problem is that on Android devices, new Android versions usually come from the SoC vendor, in this case Qualcomm. Drivers are closed-source.
    Qualcomm stopped supporting the chipset with Android 6, so Fairphone had to develop the upgrade without any help from them. They admit to using code from the open-source LineageOS.

  • Tossing these devices either into a corner or a landfill is just plain warped. At least with older hardware you could repurpose today you either have a gaping security hole, a LiON bomb in your drawer or adding to the global environmental pollution. There has to be a better way, hopefully someone figures it out and reaps that reward.
  • Not available in the U.S. Would never buy one anyway !

    • Thank you for this beautiful example of small-minded moronity. I will use your comment in my encyclopedia.

    • Fairphone may not ship directly to the US, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't get one.

      Since they're priced in â, I may have some difficulty getting one in the UK, but that's because of our act of communal sepukku. I'm quite certain I could get one if I wanted though, without even travelling outside the NW European Archipelago. I'm much less sure that the warranty would work outside their "continental Europe" region now though.

      Hmmm, not entirely clear, on further investigation [fairphone.com].

      You can, however, a

  • I haven't tracked it, but the Fairphone 2 has had an official LineageOS build for a while, with weekly stable builds. https://download.lineageos.org... [lineageos.org]

  • 44,000 tests?? And probably not fully automated! Let alone with any automatic converters!

    And a manufacturer, I would say "fuck that!" too.

    No wonder they are making their own AOSP forks. It's literally less of a hassle!

  • Many years ago, I once kinda assembled a ROM for a shitty chinese Android tablet, and it kinda worked. It wasn't too hard.
    So, what's so hard about keeping Android updated on such a well-documented hardware? Isn't it basically taking the AOSP source, adding the necessary drivers and then adjusting things a little bit?
    Could someone explain, please?
    • Most manufacturers add their own software on top of the Google bits. Also, AFAIK the hardware manufacturers of many SOCs only guarantee support for X time so although the rest could work you could find the drivers for say, the camera, won't work with the newest version of Android.
      Also, apart from the technical hurdles (which could be overcome with enough monetary incentive), many manufacturers don't see any monetary gain from supporting old devices so they just don't do it.

  • LineageOS (Score:3)

    by aRTeeNLCH ( 6256058 ) on Friday March 26, 2021 @01:54PM (#61201974)
    At the same time, I have 2 Samsung Galaxy S4 phones which run Android 10 thanks to LineageOS, with weekly updates. Phones from 2013. Don't run out to buy a Samsung, but p attention that your next phone can run LineageOS.

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