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Cellphones

Nokia Launches DIY Repairable Budget Android Phone (theguardian.com) 60

Posted by EditorDavid from the fairer-phones dept.
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian: Nokia has announced one of the first budget Android smartphones designed to be repaired at home allowing users to swap out the battery in under five minutes in partnership with iFixit.

Launched before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday, the Nokia G22 has a removable back and internal design that allows components to be easily unscrewed and swapped out including the battery, screen and charging port. Nokia phones manufacturer HMD Global will make "quick fix" repair guides and genuine parts available for five years via specialists iFixit, in addition to affordable professional repair options.

"People value long-lasting, quality devices and they shouldn't have to compromise on price to get them. The new Nokia G22 is purposefully built with a repairable design so you can keep it even longer," said Adam Ferguson, head of product marketing for HMD Global.

The G22 is partially made of recycled plastic and has a 6.53in screen, large-capacity battery, 50-megapixel camera and a fingerprint scanner. It runs Android 12 and will be supported for three years of monthly security updates and two major Android version upgrades.
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Nokia Launches DIY Repairable Budget Android Phone More

Nokia Launches DIY Repairable Budget Android Phone

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  • But will it run... at least open the bootloader. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AleRunner ( 4556245 ) on Saturday February 25, 2023 @04:40PM (#63323104)

    Nokia hardware would be great. Their record of opening up their bootloaders for free unlocking (without loss of guarantee) on the other hand is dismal. Without guarantees that you can install LineageOS or related equivalents you can't really expect an Android device to be longlasting and effective. OnePlus and co have done this so it clearly isn't impossible. As it is, the whole environmental claim is really a joke.

    • I refuse to buy any phone I can't unlock bootloader/root on. It narrows the market considerably, but that actually is handy.
    • My OnePlus 3T, which I bought because of openness, went out of LineageOS support by the end of last year. Luckily, someone took it upon themselves to reboot the endeavour. However, for a device from 2016 to run out of community support in 2022, after 6 years, plus a lot of effort and discontinuity in usage (I don't wipe before running out of official support, and won't wipe without having a fully functional backup), it's acceptable but I consider the effort and prolongation not worth it versus a long time s

    • It's a $150 smartphone, does that factor into your calculations at all?

      It will ship with android 12, they are committing to 3 years of OS updates, seriously, is the ability to install your own boot loader really *that* important?

      This phone is geared towards users not interested in spending hundreds of dollars to get the skinniest phone available, and frustrated by having thousand dollar phones with frail power jacks and sealed batteries, not the hardest of hardcore hackers that insist on running different b

      • It's a $150 smartphone, does that factor into your calculations at all?

        It will ship with android 12, they are committing to 3 years of OS updates, seriously, is the ability to install your own boot loader really *that* important?

        Absolute, 100% deal killer. I haven't bought a phone I couldn't unlock in many years and I'm currently in the market for two phones, one top end and one bottom end.

  • Is bootloader unlocking still a thing? If so, this might be the perfect next phone for cheap fuckers like me. I hope they do it here. Three years of security updates is a little less than I'd like to see, but if it were unlockable I would not care even slightly.

    • Had a brief search on forums which shows them being diligent not just in not having any official way to unlock but also in updating their software to close any loopholes. Sadly I'd go for one of the manufacturers that lets you unlock without even losing a guarantee, they do exist.

      • Had a brief search on forums which shows them being diligent not just in not having any official way to unlock but also in updating their software to close any loopholes.

        That sucks. Like you, I was hoping I could get one of these and put LineageOS on it. Without that capability, the phone is a total non-starter for me.

    • Bootloader locking is like a dremcomtru for Samsung. As is their screen market grab right now. If you value your freedom of repair and your money, never buy anything from them.

  • And it will be obsolete in three years... (Score:4, Informative)

    by CmdrPorno ( 115048 ) on Saturday February 25, 2023 @04:51PM (#63323134)

    ...wake me up when Google offers software updates long enough not to make their phones disposable.

    • But when the battery wears out in four years you can replace it.

      After you've thrown it out, I guess?

      WTH.

      Meanwhile I just noticed that some chad is building Android 13 on Lineage for the Moto X4s I got for my kids years back and have in a drawer.

        That's six years so far. Gave it a spin and everything seems fine.

      There are effectively no obstacles but greed.

      • It's nice that you have the luxury of playing around with different OS builds on unsupported hardware, but the fact that your kids are no longer using those phones underscores the point that they are obsolete and, further, I've done the unsupported OS thing, and it requires a decent amount of mid-course corrections and isn't a great option for hardware you use daily.

    • Actually Google offers 5 years of updates and their phones have an unlocked bootloader and great support, you could get weekly updates on a 2014 Nexus 6? This isn't on Google but really on literally everyone else locking down their stuff and not supporting it even sometimes before it's out of warranty.

  • The default should be devices where it is easy to repair common faults - battery, glass & screen. We shouldn't be congratulating manufacturers who toss out a device as a sop to their own deliberate practices.

  • Way back in 2015, I got a Kyocera Hydro VIBE [devicespecifications.com] that had a user-removable battery (and micro SD card) *and* headphone jack that was IP57 certified (protection against dust and water immersion for up to 30 minutes in up to 1 meter of water). The back of the phone could be removed using your thumbnail and had a gasket to seal it. It was smaller and fit comfortable in any pocket. Unfortunately, it only ran Android Kit Kat and couldn't be further upgraded and doesn't support VoIP... (I eventually replaced it

  • When replacing a battery is now called a repair. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Saturday February 25, 2023 @05:20PM (#63323178) Homepage
    Sad times. Oh the many flashlights and smoke alarms that have needed 'repair'. Oh but it's a rechargeable battery so it shouldn't need replacing - uh huh. Planned obsolescence.

    • Sad times. Oh the many flashlights and smoke alarms that have needed 'repair'. Oh but it's a rechargeable battery so it shouldn't need replacing - uh huh. Planned obsolescence.

      We must demand to have the right to repair down to the surface mount components. And if we can't, we need to go to discrete components, mounted in sockets.

  • The opposite of what is needed (Score:3)

    by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Saturday February 25, 2023 @06:00PM (#63323214) Homepage

    At least here in the US, budget-tier phones are disposable. You can just switch carriers when they're doing a "bring your number and get a somewhat crappy phone for free" promotion, and that's what a lot of folks do. It's not just contract carriers offering this, as in the old days. For some time now, even prepaid companies will give you a free phone for starting service.

    Phones where better reparability makes more sense are the flagship models, but I don't see the phone manufacturers willingly sacrificing potential sales by making you less likely to go out and purchase what is their main source of profit.

  • It doesn't say, I'm guessing no.

  • 6.5" ?! Fark off with your PHABLET rubbish (Score:4, Insightful)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Saturday February 25, 2023 @06:11PM (#63323230)
    I want a phone to put in my pocket, not a farking tablet to carry around in my backpack.

    Stop with this sheeple rubbish and give the sensible people what they want - a solid, thick, 4.5" phone with a rubberized case and a good battery.

    • I want a phone to put in my pocket, not a farking tablet to carry around in my backpack. Stop with this sheeple rubbish and give the sensible people what they want - a solid, thick, 4.5" phone with a rubberized case and a good battery.

      I want no such device.

      It takes a pretty good bit of work to get a modern smartphone to a size that can be opened up by BillyBob and easily workable. You have to have some real estate in there, because you need extra space for normal people to work on stuff. I have repaired present day phones. They are little wonders, stuff packed tightly, and a lot of it. I use a binocular microscope to do it, and you need a steady hand. This is not normal people stuff.

      I even question just how easy that repair setup is

      • They (likely) guarantee to fix any phone you brick/break for no more than â149, LOL

      • And what happens if BillyBob screws up his "easily" repairable phone when repairing it?
        Seriously?
        Is the manufacturer liable?
        Seriously? Why would he?

        It sounds like a snarky question, but have you seen the results of a pinched or even sometimes just dropped Lithium Ion battery? Who is responsible for injuries and property loss?
        The one who dropped it.

        You steal a car and drive into a house. Who is responsible for the damage to the house and the car?

        Stupid questions, seriously!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by jonadab ( 583620 )
        I actually kind of want the ability to connect my laptop (which is a 17" model, but I usually keep it docked to
          to a landline and handle traditional voice calls using open-source software, preferably something highly customizable and scriptable. Bonus points if my software can get caller-ID info and use it to make decisions about how to handle the incoming call.

    • "Stop with this sheeple rubbish and give the sensible people what they want"

      You're free to make a market case there are sufficient customers for such a thing then get it produced. If you're correct you will become wealthy.

      Expecting someone else to do it just because you like the idea is a bit much.

    • I want a phone to put in my pocket, not a farking tablet to carry around in my backpack. Stop with this sheeple rubbish and give the sensible people what they want - a solid, thick, 4.5" phone with a rubberized case and a good battery.

      And don't forget the ability to unlock the bootloader, install a third-party OS that allows me to get rid of all of Google's spyware, and gain root access.

    • You still see them as phones. Most people see them as pocket computers (that just happen to make calls), for which a larger screen is advantageous.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      4.5" just doesn't provide enough screen real estate for most of the things people use smart phones for. If all you want to do is make voice calls, get a flip phone. Yes, they still make them, for contemporary cellular networks.
      • 4.5" is fine for web browsing and reading ebooks.

        People should get a TV for watching movies with their families.
  • You can repair the battery but not take it out in normal cincunstances to secure anonymity. Don't get blind by the lights. The same shit, whitened.

    • Since you can open it, you can solder a switch in it to kill the battery and "secure your anonymity". Or, you could wrap your phone in tinfoil when it's off (make a little Faraday cage pouch with tinfoil and ducttape or something). Or you could have a feature phone, Or you could have no phone.

      • Yeah but why should you have to diy it when the phone could come with that feature by default?

        That was my first thought, that labeling the battery as "removable" for that device was a bit of a joke. Sure, with a teardown!

  • Hell I'd even be more interested if it had physical keys instead of a touch pad.
    There is just so much on the current generation of phones, that I have no desire for at all. I would just like my phone to focus on being a phone first, not a supercomputer / Twonky* in my pocket.

    *If you don't know what a Twonky is
    https://archive.org/details/tw... [archive.org]
    and for those that like to read
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Couldn't find the short story by Henry Kuttner but I believe it's included in his best of collection. If

  • I looked at this with great interest, but:

    It runs Android 12 and will be supported for three years of monthly security updates and two major Android version upgrades.

    Please provide security fixes for longer. I do not care about fancy new features but please keep me safe from vulnerabilities. Also: no word on how long replacement hardware bits will be available - although the 3rd party market will probably step in if Nokia stops.

    • You mean like Fairphone? It promises five years support minimum and has a proven track record on an older model: https://support.fairphone.com/... [fairphone.com] for a phone introduced in 2015 for which they still sell batteries and screens to this day. Add responsible sourcing of materials and an unlocked bootloader with active support for /e/OS and LineageOS.and it makes Nokia look like a pale imitation.

  • Interesting that a "budget" phone these days has a 50 Megapixel camera and 6.5 inch screen.

    • 50 Megapixels appears to mean literally just that, but what it really means is that, as it is color, you'll need 4 'pixels' per display pixel, one for each CYM/RGB color and another for black/white/gray. So, really, it has 12.5 Megapixel resolution.

      • Nah, that ship has sailed a long, long, LONG time ago, like before year 2000. They weren't having enough pixels for even their 1Mpixel or even under and were counting each color separately (the process of putting them together is called demosaicing). Basically we've had since forever the digital camera pixels being (way) worse than the scanner or monitor pixels that had multiple color channels per pixel. At some point Sigma came with the FOVEON X3 sensor that would basically have 3x the pixels of a similar

  • If Lenovo did the same thing they may not be in the same rut was previously posted and commented on. https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

  • Or, is it really replacement of the battery?

    Seriously, we had phones in the early 2000â(TM)s where battery replacement was a couple of minute operation by the end-user.

    Granted, todayâ(TM)s devices are a little more complex - breaking open a hermetically sealed device to replace the battery would make it hard to restore that capabilitity. Or, would it?

    Why canâ(TM)t a battery be designed with a connector that makes a waterproof seal? Then, the device would be a clamshell where the user pops of

  • But you can only get it repaired at your local (Score:3)

    by Growlley ( 6732614 ) on Sunday February 26, 2023 @09:45AM (#63324256)
    John Deereservice dealership without invalidating the warranty.

  • It runs Android 12 and will be supported for three years of monthly security updates and two major Android version upgrades.

    So, it may be repairable - but is only supported for 3 years?

    I've got a 5 year old Galaxy s9 I'm still using - I've never needed to repair it, because ... I got a decent case.
    I've dropped it probably 50 times in 5 years, it's still fine.

    The battery? - I'm not a power user - or, I'm not glued to the damn thing 24/7 - but it still holds charge for 24 hours easily.

    It stopped being support

  • And Sailfish 4. It would be nice to see Nokia as friendly to Sailfish as Sony.

  • HMD is Foxconn, not the Nokia of old. I guess they probably started designing this phone before the world started waking up and banning Chinese semiconductors. How long until this gets blacklisted?

  • I used to swap batteries in my ond-school nokia in ~5 seconds...while taking care not to drop it. Snap battery off, snap on new one. Oh, and I could snap in an extended battery for more life if I wasn't worried about size (which is ironic because phones are much bigger than they were for most of mobile phone history.

    Nokia doesn't get a cookie, but maybe they're growing a brain.

    ps. if (when...many times when) I did drop it, it survived with a minor ding. Never, ever, ever had a case on it.

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