Not sure why they’re comparing this to the Fairphone, as far as I can tell the only hardware component that is replaceable here is the battery. Which is nice, but not close to the Fairphone
And the point of the Fairphone is also that they try to ensure fair working conditions and better treatment of people throughout the entire supply chain
But does the Gigaset?
Since it isn’t plastered all over marketing materials, almost certainly not. It causes a significant (but justified) rise in cost you also have to justify to customers.
Well by law they need to provide replacable battery if the phone is not water resistant, so yeah, they pretend making phone in accordance to law is a feature
Hey now, this only goes into effect from late February next year!
Having a replaceable battery is not an excuse for lack of water resistance.
Also it is water resistant, is it not?
It is in the law. Or rather, an IP68 rating allows you to have a non-replaceable battery as long as the battery is rated to last at least 1000 cycles at >80% capacity.
Fairphone 6 has an IP55 rating. Some resistance to water spray but can’t be submerged.
I guess they are pretty clear about it in the first sentence: It’s an alternative for those looking for something more European. Which is valid even though it’s not why most people get a fairphone.
For those who place a high priority on maximizing value creation in Europe when buying a smartphone, Gigaset’s flagship is an interesting alternative to the Fairphone 6.
It’s crazy how Microsoft managed to effectively kill Nokia phones.
Nokia killed themselves. Microsoft was just the wolf that gobbled up the dying lamb.
No, Nokia would have had quite some success with Maemo and/or MeeGo devices such as the N900 and N9 had Microsoft not killed the projects and tried to push Windows instead.
The N9 was ahead of its time. It feels modern to use even almost two decades later.
SailfishOS continues MeeGo as a new project. Other operating systems such as Android and iOS have copied many UI elements such as the gestures from that.
If Microsoft had done marketing for the existing OS instead if pushing Windows phones, there’s a chance Nokia phones running MeeGo would’ve become a common sight and probably still would be.
The N9 still feels great every time I take it out of the drawer, but with 2G and lacking updates, it isn’t really usable any longer.
Aren’t Fairphone Dutch?
Yeah, it’s an alternative to Fairphone as in “gosh, I want a European phone but the Fairphone is so expensive, I wish there was an alternative”. Sorry, I wasn’t very clear, nor is the article.
The company is Dutch but the phones are mostly manufactured and assembled in China. The company is transparent about this and discloses on their website their efforts to do this as ethically as they can.
Yeah, I know, I more meant in comparison to this German phone (which I assume is also manufactured in China)…
HMD are Nokia but yeah if anyone can fuck up a lead its a tech giant.
Almost like sometimes it is the point
A CEO recruited from Microsoft to Nokia, scraps the working OS and the near launch next one in favour of Windows Phone. Tanks business because the hardware is great but the OS is not ready and the ecosystem is abysmal.
I don’t think it was the point. They tried to elbow in late on the market with their Trojan CEO but had no strategy beyond the Nokia takeover.
Plus some google-independency
Well, good to have more choice there. But only two major Android updates? Fairphone policy is eight major updates.
You could go with /e/os, they promise 8 years of software updates for the Gigaset GX6 and as many Android upgrades as they can get running during that time. Admittedly a fixed promise would be better but from what I could gather they tend to support devices fully for longer, even though the Android version upgrades take longer to arrive
/e/OS has some weird customisations in the Android UI, making it look alnost like iOS. They also do not clearly say where their app store gets the apps from.
For those and other reason I always recommend French iodéOS instead.
The /e/os customization are just a custom launcher (which you dont have to use) and having a fixed accent color. They have said that their app store gets its apps from google play via the aurora library and from CleanAPK. This has been critiqued so they have since moved from CleanAPK to their own in-house mirror.
I can also can recommend IodesOS (/e/os is French as well btw), I mainly use /e/ because it supports the Fairphone camera app
Oh, seems they have reacted on the criticism. Haven’t looked into it for a while, so thanks!
Fairphone has PMOS support (6 is getting there very quickly)
Fairphone has calyxOS support (now that calyx is resumed, they will likely support the 6)
Does the gigaset have any of that, or just stock android with barely any updates even?
And you can buy a Fairphone 6 with Murena preinstalled
USB 2 type C so no video over it, unlike the Fairphone.
Fairphone 6 also has USB2.0 sadly. Cost cutting…
While it is nice to have this here, I don’t think the Gigaset is in any way a good comparison to the Fairphone. If you want to have a “real” alternative, check out the
Shift Phones.Edit: Sorry, the English version of the page seems not to be up-to-date and missing a lot of info. Please check the German version if possible for you.
I’m confused a bit, though - there is SHIFTphone 8 for preorder while they are already selling 8.1? There is also no mention (or it is in German) of OS updates they are comiting to etc. But I like that phone company produces also an e-bike :) EDIT - which leads only to a banner, nothing else.
In the German FAQ they guarantee feature updates until 2036 and security updates for longer than 2036.They also claim to try to deliver feature updates after 2036.
Also the 8.1 seems to be basically the same as the 8. On the shop page they use both names for the same thing
Ah, sorry. I didn’t realize that the English version of the page is bit outdated. There is much more info on the German version. (I added a note to my previous post.)
Cool, I didn’t even know this company exists. The 8 specs are a bit hidden, though.
the most important questions about a smartphone for me are:
-can you easily unlock the bootloader?
-how’s the custom rom situation?Don’t forget:
- Can you re-lock the bootloader? With different keys?
This should be possible to have the most basic security feature.
It is important to note that Gigaset is a German company, but since 2024 it is owned by V-Tech based in Hong Kong.
I’m fairly (lol) happy with my Fairphone, but more competition and more options certainly won’t hurt customers!
You can get it for 399 with /e/OS at https://murena.com/ !
